[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 34 (Wednesday, March 17, 2004)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E393-E394]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        ELECTIONS COMING IN PUNJAB OPPORTUNITY TO CLAIM FREEDOM

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. EDOLPHUS TOWNS

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, March 17, 2004

  Mr. TOWNS. Mr. Speaker, elections have been scheduled in Punjab for 
May 10. They are part of India's national elections. The Sikhs in 
Punjab must seize this opportunity. Just changing the faces 
accomplishes nothing. Replacing one set of oppressors with another is 
not an exercise in democracy; it is merely proof of the need for 
independence from the tyranny that is the reality of daily life in 
Punjab.

[[Page E394]]

  The Council of Khalistan recently put out an open letter to the Sikhs 
in Punjab, Khalistan. They called for Sikhs to use these elections to 
elect officeholders who are committed to freeing the Sikh homeland, 
Khalistan.
  Mr. Speaker, this is the only way to end the repression that has 
killed over 250,000 Sikhs since 1984, with more than 52,000 being held 
as political prisoners. Some of the prisoners are army officers who 
refused to participate in the brutal military attack on the seat of the 
Sikh religion, the Golden Temple, in 1984. Others are simply those who 
participated peacefully in the movement to liberate Khalistan.
  India claims to be a democratic country. It also claims that there is 
no support for Khalistan. Why not simply hold a vote on the issue, the 
democratic way? Instead, this country that loudly proclaims that it is 
secular and democratic imposes the most brutal repression on the Sikhs 
and other minorities such as Christians in Nagaland and elsewhere, 
Muslims in Kas-hmir and throughout the country, Tamils, Dalit 
``Untouchables,'' Bodos, Assamese, Manipuris, and others.
  I join with the Council of Khalistan in urging the Sikhs and all the 
minorities suffering under Indian oppression to vote for honest 
candidates committed to freedom for their people. This is the best 
thing that they can do to free themselves from this brutal tyranny.
  We can help by stopping American aid to India until all people's 
basic human rights are respected and by declaring our support for a 
free and fair plebiscite on the question of independence. These 
measures will press India to begin living up to the democratic values 
that they so loudly proclaim.
  I would like to place the Council of Khalistan's message to the Sikh 
Nation regarding the elections into the Record at this time.

                                         Council of Khalistan,

                                    Washington, DC, March 2, 2004.

     Open Letter to the Sikh Nation

 Punjab Elections Set for May 10 Opportunity for Sikh Nation to Claim 
                                Freedom


  Choose honest leadership committed to Sikh Freedom--Don't miss this 
         peaceful, democratic opportunity to liberate Khalistan

       Dear Khalsa Ji: WAHEGURU JI KA KHALSA, WAHEGURU JI KI 
     FATEH!
       Elections in Punjab have been set for May 10. This is an 
     opportunity for Sikhs to install honest, dedicated 
     leadership. Choose only leaders who are committed to Khalsa 
     Raj. Only when Khalistan is free can Sikhs live in 
     prosperity, security, and dignity. Only when Khalistan is 
     free of Indian occupation can Punjab's farmers get a fair 
     price for their crops. Only when Khalistan is free will our 
     water stop being diverted to nonriparian states. We must do 
     everything that we can to free our homeland, Punjab, 
     Khalistan, from Indian occupation. These elections provide an 
     opportunity to reclaim our freedom democratically and 
     peacefully.
       The Guru granted sovereignty to the Sikh Nation, saying 
     ``In Grieb Silkhin Ko Deon Patshahi.'' The Sikh Nation must 
     achieve its independence to fulfill the mandate of the Guru. 
     We always remember it by reciting every morning and evening, 
     ``Raj Kare Ga Khalsa.'' Now is the time to act on it. Do we 
     mean what we say every morning and evening? I urge Sikhs to 
     unite and take action to liberate our homeland, Punjab, 
     Khalistan.
       Parkash Singh Badal disgraced the Sikh Nation by running 
     the most corrupt government in Punjab's history. His 
     government was so corrupt, they even came up with a new term 
     for bribery: ``fee for service.'' If you didn't pay the fee, 
     you didn't get the service. The Badal family was so adept at 
     receiving bribes that Mrs. Badal could tell how much money 
     was in a bag just by picking it up! We are pleased that Chief 
     Minister Amarinder Singh is prosecuting the Badal family for 
     its corruption. Clearly, the Akalis do not merit the Sikh 
     Nation's support.
       Badal also broke his campaign promises of 1997. He promised 
     to release all the political prisoners. Yet according to the 
     Movement Against State Repression (MASR), the Indian regime 
     admitted to holding 52,268 Sikhs as political prisoners. They 
     are being held without charge or trial, some of them since 
     1984! How can a democratic state hold political prisoners? He 
     promised to punish police officials who have committed 
     atrocities against Sikhs since 1984. No such action was ever 
     taken. Where is the punishment of Swaran Singh Ghotna, who 
     murdered Jathedar Gurdev Singh Kaunke? Where is the 
     punishment of the police officers who kidnapped and murdered 
     Sardar Jaswant Singh Khalra? He promised to appoint a 
     commission to study the human-rights violations against the 
     Sikhs. Yet when such a commission was formed by concerned 
     Sikhs, he used the power of government to shut it down and 
     deny it a meeting place.
       The Congress Party is no better. It is the party that 
     invaded and desecrated the Golden Temple and 125 other Sikh 
     Gurdwaras throughout Punjab in June 1984 to murder Sant 
     Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and 20,000 other Sikhs, including 
     General Shabeg Singh, Bhai Amrik Singh, and over 100 Sikh 
     religious students ages 8-13 who were taken out into the 
     courtyard and shot. If Sikhs will not even protect the 
     sanctity of the Golden Temple, how can the Sikh Nation 
     survive as a nation? No conscientious Sikh can support the 
     Congress Party. It is the enemy of the Sikh Nation.
       Sikhs must speak for, work for, and vote for candidates 
     committed to freeing our homeland, Punjab, Khalistan, from 
     Indian occupation. Let us take this opportunity to put people 
     in office who will work for Sikh freedom and will work to 
     give the Sikh Nation a free and fair plebiscite on freedom 
     for Khalistan.
       Sarbjit Singh, the son of Sikh martyr Beant Singh, has been 
     given a ticket in a reserved constituency in Bhatinda by 
     the Akali Dal (Amritsar.) He deserves the support of Sikh 
     voters, but Sikhs should not support Simranjit Singh Mann, 
     who changes his colors on Khalistan almost daily. Mann is 
     under the control of the Indian government, as shown by 
     his letter to the Chief Justice of India, which is 
     reprinted in the book Chakravyuh: Web of Indian 
     Secularism, by Professor Gurtej Singh. Mann has been in 
     Parliament for the past few years. What has he done to 
     advance the cause of Sikh freedom? Has he even made a 
     single speech on behalf of freeing our homeland?
       We call on distinguished Sikh leaders such as Justice Ajit 
     Singh Bains, General Narinder Singh, Professor Gurdarshan 
     Singh Dhillon, Professor Gurtej Singh, former MP Atinder Pal 
     Singh, and others to run themselves or find candidates who 
     reflect their views. And we call on them to give a ticket to 
     deserving, educated political prisoners. This will help to 
     get the political prisoners freed and will help to put people 
     in Parliament who are committed to Sikh freedom and 
     sovereignty.
       Remember the words of Professor Darshan Singh, former 
     Jathedar of the Akal Takht: ``If a Sikh is not a Khalistani, 
     he is not a Sikh.'' The time to achieve our independence is 
     now. India is not one country. It is a polyglot empire thrown 
     together under one roof for the administrative convenience of 
     the British colonialists. It has 18 official languages. 
     History shows that such countries are doomed to fall apart. 
     India will collapse just like the Austro-Hungarian Empire, 
     the Soviet Union, and other multinational states such as 
     Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia.
       The Indian government has murdered over 250,000 Sikhs since 
     1984, according to figures compiled by the Punjab State 
     Magistracy and human rights groups and published in Inderjit 
     Singh Jaijee's excellent book, The Politics of Genocide. 
     India has killed over 300,000 Christians in Nagaland since 
     1947 and murdered priests, raped nuns, burned churches, and 
     destroyed Christian schools and prayer halls. They expelled 
     missionary Joseph Cooper from the country after militant 
     Hindu nationalists beat him up so badly that he had to be in 
     the hospital for a week. Missionary Graham Staines and his 
     two young sons were burned to death while sleeping in their 
     jeep by a mob of militant Hindus chanting ``Victory to 
     Hannuman,'' a Hindu god. Since they were allied with the pro-
     Fascist RSS, the parent organization of the ruling BJP, they 
     were able to commit this atrocity with impunity. Muslims were 
     massacred in Gujarat while the police were under orders to 
     stand aside and let the massacre occur, a frightening 
     parallel to the 1984 Delhi massacres of Sikhs. A policeman 
     told an Indian newspaper that the Gujarat massacre was 
     planned in advance by the government.
       India is a fundamentalist Hindu theocracy, not secular or 
     democratic at all. Remember what Narinder Singh, a spokesman 
     for the Golden Temple, told America's National Public Radio 
     in 1997: ``The Indian government, they are always boasting 
     that they are democratic, that they are secular. They have 
     nothing to do with a secularism, nothing to do with a 
     democracy. They just kill Sikhs just to please the 
     majority.'' On December 5, President Bush told me ``I am 
     aware of the Sikh and Kashmiri problem.''
       Soon Kashmir will be free from Indian occupation. Now 
     America is involved in it. As L.K. Advani predicted, ``When 
     Kashmir goes, India goes.'' We agree with him and we urge the 
     Indian government to hold a free and fair plebiscite on the 
     question of independence and to sit down with representatives 
     of the Sikh Nation to negotiate the boundaries of a 
     sovereign, independent Khalistan. Sikhs must use the upcoming 
     elections to elect representatives who will make certain that 
     India does that. Sikhs must claim their birthright by 
     liberating Khalistan. Only by freeing Khalistan will we put 
     an end to this corruption and restore control of Punjab and 
     its assets to the people, to whom it rightfully belongs. A 
     sovereign, independent Khalistan is a must for the survival 
     of the Sikh Nation and will provide an optimal environment 
     for the Sikh Nation to progress to its optimum potential 
     politically, religiously, and economically. Let us take this 
     opportunity to free Khalistan.
           Panth Da Sewadar,
                                          Dr. Gurmit Singh Aulakh,
     President, Council of Khalistan.

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