[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 51 (Tuesday, April 20, 2004)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E552-E553]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   GURCHARAN SINGH TOHRA, SIKH LEADER, DIES--LEFT LEGACY OF BETRAYAL

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. EDOLPHUS TOWNS

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, April 20, 2004

  Mr. TOWNS. Mr. Speaker, I noticed in the April 3 issue of the 
Washington Post that Gurcharan Singh Tohra, a Sikh who led the 
Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC), the Sikhs' highest 
administrative body, which administers all the Sikh places of worship, 
called Gurdwaras, in Punjab, died April 1 in a hospital in New Delhi. 
He was 79 years old.
  On behalf of my colleagues in the U.S. Congress, I would like to 
extend my sympathies to Mr. Tohra's family. In this time of loss for 
them, we all pray for them and for the departed. However, it is 
important to have the record reflect the actions that Mr. Tohra took 
against his own people.
  The Council of Khalistan published a press release on April 6 which 
details the betrayal of the Sikhs by Mr. Tohra. It is excellent reading 
and I recommend it to my colleagues.
  In that press release, the Council of Khalistan took note of Mr. 
Tohra's invitation to the Indian government to launch its military 
attack on the Golden Temple, the most sacred of Sikh shrines, in June 
1984, in order to eliminate his political rival, Sant Jarnail Singh 
Bhindranwale, who was a strong advocate of an independent Sikh state, 
Khalistan. Sikhs will be commemorating this brutal attack on June 5 
here in Washington. The Indian forces simultaneously attacked 125 Sikh 
Gurdwaras throughout Punjab and murdered over 20,000 Sikhs in these 
attacks alone. They shot bullet holes in the Sikh holy scriptures, the 
Guru Granth Sahib. They took young Sikh boys ages 8 through 13 out in 
the courtyard and shot them at point blank range. Meanwhile, Mr. Tohra, 
who had said that the tanks would have to roll over his body to get to 
the Temple, came out with his hands up. The Golden Temple complex is 
also the headquarters of the SGPC.
  Mr. Tohra was also in a longstanding political alliance with the 
corrupt Parkash Singh Badal, who was thrown out of office after running 
the most corrupt government in Punjab's history--a regime so corrupt 
that the voters chose the Congress Party, which organized and carried 
out the Golden Temple attack, rather than re-elect Mr. Badal. Mr. Tohra 
also was an ally of the Indian government, first under the Congress 
Party and then under the current regime of the BJP. This is the same 
Indian government that has murdered over 250,000 Sikhs, Mr. Speaker. It 
is also holding over 52,000 Sikhs as political prisoners, some since 
the 1984 attacks!
  With Mr. Tohra gone, new leaders must emerge. I call on my Sikh 
friends to make sure that these new leaders are strong supporters of 
freedom for the Sikhs of Punjab, Khalistan. And as the beacon of 
freedom, I urge the United States to take action to help liberate the 
Sikh Nation and all the nations seeking their freedom from India, 
including Kashmir, predominantly Christian Nagalim, and others.
  The time has come to stop our aid to India until it respects the 
basic human rights of all people within its borders and to demand that 
India act like the democracy it says it is by holding a free and fair 
vote on the matter of independence for Khalistan, for Kashmir, for 
Nagalim, and for all the other nations seeking their freedom. This is 
the democratic way and self-determination is the essence of democracy. 
It is also the only way to prevent leaders in the mode of Gurcharan 
Singh Tohra from emerging again to connive with the Indian government 
to keep the Sikhs in slavery.
  Mr. Speaker, I would like to place the Council of Khalistan's press 
release on Mr. Tohra into the Record at this time.

                      G.S. Tohra Passes Away at 79

       Washington, DC, April 6, 2004.--Gurcharan Singh Tohra, the 
     longtime President of the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak 
     Committee (SGPC), which runs all the Gurdwaras (Sikh places 
     of worship) in Punjab, died of a heart attack April 1 in New 
     Delhi. He was 79 years old.
       ``We offer our sympathies and prayers to Mr. Tohra's 
     family,'' said Dr. Gurmit Singh Aulakh, President of the 
     Council of Khalistan, which leads the struggle for 
     independence for the Sikh homeland, Khalistan, as declared on 
     October 7, 1987. ``We pray for them in their time of loss and 
     may Guru bless this departed soul,'' he said. ``However, it 
     is better to leave a legacy of service and sacrifice rather 
     than a legacy of betrayal as Tohra did,'' he said. ``What 
     Tohra did in life will remain a part of the history of the 
     Sikh Nation. He will not be remembered as a friend of the 
     Sikh Nation,'' Dr. Aulakh said.
       Tohra connived with the Indian government prior to its 
     invasion of the Golden Temple, the center and seat of the 
     Sikh religion. The Golden Temple is the headquarters of the 
     SGPC. He joined with Harchand Singh Longowal and others in 
     inviting the Indian government to attack the Golden Temple to 
     murder pro-Khalistani leaders Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, 
     General Shabeg Singh, and others, even while they were 
     telling the Sikh Nation that Indian tanks would ``have to 
     roll over our dead bodies'' to get to the Temple. From June 3 
     through June 6, 1984, the Indian government carried out 
     Operation Bluestar, a military attack on the Golden Temple 
     and over 125 other Sikh temples throughout Punjab. More than 
     20,000 Sikhs were killed in Operation Bluestar. Longowal was 
     assassinated by a patriotic Sikh for his betrayal of the Sikh 
     Nation. ``Sikhs can never forgive or forget the attack on the 
     Golden Temple,'' said Dr. Aulakh. On Saturday, June 5, Sikhs 
     will gather in Washington, D.C. to commemorate the twentieth 
     anniversary of this brutal massacre and desecration.
       The Indian government has murdered over 250,000 Sikhs since 
     1984, more than 300,000 Christians since 1948, over 85,000 
     Muslims in Kashmir since 1988, and tens of thousands of 
     Tamils, Assamese, Manipuris, Dalits, and others. The Indian 
     Supreme Court called the Indian government's murders of Sikhs 
     ``worse than a genocide.'' According to a study by the 
     Movement Against State Repression (MASR), 52,268 Sikhs are 
     being held in illegal detention as political prisoners 
     without charge or trial. In September 1995, human-rights 
     activist Jaswant Singh Khalra was kidnapped by police for 
     publishing a study documenting that the Indian government 
     secretly cremated thousands of Sikh youth by declaring them 
     ``unidentified bodies'' after torturing and murdering them. 
     He was murdered about six weeks later while in police 
     custody. His body was never returned to his family. Police 
     SSP Swaran Singh Ghotna murdered former Jathedar of the Akal 
     Takht Gurdev Singh Kaunke.
       Although Tohra was not corrupt like former Punjab Chief 
     Minister Parkash Singh Badal, he maintained an alliance with 
     Badal, even though he once said publicly that he would not 
     even go near Badal's grave. The Badal regime was the most 
     corrupt in Punjab's history. In 1993, Tohra urged Sikhs to 
     ``prepare for the long struggle'' to liberate Khalistan, yet 
     he maintained a political alliance with the Indian 
     government, first with the Congress Party (which carried out 
     the Golden Temple attack) and then with the militant Hindu 
     nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP.) ``It seems as if 
     there were two Gurcharan Singh Tohras,'' Dr. Aulakh said.
       India is not one country; it is a polyglot thrown together 
     by the British for their administrative convenience. Sikhs 
     ruled Punjab until 1849 when the British conquered the 
     subcontinent. Sikhs were equal partners during the transfer 
     of power from the British. The Muslim leader Jinnah got 
     Pakistan, the Hindu leaders got India, but the Sikh 
     leadership was fooled by the Hindu leadership into taking 
     their share with India on the promise that Sikhs would have 
     ``the glow of freedom'' in northwest India. For that mistake, 
     Sikhs are suffering now. ``As Professor Darshan Singh, a 
     former Jathedar of the Akal Takht, said, `If a Sikh is not 
     for Khalistan, he is not

[[Page E553]]

     a Sikh','' Dr. Aulakh noted. ``Tohra worked with the Indian 
     government in its most brutal efforts to suppress the Sikh 
     Nation's effort to realize the Guru's blessing by reclaiming 
     its sovereignty,'' he said.
       ``Democracies don't commit genocide,'' Dr. Aulakh said. 
     ``Only in a free and sovereign Khalistan will the Sikh Nation 
     prosper. In a democracy, the right to self-determination is 
     the sine qua non and if India is truly a democracy, it should 
     accept the sovereignty of the Sikh Nation,'' he said.

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