[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
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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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