[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 74 (Tuesday, June 1, 2004)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E973-E974]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


   COUNCIL OF KHALISTAN CONGRATULATES INDIA'S NEW SIKH PRIME MINISTER

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. EDOLPHUS TOWNS

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, June 1, 2004

  Mr. TOWNS. Mr. Speaker, as you know, a Sikh, Dr. Manmohan Singh, has 
been named as the new Prime Minister of India. Dr. Singh is a former 
Finance Minister in the government of Narasimha Rao from 1991 to 1996. 
He is a very experienced Indian official.
  I hope that this will be a step forward for good relations between 
the United States and India, Mr. Speaker. We all seek good relations. 
However, the support of India's Communists for the governing coalition 
makes me wonder if good relations are possible under this particular 
government.
  Dr. Gurmit Singh Aulakh, President of the Council of Khalistan has 
sent a letter to Prime Minister Singh congratulating him on his new 
position. In the letter, Dr. Aulakh notes that it is good for the image 
of Sikhs worldwide that Dr. Manmohan Singh is now Prime Minister. He 
also notes that it was the RSS, parent organization of the ousted BJP, 
that assassinated Mohandas Gandhi and takes note of India's violent 
history, urging Prime Minister Singh to take strong measures to avoid 
repeating this history, such as releasing the political prisoners that 
India holds, punishing those responsible for atrocities, ending the 
taking of Punjabi water to nonriparian states without compensation, and 
other such policies I think we can all support. India will be a better 
place if Prime Minister Singh implements these policies.
  According to the Movement Against State Repression (MASR), 52,268 
Sikhs are being held as political prisoners. Amnesty International 
reports that tens of thousands of other minorities are also being held 
as political prisoners. A democracy should not hold political 
prisoners. I am sure all my colleagues will agree with me that all 
these political prisoners should be released immediately.
  The letter also reminds Prime Minister Singh that while ending the 
BJP's policy of Hindutva--total Hinduization of every aspect of Indian 
life--will be welcome, it was the Congress Party under Dr. Singh's 
political patrons, the Gandhi family, that carried out the military 
attack on the Golden Temple, the center and seat of the Sikh religion 
and the massacre of Sikhs in Delhi and elsewhere in India. Dr. Aulakh 
urges Dr. Singh to make a complete break with these policies by 
punishing those responsible.
  In 1987, the Sikhs declared themselves independent from India, naming 
their new country Khalistan. As Dr. Aulakh points out in his letter, 
allowing Khalistan, Kashmir, Nagaland, and the other nations seeking 
their freedom from India to be free is the best way to spare the 
subcontinent any more bloodshed.
  I join in that call, Mr. Speaker. We should support a free and fair 
plebiscite on the question of independence for the minority nations of 
South Asia. And until human rights are fully observed and a complete 
break is made with the bloody and repressive policies of the past, the 
United States should stop providing aid to India. These measures will 
encourage India to take the steps necessary to bring peace, freedom, 
prosperity, and dignity to everyone in the subcontinent.
  Mr. Speaker, I would like to insert the Council of Khalistan's letter 
to Prime Minister Singh into the Record at this time.

                                         Council of Khalistan,

                                     Washington, DC, May 26, 2004.
     The Hon. Dr. Manmohan Singh,
     Prime Minister of India, Chanakyapouri, New Delhi, India.
       Dear Prime Minister Singh: Congratulations on becoming 
     Prime Minister of India. You have been entrusted with a 
     significant responsibility.
       We are very pleased to see a Sikh as Prime Minister. You 
     have reached this high office because of your intelligence 
     and hard work and your presence in this position gives the 
     world a strong and positive impression of Sikhs. However, 
     remember the way that the Gandhi family used Giani Zail Singh 
     when he was President of India. He became the figurehead for 
     their repression of the Sikhs. Unlike Zail Singh, you are in 
     a position of real power. Sikhs around the world will be 
     watching what you do and hoping that you will not allow 
     yourself to be used in a similar manner.
       As a Sikh, you are in a position to understand the problems 
     of the Sikh Nation. The Movement Against State Repression 
     (MASR) did a report that showed the government admitted to 
     holding 52,268 Sikh political prisoners. They have been held 
     without charge or trial, some for as long as 20 years! If you 
     are truly committed to secularism, one of your first acts 
     should be to release all political prisoners. If any have 
     died in custody, their bodies should be released to their 
     families. These are people who have committed no crime but 
     opposition to the government. How can there be political 
     prisoners in a democracy?
       I urge you to restore to Punjab what is rightfully 
     Punjab's. I call on you to restore the Punjabi-speaking areas 
     that were removed from the state of Punjab to it. Punjab was 
     meant to be a unified Sikh state and Indian governments of 
     the past have pursued a deliberate policy of dividing, 
     bankrupting, and weakening it to divide and weaken the Sikhs. 
     As a Sikh and as Prime Minister, you are in a position to put 
     a stop to this policy. You are also in a position to restore 
     Punjab's water rights. For years, Punjab's water has been 
     diverted to non-riparian states with no compensation to 
     Punjab or to the people of Punjab. Please put an end to the 
     diversion of Punjab's water to non-riparian states and when 
     such diversion is necessary, please make certain that the 
     Sikh farmers of Punjab get appropriate compensation for their 
     water. This is only fair and right, and it is a policy that 
     will earn you greater support among the Sikhs. All other 
     states control their water resources.
       We are also pleased that the BJP is out of power. Rahul 
     Gandhi, MP, the son of Sonia and Rajiv Gandhi and a member of 
     your party, pointed out that the RSS, which is the parent 
     organization of the BJP, assassinated Mahatma Gandhi. The RSS 
     is a pro-Fascist organization and both Vajpayee and Advani 
     are proud RSS members. The end of the policy of Hindutva will 
     be a welcome development. Sikh support for the Congress Party 
     is also a by-product of the corrupt Parkash Singh Badal 
     regime in Punjab, the most corrupt government in Punjab's 
     history. The Badal government even invented a new word for 
     bribery: fee for service. However, it was a Congress 
     government that attacked the Golden Temple and carried out 
     the massacre of Sikhs in Delhi and throughout India.
       As your own nephew pointed out, Sikhs can never forget the 
     attack on the Golden Temple. Thus it is disturbing to read 
     that you have said you intend to follow the policies of Rajiv 
     Gandhi. His policy was the murder of at least 8,000 Sikhs in 
     Delhi alone and over 20,000 throughout India. It is also 
     disturbing that your party gave tickets to Jagdish Tytler and 
     Sajjan Kumar, who are responsible for ordering the murders of 
     thousands of Sikhs in Delhi, and that Tytler was appointed to 
     your Cabinet. Tytler and Sajjan Kumar supplied gasoline for 
     these murders and incited the crowd. These people belong in 
     jail, not in the government.
       I hope that you will not follow such undemocratic, anti-
     secularist, anti-Sikhs policies. Policies such as these 
     have made it clear that there is no place for Sikhs in 
     India. If you are truly committed to secularism, you 
     cannot follow such brutal, repressive policies against 
     Sikhs and other minorities. The brutal policies have 
     brought about the murders of over 250,000 Sikhs since 
     1984, more than 87,000 Kashmiri Muslims since 1988, over 
     300,000 Christians in Nagaland, and tens of thousands of 
     Assamese, Bodos, Dalits, Manipuris, and other minorities. 
     The United States State Department exposed the fact that 
     between 1992 and 1994, a Congress government paid out more 
     than 41,000 cash bounties to police officers for killing 
     Sikhs. One officer received a bonus for murdering a three-
     year-old boy, claiming the toddler was a ``terrorist.''
       The time has come for India to make a clean break with its 
     past by punishing those responsible for these actions, 
     compensating the victims' families, and committing itself to 
     preventing and punishing such acts in the future. This will 
     show your commitment to secular, democratic government and 
     not the theocratic repression of the country's past 
     governments.
       India is a very fractured country. Because of past history, 
     no party is able to unify the people and command a majority 
     of the support, so coalition governments are inevitable. 
     Coalition governments are inherently unstable. For example, 
     the support of India's three Communist parties for your 
     coalition weakens your ability to pursue good relations with 
     the United States and other Western countries, which could 
     increase India's isolation from the world.
       History also shows us that multinational countries are 
     doomed to failure. Austria-Hungary, the Soviet Union, 
     Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia are examples of this. India is 
     a multinational state, not a single country, thrown together 
     by British colonialists and with 18 official languages. How 
     can such a country be held together except by massive 
     repression and bloodshed? And the repression has simply 
     created greater resentment of the central government, which 
     also strengthens the support for the 17 independence 
     movements throughout India. Either way, holding India 
     together is a futile enterprise destined to fail.
       Since India is a democracy, I urge you to solve this 
     problem the democratic way. In 1947, India committed itself 
     to a plebiscite on the status of Kashmir. The Sikhs also seek 
     their freedom and sovereignty, as the Nagas and others also 
     do. If India is truly the world's largest democracy, why not 
     simply allow the people to decide their status by a free and 
     fair vote. That is the way that you achieved power, by the 
     people's votes. Why not let the people vote on this critical 
     issue? The essence of democracy is the right of self-
     determination.
       As a Sikh, you are aware that the Sikh Nation is a separate 
     nation which was supposed to receive sovereignty at the time 
     of India's independence. As you know, Sikhs ruled Punjab from 
     1710 to 1716 and from 1765 to 1849. No Sikh representative 
     has signed the Indian Constitution to this day. Every day,

[[Page E974]]

     Sikhs pray ``Raj Kare Ga Khalsa,'' the Khalsa shall rule. As 
     you know, the Sikh Nation declared its independence from 
     India on October 7, 1987, calling their new country 
     Khalistan. As former Jathedar of the Akal Takht Professor 
     Darshan Singh has said, ``If a Sikh is not a Khalistani, he 
     is not a Sikh.''
       I know that you are a Sikh, Mr. Prime Minister. I can see 
     your turban. I know that you are concerned about the future 
     of the Sikh Nation. Therefore, I urge you to sit down with 
     Sikh representatives and negotiate the boundaries of a 
     sovereign, independent, free Khalistan. This is the best 
     thing that you can do for the Sikh Nation, your own people, 
     and it is the best way to ensure that India goes the way of 
     Czechoslovakia, not that of Yugoslavia. Please spare India, 
     Khalistan, and all the nations of South Asia any further 
     bloodshed.
       Congratulations again on your new position.
           Sincerely,
                                          Dr. Gurmit Singh Aulakh,
     President, Council of Khalistan.

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