[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 134 (Thursday, December 7, 2006)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2108-E2109]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        SIKHS CELEBRATE BIRTHDAY OF GURU NANAK, FIRST SIKH GURU

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. EDOLPHUS TOWNS

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, December 6, 2006

  Mr. TOWNS.  Mr. Speaker, I rise today because earlier this month, 
about 15,000 Sikhs from all over the world celebrated the birth of the 
first Sikh guru, Guru Nanak, in his birthplace, Nankana Sahib, which is 
now in Pakistan. The Sikhs in attendance chanted slogans of ``Khalsitan 
Zindabad'' calling for the liberation of the Sikh homeland, Khalistan. 
Over 3,000 Sikhs from Punjab were in attendance and many of them 
commented on how much better they were treated in Pakistan than in 
their own country.
  A delegation of Sikhs met with Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz. 
He pledged to build a road from Kartarpur, where Guru Nanak died and 
where there is a shrine to him, to the Indian border if India would 
build a road to the border also and repair a bridge at the border. This 
would enable Sikhs to go to Kartarpur and honor Guru Nanak whenever 
they choose to do so. I call on the governments of Punjab and India to 
build this road and fix the bridge.
  The Pakistani government also issued an open invitation to Sikhs to 
come and visit Nankana Sahib whenever they wish with no restrictions, 
although they did express concern that agents of India's Research and 
Analysis Wing (RAW) would use this to come in and try to undermine 
Pakistan. That is a very real and legitimate concern.
  It is tragic and offensive that the Sikhs who went to Nankana Sahib 
felt that they were better treated in Pakistan than in their own 
country. That just shows why the Sikhs in Punjab need to be free of 
Indian rule. The sovereignty of the Sikhs, recognized in the Indian 
constitution, was used in cancelling Punjab's water deals with India. 
It should be used by the Legislative Assembly to declare Punjab's 
independence, as the Sikhs did on October 7, 1987. Such a declaration 
from the legislature would carry a lot of weight.
  Mr. Speaker, the time has come for the beacon of freedom, America, to 
take a stand. We can help to stop the tyranny and the repression by 
stopping our aid and trade to India until full human rights are 
restored to all people there. And it is time for a free and fair 
plebiscite in Punjab, Khalistan on the question of independence, as 
well as Kashmir, Nagalim, and wherever people seek their freedom. India 
promised Kashmir a plebiscite in 1948 and it has not yet delivered on 
the promise. When will ``the world's largest democracy'' decide that it 
is time for the people to enjoy the most basic of democratic rights, 
the right to self-determination? If India is the democratic country it 
says it is, what could be wrong with a simple vote?
  I request the permission of the House to insert the Council of 
Khalistan's press release on the events in Nankana Sahib into the 
Record at this time.

 Sikhs Celebrate Guru Nanak's Birthday With Reverence--Air Filled With 
                       Khalistan Zindabad Slogans

       Washington, DC, November 16, 2006.--More than 15,000 Sikhs 
     came from the United States, Punjab, Thailand, France, the 
     United Kingdom, Germany, and around the world to Nankana 
     Sahib celebrate the 537th anniversary of the birth of their 
     first Guru, Guru Nanak, founder of the Sikh religion. Guru 
     Nanak was born in 1469. This is he highest number of Sikhs 
     who have attended the event since the partition of India. 
     Over 3,000 Sikhs came from Punjab. At the celebration, the 
     air was filled with slogans of ``Khalistan Zindabad.''
       The delegation met with Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz in 
     Islamad on November 4. He welcomed the Sikhs with open arms 
     and offered a road link between Kartarpur and the Indian 
     border if India agrees to build a road on its side and repair 
     the bridge. He said Sikhs were free to visit Kartarpur 
     whenever they want without a visa. The Pakistani government 
     has issued an open invitation to Sikhs from around the world 
     to come and visit Nankana Sahib with no restrictions. Any 
     genuine Sikh who wants to come and visit may do so. There was 
     some concern about agents of India's Research and Analysis 
     Wing (RAW) coming to destabilize Pakistan, however.
       The government and people of Pakistan welcomed the Sikhs 
     and treated them so well that Sikhs from Punjab asked why 
     they were treated so well in Pakistan, which is not our 
     country, but in the Sikh homeland, Punjab, Khalistan, the 
     Indian government does not treat them fairly. India attacked 
     the Golden Temple, the center and seat of Sikhism, in June 
     1984. Since then, the Indian government has murdered over 
     250,000 Sikhs and another 52,268 are being held as political 
     prisoners, according to a report by the Movement Against 
     State Repression (MASR.) India has killed over 90,000 Muslims 
     in Kashmir as well as 2,000 to 5,000 Muslims in Gujarat, over 
     300,000 Christians in Nagaland, and tens of thousands of 
     Assamese, Bodos, Dalits (the dark-skinned, aboriginal 
     ``Untouchables''), Manipuris, Tamils, and other minorities. 
     In 1994, the U.S. State Department reported that the Indian 
     government had paid over 41,000 cash bounties for killing 
     Sikhs. A MASR report quotes the Punjab Civil Magistracy as 
     writing ``if we add up the figures of the last few years the 
     number of innocent persons killed would run into lakhs 
     [hundreds of thousands.]'' The Indian Supreme Court called 
     the Indian government's murders of Sikhs ``worse than a 
     genocide.''
       Last year. 35 Sikhs were charged and arrested in Punjab for 
     making speeches in support of Khalistan and raising the 
     Khalistani flag. ``How can making speeches and raising a flag 
     be considered crimes in a democratic society?'' asked Dr. 
     Gurmit Singh Aulakh. President of the Council of Khalistan, 
     which leads the peaceful, democratic, nonviolent struggle to 
     liberate the Sikh homeland from

[[Page E2109]]

     Indian occupation. The Gujarat massacre was pre-planned, 
     according to a police officer who spoke to Indian newspapers. 
     Nuns have been raped, priests have been murdered, churches 
     have been burned, Christian prayer halls and schools have 
     been attacked, and police broke up a Christian religious 
     festival with gunfire.
       India is also destroying Sikhs economically. The Indian 
     government fixes the price for fertilizer very high and the 
     price for produce very low so Sikh farmers can't even get the 
     cost of production for their crops. This year it fixed the 
     wheat price at Rs 750 per quintal. Even Badal demanded Rs 
     1000 per quintal. If Punjab farmers could sell their produce 
     across the border in Pakistan and the Middle East, they could 
     easily get close to Rs 1,500 per quintal and would be able to 
     make a living. India seeks to destroy the Sikh Nation 
     religiously, economically, and politically.
       ``Freedom is the God-given right of every nation and every 
     human being,'' said Dr. Aulakh. Sikhs must be allowed to have 
     a free and fair plebiscite on the issue of Khalistan. In a 
     democracy, you cannot continue to rule against the wishes of 
     the people. As former Senator George Mitchell said about the 
     Palestinians, ``the essence of democracy is the right to 
     self-determination.'' ``We must reclaim the sovereignty of 
     the Sikh Nation,'' Dr. Aulakh said. Dr. Aulakh appealed to 
     the Akali Dal and other Sikh parties in the Punjab 
     Legislative Assembly to pass a resolution documenting all the 
     mistreatment and economic exploitation of the Sikhs by the 
     Indian government since independence. India diverts Punjab's 
     river water, its natural resource, to neighboring Haryana and 
     Rajasthan without any compensation despite Chief Minister 
     Amarinder Singh cancelling Punjab's water agreements with 
     India. We salute Captain Amarinder Singh for this 
     legislation. In the legislation, the Legislative Assembly 
     explicitly affirmed the sovereignty of Punjab as described in 
     the Indian constitution. This same sovereignty can be used by 
     the Assembly to declare independence. India will be helpless 
     and the Sikh diaspora will help to free Khalistan.
       India is on the verge of disintegration. Kashmir is about 
     to separate from India. As L.K. Advani said, ``if Kashmir 
     goes, India goes.'' History shows that multinational states 
     such as India are doomed to failure. Countries like Austria-
     Hungary, India's longtime friend the Soviet Union, 
     Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia. and others prove this point. 
     India is not one country; it is a polyglot like those 
     countries, thrown together for the convenience of the British 
     colonialists. It is doomed to break up as they did. 
     Currently, there are 17 freedom movements within India's 
     borders. It has 18 official languages. ``We hope that India's 
     breakup will be peaceful like Czechoslovakia's, not violent 
     like Yugoslavia's,'' Dr. Aulakh said. ``Montenegro. which has 
     less than a million people, has become a sovereign country 
     and a member of the United Nations,'' he said. ``Now it is 
     the time for the Sikh Nation of Punjab, Khalistan to become 
     independent. The sooner the better.''
       ``The only way that the Sikh nation can flourish and 
     progress is in a sovereign, independent Khalistan,'' said Dr. 
     Aulakh. ``As Professor Darshan Singh, former Jathedar of the 
     Akal Takht, said, `If a Sikh is not a Khalistani. he is not a 
     Sikh.','' Dr. Aulakh said. ``We must free Khalistan now.''

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