[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 135 (Friday, December 8, 2006)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2146-E2147]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
COUNCIL OF KHALISTAN URGES SIKHS TO WORK TO FREE KHALISTAN SEES
DISINTEGRATION OF INDIA
______
HON. EDOLPHUS TOWNS
of new york
in the house of representatives
Thursday, December 7, 2006
Mr. TOWNS. Mr. Speaker, last month, Dr. Gurmit Singh Aulakh,
President of the Council of Khalistan, spoke at the Press Club in
Lahore, Pakistan. In that speech, he predicted disintegration of India,
according to the newspaper Dawn from Lahore. ``There is nothing common
in the culture of the Hindu living in Bengal and the one in Tamil
area,'' the paper quotes Dr. Aulakh as saying. ``A country having 18
official languages cannot hold its people together for a long time,
especially when there is state sponsored suppression against
minorities,'' he went on to say.
Dr. Aulakh cited the BJP's statement that if you want to live in
Hindustan, you must be a Hindu. He discussed India's long record of
violence against the minorities within its borders, including the
murders of over a quarter of a million Sikhs, more than 90,000 Kashmiri
Muslims, over 300,000 Christians in Nagaland, 2,000 to 5,000 Muslims in
Gujarat, tens of thousands of Christians and Muslims around the rest of
the country, and tens of thousands of Assamese, Bodos, Dalit
``untouchables'', Manipuris, Tamils, and other minorities. He cited
numerous other incidents, including the murder of former Jathedar of
the Akal Takht Gurdev Singh Kaunke, the kidnapping and murder by the
police of human-rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra, the recent attack
on the Convent of Loreto, the attack on the Babri mosque, and many
other such events.
Dr. Aulakh said that the only solution to this situation is a free,
sovereign, independent Khalistan, which was declared on October 7,
1987. It is time for the United States to help protect the dignity of
all people in South Asia by helping them to live in freedom. There
should be a free and fair plebiscite in Punjab on the independence of
Khalistan, as well as a plebiscite in Kashmir, as promised to the
United Nations in 1948, in Nagaland, and wherever people are seeking
freedom from India. The essence of democracy is the right to self-
determination. The United States Congress should be on record in
support of that. In addition, we should stop our aid and trade with
India until such time as the tyranny stops and all people there enjoy
full human rights.
We seek good relations with India, but not at the expense of our
principles. India must spread the blessings of freedom and democracy to
all its people, not just the ruling elite and its friends.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to insert the Dawn article and an article
from The News concerning Dr. Aulakh's statement into the Record.
[From Dawn Lahore, Nov. 7, 2006]
Khalistan Council Sees India's Disintegration
(By Our Staff Reporter)
Lahore, Nov. 6: India will break up in many states like the
former USSR, says Council of Khalistan president Dr. Gurmit
Singh Aulakh.
``There is nothing common in the culture of the Hindu
living in Bengal and the one in Tamil area. A country having
18 official languages cannot hold its people together for a
long time, especially when there is state-sponsored
suppression against minorities,'' Dr. Aulakh said at a press
conference at the Lahore Press Club on Monday.
The BJP had conveyed to all the minorities in the strongest
terms that if they wanted to live in `Hindustan', they have
to become Hindus. Over a million people have been killed
since independence merely because they were not Hindus. The
Indian government has committed terrorism against its own
minorities. More than 250,000 Sikh infants, children, youth,
men, women and elderly had been murdered since 1984, in
addition to more than 300,000 Christians in Nagaland, over
90,000 Muslims in Kashmir, tens of thousands of Christians
and Muslims throughout the country besides tens of thousands
of Assameese, Bodos, Dalits, Manipuris, Tamils and other
minorities.
Indian police arrested human rights activist Jaswant Singh
Khalra after he exposed their policy of mass cremation of
Sikhs. Over 50,000 Sikhs were arrested, tortured, murdered
and then their bodies were declared unidentified and secretly
cremated, said Dr. Aulakh.
Mr. Khalra was murdered in police custody and his body was
not handed over to his family. No one was brought to justice
for his kidnap and murder. The only witness to the Khalra
kidnapping, Rajiv Singh Randbawa, had been repeatedly
harassed by the police, including having been arrested for
trying to hand a note to the then British home secretary Jack
Straw.
The Khalistan Council chief said 35 Sikhs were arrested in
Punjab last year for delivering speeches in support of
Khalistan and raising its flag. How can delivering speeches
and raising a flag be considered crimes in a democratic
society?
The police never released the body of Gurdeve Singh Kaunke,
the former Jathedar of the Akal Takht, after SSP Swaran Singh
Ghotna murdered him. The police officer had never been tried
for the murder.
Mr. Graham Stains, missionary, was murdered along with his
two sons, ages 8 and 10, by a mob of militant, fundamentalist
Hindu nationalists who set fire to the jeep, surrounded it,
and chanted Hannuman ki jay (Victory to Hannuman). Another
missionary, Joseph cope, was beaten so badly that he had to
remain in an Indian hospital for a week. Later, the Indian
government threw him out of the country and none of the
people involved had been tried.
``Police broke up a Christian religious festival with
gunfire but the people who murdered priests, raped nuns and
burnt churches had yet to be charged or tried. Recently,
militants from the Bharatiya Januata Yuva, the youth movement
affiliated with the BJP and the fascist RSS, attacked the
Convent of Loreto.
``The murderers of 2,000 to 5,000 Muslims in Gujarat have
never been brought to trial. An
[[Page E2147]]
Indian newspaper reported that the police were ordered not to
get involved in that massacre, a frightening parallel to the
Delhi massacre of Sikhs in 1984. Militant Hindu
fundamentalists destroyed the most important mosque in india,
the Babri Masjid, but no one had ever been held
responsible,'' said Dr. Aulakh.
``What good it did to the Sikh nation if the Indian
government apologized for the Delhi massacres, in which over
20,000 sikhs were killed? Where are the apologies for the
golden Temple attack, the destruction of the Akal Takht, the
desecration of Darbar Sahib and the other atrocities? Where
is the compensation for the victims' families?'' asked a
charged Khalistan Council chief.
Sikh farmers were expelled from Uttaranchal last year and
their land was seized, police thrashed them, their homes that
were built out of their life savings and by their own hands,
were bulldozed by paratroopers. ``We condemn this act of
state terrorism by the government of Uttaranchal,'' he said.
Sikhs could not buy land in Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh
and now Uttaranchal had been added to the list while there
were no restrictions on land ownership in Punjab by non-
Sikhs.
India was trying to subvert Khalistan's independence by
overrunning Punjab with non-Sikhs while keeping Sikhs from
escaping the brutal repression in Punjab. ``It is now
incumbent on the Sikh diaspora to free Khalistan. We must
redouble our efforts. That is the only way to keep these
atrocities from continuing and to protect the Sikh nation and
the religion.''
The Akali Dal, Dr. Aulakh alleged, conspired with the
Indian government in 1984 to invade the Golden Temple to
murder Sant Bhindranwale and 20,000 other Sikhs in June 1984
in Punjab.
In response to a question, he said the Indian prime
minister was a puppet. ``Mr. Manmohan Singh lied before the
Geneva Commission in 1992 that there were no atrocities
against Sikhs in India in spite of the fact that there were
52,000 Sikhs in Indian jails under the notorious TADA. He
lacks the true Sikh spirit, if a Sikh is not Khalistani, he
is not a Sikh,'' declared Dr. Aulakh.
Sikhs would never get any justice from Delhi. Ever since
independence, India had mistreated the Sikh nation, starting
with Patel's memo calling Sikhs `a criminal tribe.'
``What a shame for Home Minister Patel and the Indian
government to issue this memorandom when the Sikh nation gave
over 80 percent of the sacrifices to free India. There is no
place for Sikhs in supposedly secular, democratic India. Our
moment of freedom is closer than ever. Sikhs will continue to
work to make certain that we shake ourselves loose from the
yoke of Indian oppression and liberate our homeland,
Khalistan, so that all Sikhs may live lives of prosperity,
freedom and dignity.
``The flame of freedom continues to burn brightly in the
heart of every Sikh and no force can suppress it. Recently,
Dal Khalsa and the Shironment Khalsa Dal announced that they
are uniting for sovereignty for Khalistan. The Punjab
legislative assembly proclaimed the sovereignty of Punjab
when it cancelled the water agreements. Only by liberating
Khalistan can we put an end to the repression and terrorism
against the Sikh nation by the Indian regime. Now is the time
to rededicate ourselves to the liberation of Khalistan.
``The Sikhs are a free nation and they would neither
compromise on their freedom nor they could be subjugated.
Freedom is the right of every nation. We have been struggling
for the independence of our homeland from the day when the
Golden Temple was attacked. We have been exposing the indian
atrocities worldwide since then,'' the Khalistan Council
chief said.
[From The News International, Nov. 7, 2006]
Sikhs Urged to Work for Homeland
Sardar Gurmeet Singh Aulak, president of Council of
Khalistan, has said that it is the moral duty of Sikhs to
establish free homeland and get freedom from India.
While addressing a press conference here Monday at Lahore
Press Club, he said Sikhs had to come forward to get free
homeland for the Sikhs living around the world. He said the
foundation of Khalistan was laid after the attack on Golden
Temple in 1984 adding that now the Sikhs were fighting for
their birth right though the war was long but it has to meet
logical end.
He said the biggest mistake which the Sikh nation had
committed was that they did not accept the offer of Quaid-e-
Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah and for that they have to pay for
few more decades.
He said their struggle was peaceful and political but India
turned into violent by killing innocent Sikhs in East Punjab
and tagged them as terrorists.
He said in India, 18 different languages were being spoken
and when there was no commonality in cultures, the country
was bound to be divided into parts like the USSR. He said on
October 17, 1987, the resolution was passed by Council of
Khalistan for free homeland and from that date the Sikhs were
struggling to get their homeland.
He said Sikhs has no claim on that piece of land where they
did not have any population but they want homeland on areas
of East Punjab, Himachal and Haryana, where the Sikhs were in
majority. About Kashmir issue, he said he was surprised to
note that with so many Muslim countries around the world, the
state was not freed yet as if the Sikhs have the same number
of countries, they had freed their land from the cruel
clutches of India.
About Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, he said he was a
puppet PM and dance to the tunes of Sonia Gandhi and lacks
confidence of Sikh nation.
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