[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 1] [Extensions of Remarks] [Pages 1033-1034] [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]CHRISTIANS THANK SIKHS IN INDIA: DR. GURMIT SINGH AULAKH COMMENDED ______ HON. DAN BURTON of indiana in the house of representatives Tuesday, January 30, 2001 Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, on January 17 a group of Christians in India known as the Persecuted Church of India issued a statement commending the protection that Sikhs have provided to Christians in India from Indian government persecution. Father Dominic Immanuel appeared on Star News to thank the Sikhs community for protecting Christians from Indian government persecution. As you know, the Christians in India have undergone a wave of violence and terror by militant Hindu nationalists associated with the pro- Fascist RSS, the parent organization of the ruling BJP. This violence has taken the form of church burnings, rape of nuns, murders of priests, and attacks on Christian schools and prayer halls. Graham Staines and his two little boys were burned to death in their jeep while they slept. Earlier, in 1997, police broke up a Christian religious festival with [[Page 1034]] gunfire. No one has ever been punished for these activities. Instead, there have been Indian officials who have been quoted as saying that everyone who lives in India must either be a Hindu or be subservient to Hinduism. Last year RSS leader Kuppa Halli Sitharamaiya called for a ban on foreign churches. Interestingly, the article mentions Dr. Gurmit Singh Aulakh, the President of the Council of Khalistan, for his lobbying efforts here on Capitol Hill. The Sikhs and Christians are suffering from the same kind of terror. More than 250,000 Sikhs have been murdered by the Indian government since 1984, according to Inderjit Singh Jaijee's ``The Politics of Genocide''. The Indian government has also killed more than 200,000 Christians in Nagaland. According to Amnesty international, there are about 50,000 Sikhs held in Indian jails as political prisoners without charge or trial. In November, Indian police with heavy sticks called lathis attacked 3,200 Sikh religious pilgrims at a railroad station on the Indian-Pakistani border. These pilgrims were attempting to get to Nankana Sahib in Pakistan to celebrate the birthday of the first Sikh guru, Guru Nanak. Only 800 managed to get to the celebration. In July, police arrested Rajiv Singh Randhawa, the only witness to the September 1995 kidnapping of human-rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra, while he was trying to give a petition to the British Home Minister in front of the Golden Temple, the holiest Sikh shrine that the Indian government brutally attacked in June 1984. Mr. Khalra was killed in police custody about six weeks after he was kidnapped. More than five years later, no one has been punished. Now the Indian police are harassing the only witness. In March, according to the findings of two independent investigations, the Indian government murdered 35 Sikhs in the village of Chithi Singhpora. In addition to its persecution of Christians, Sikhs, and other minorities, India has worked aggressively to thwart several U.S. foreign policy goals around the world. Not only does it vote against the United States at the United Nations more often than any country except Cuba, but in 1999 the Indian Defense Minister led a meeting with the Ambassadors from Iraq, Cuba, Libya, Russia, Serbia, and China in which the parties discussed setting up a security alliance ``to stop the U.S.'' We should stop U.S. aid to India until the oppression of Christians, Sikhs, Muslims, and other minorities ends and human rights are observed. We must also put the United States on record in support for the freedom movements in Khalistan, Nagalim, Kashmir, and the other nations seeking their freedom from India, through a free and fair plebiscite. That is the democratic way and the way that world powers do things. These measures will help bring peace, freedom, stability, prosperity and dignity to all the people of the subcontinent. Mr. Speaker, I would like to submit a statement issued by the Persecuted Church of India that discusses the efforts that Sikhs have made on behalf of India's Christian community. I commend this statement to anyone who would like to better understand the plight of minorities in India. Persecuted Church of India--January 17, 2001--the sikhs rush to protect the christians A few days ago when the attacks against the Christian missionaries in Rajasthan took place, Fr Dominic Immanual went on record on Star News to acknowledge the protection that the Sikh community was providing to the persecuted Christians of Haryana and elsewhere. That was a belated recognition to the much maligned Sikh minorities. We had earlier reported the incidents wherein the nuns were protected by the Sikhs at the time of attacks. However almost all the cases have gone unreported. Fr Dominic did great justice to the Sikhs when he underlined incidents in rural Haryana where the helpless Christians had none to help but the Sikhs during the attacks by the Hindu fascists. He quoted the incidents in Panipat, Sonepat and Gannore where the Christians have been saved by the Sikhs, many a time risking their own lives as the Hindu terrorists struck. The recognition is too little for the community whose plight was ignored by the Christians as they too had been under the influence of the Hindu nationalist lies against the Sikhs. THE LEGACY OF SADHOO SUNDER SINGH Sadhu Sunder Singh was one of the greatest Christian missionaries India has known. Punjab, more particularly the districts like Ludhiana has a considerable concentration of Christians. The Sikhs themselves have been victims of Hindu majoritarinism and ethnic cleansing. A vast number of their youth had been annihilated in the anti-Sikh riots and fake encounters. Thousands of innocent Sikh youth are persecuted in jails as undertrials. The anti-Sikh crackdown saw the flight of thousands of Sikhs abroad. When the recent wave of anti-Christian persecution started, at least one Christian bishop recognized the injustice done to the Sikh minority by the Christians. Bishop Philipose Mar Chsysostem, the Mar Thoma Metropolitan, wrote that it was due to our apathy during the earliest atrocities against other (minorities) that this danger has befallen us. The community which we did injustice to has now become our saviors. In fact Gurmeet Singh Aulakh, the Sikh leader in the U.S. was one of the first persons to lobby against the Christian persecution in the U.S. Congress by the Hindu fundamentalists. THE ANTI-SIKH MOVEMENT One of the reasons for the insurrection in Punjab was the attempt by the Hinduists to brand Sikhism as a part (or panth) of Hinduism. The RSS went on to call the Sikhs ``Kesadhari Hindus''. History says that the no Sikh participated in the drafting of the Constitution, and as they were away, the Hindu nationalists branded them as ``Hindus''. The governments finally accepted the independent identity of the Sikhs apart from the Hindus. Recently the Hindu majoritarians revived the old tension by once again branding the Sikhs as part of Hinduism. The Sikhs are idol-haters and do not liked to be linked to it's worship forms. The Sikh community warned with one voice that any attempt by the Hinduists to carry the Guru Granth Sahib to the temples will be met with stiff resistance. The tension in Punjab has increased manyfold due to the upsurge in the activities of RSS, VHP and the Bajrang Dal. There are reports of the raising of a Bajrang Dal army of 30,000 cadres from Punjab. As per an article that appeared in the Hindu, the Bajrang Dal is giving fierce arms training to their cadre. They have the blessings of the rulers of Delhi. The formation of the new organization Rashtriya Sikh Sangatana (RSS) by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) have angered the Sikhs and this has once again brought most Sikhs to a single platform. The majoritarian ambitions of the Hindutva forces in Punjab are sure to lead to doom. Conclusion At this instance we can only pray for peace in Punjab. We pray that good sense prevails with the majoritarians and they do not do anything harmful to the interests of the nation. We also thank the valiant but unsung Sikh heros and heroines who have and are risking their own lives to save the defenseless Christians in Haryana, Punjab and elsewhere from the atrocities of the Hindu organizations. ____________________