[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 4]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 5397-5398]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




VAISAKHI DAY: GREETINGS TO THE SIKH NATION--COUNCIL OF KHALISTAN ISSUES 
                    VAISAKHI MESSAGE TO SIKH NATION

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. EDOLPHUS TOWNS

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, March 25, 2004

  Mr. TOWNS. Mr. Speaker, next month the Sikhs will celebrate one of 
their most important holidays, Vaisakhi Day. On this day in 1699, Guru 
Gobind Singh constituted the Sikh Nation. He issued a blessing of 
sovereignty to the Sikhs, a blessing they are looking to reclaim.
  Vaisakhi Day is one of the most important Sikh holidays and there are 
over 500,000 Sikhs in this country, so I would like to take this 
opportunity to wish them all a happy Vaisakhi Day. Hopefully, they will 
use the occasion to work for freedom for their people.
  It is an interesting coincidence that Vaisakhi Day happens to fall on 
the birthday of Thomas Jefferson, author of our Declaration of 
Independence, who wrote: ``We hold these truths to be self-evident: 
that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator 
with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, 
and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights, governments 
are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent 
of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes 
destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or 
abolish it and to institute new government, laying its foundations on 
such principles and organizing its powers in such form as to them shall 
seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.''
  Mr. Speaker, the Indian government has done everything it can to 
destroy the safety and happiness of Sikhs, Christians, Muslims, and 
other minorities living within the country. Is it any wonder that all 
these groups are seeking their freedom from India's brutal rule?
  India has murdered over a quarter of a million Sikhs in the past 20 
years. It holds over 52,000 of them as political prisoners. More than 
300,000 Christians in Nagaland have been murdered by the Indian 
government, and Christians seem to be targets everywhere else in India 
too. India has killed over 85,000 Kashmiri Muslims since 1988, and that 
doesn't count the thousands who have been killed in places like 
Gujarat.

[[Page 5398]]

  Yet India continues to proclaim loudly that it is a democracy. As 
Jefferson noted, the central principle of a democratic state is ``the 
consent of the governed.'' How can India claim to have the consent of 
the minorities it governs so brutally while killing tens of thousands 
of them? It doesn't make sense to me. The essence of democracy is the 
right to self-determination.
  We must do what we can, Mr. Speaker, as a country dedicated to the 
principle of liberty. We should stop U.S. aid to India until it 
respects human rights and we should use whatever influence we can to 
get India to hold a free and fair plebiscite on the question of 
independence, under international observation.
  The Council of Khalistan has issued a very informative letter in 
honor of Vaisakhi Day, which contains a lot of useful information about 
the occasion and the atrocities that have been committed by India 
against the Sikhs and others. Therefore, I would like to put it in the 
Record now, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

                Vaisakhi Day Message to the Sikh Nation:

                      (By Dr. Gurmit Sigh Aulakh)

       In 1699 on Vaisakhi Day, 305 years ago, Guru Gobind Singh 
     established the Khalsa Panth. The Guru granted sovereignty to 
     the Sikh Nation, saying ``In Grieb Sikhin Ko Deon Patshahi.'' 
     It is this spirit instilled in the Sikh Nation by Guru Gobind 
     Singh that led them to fight tyrants like lions until they 
     defeated them. We always remember it by reciting every 
     morning and evening, ``Raj Kare Ga Khalsa.'' Now is the time 
     to act on it. Do we mean what we say every morning and 
     evening?
       Punjab is the gateway to India. Many invaders have come 
     from the West--the Moguls, the Afghans, and others--to 
     conquer and established their rule in Delhi. Sikhs saw this 
     unprecedented persecution at the hands of invaders and 
     rulers. Banda Singh Bahadur established the first Khalsa Raj 
     in Punjab in 1710, lasting until 1716. Then the Sikh missals 
     again established their rule in the various regions of Punjab 
     in 1765. Maharajah Ranjit Singh established Sikh Raj with 
     Lahore as its capital in 1799, 100 years after the initiation 
     of the Khalsa Panth. Sikhs ruled Punjab under Maharajah 
     Ranjit Singh in the true Sikh tradition, the well being of 
     everybody (Sarbat Da Bhalah). Hindus, Muslims, and Christians 
     were all part of the Sikh government. The Sikh army included 
     Hindus, Muslims, and Christians. A Christian, General 
     Ventura, was in charge of the infantry. The period from 1799 
     to 1839, when Maharajah Ranjit Singh died, was the Golden Age 
     of Punjab. The sovereign Sikh state of Punjab was recognized 
     by China, Russia, and the European countries. It was the 
     dominant power in South Asia at that time. Sikhs conquered 
     Kashmir from Afghanistan in 1819, making it part of Punjab.
       The British conquered us in 1849 with the help of their 
     planted agents the Hindu Dogra brothers, Pahara Singh, etc., 
     who connived with the British and betrayed the Sikh Nation. 
     As a reward to the Dogra brothers for their betrayal, the 
     British sold them Kashmir for Rs400,000. At the time of 
     independence in 1947, the Sikh leadership was fooled into 
     taking their share with India by the dishonest Hindu leaders 
     Nehru and Gandhi, while the Muslims got their own sovereign 
     country, Pakistan. Nehru and Gandhi promised that Sikhs would 
     have the glow of freedom in Punjab, but instead we got 
     unprecedented persecution at the hands of the Indian 
     government. In June 1984 they attacked the Golden Temple and 
     127 other Gurdwaras throughout Punjab. Over 20,000 Sikhs were 
     murdered in those attacks, known as Operation Bluestar, 
     including Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, General Shabeg 
     Singh, Bhai Amrik Singh, and over 100 Sikh religious students 
     ages 8-13 who were taken out into the courtyard and shot. If 
     Sikhs cannot protect the sanctity of the Golden Temple, then 
     the Sikh Nation cannot survive as a nation.
       The Golden Temple attacks set off a wave of repression and 
     genocide that resulted in the murder of over 250,000 Sikhs at 
     the hands of the Indian government. Over 50,000 Sikh youth 
     were picked up from their houses, tortured, murdered in 
     police custody, then cremated by being declared 
     ``unidentified bodies.'' Their remains were never even given 
     to their families! Over 52,000 Sikhs sit in Indian jails as 
     political prisoners without charge or trial, many since 1984.
       Repression and genocide of this magnitude at the hands of 
     the Indian government is unparalleled in the late part of the 
     20th century. India should be ashamed of the genocide it has 
     committed against Sikhs, Christians, Muslims, and other 
     minorities. Khalsa Ji, at this time of Vaisakhi, the whole 
     Khalsa Panth must be energized to reestablish a sovereign, 
     independent Khalsa Raj by freeing our homeland, Khalistan.
       India is not one nation. It is a polyglot empire thrown 
     together under one roof for the administrative convenience of 
     the British colonialists. It has 18 official languages. 
     History shows that such countries are doomed to fall apart. 
     India will collapse just like the Austro-Hungarian Empire, 
     the Soviet Union, and other multinational states such as 
     Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia. The cracks are appearing and 
     India is crumbling. The clock is ticking. The Kashmir issue 
     has been internationalized. The United States is now involved 
     in the issue. On December 5, President Bush told me ``I am 
     aware of the Sikh and Kashmiri problem.'' There will be a 
     referendum in Kashmir under international supervision. 
     Kashmir will either be independent or become part of 
     Pakistan. It will not remain within India. As L.K. Advani 
     predicted, ``When Kashmir goes, India goes.'' This time we 
     agree with Mr. Advani. Kashmir will go and India will 
     disintegrate.
       Khalsa Ji, bring back your Khalsa spirit. Look at Advani 
     having a yatra of India and coming to Amritsar. Punjab 
     belongs to the Khalsa Panth, not to India. He has no right to 
     show Hindu dominance in Punjab. Shame on the Akali leaders 
     like Badal, Tohra, and others who have joined hands with the 
     BJP, which is the political arm of the RSS. We need a new 
     Sikh political party which has a dedication to the interests 
     of the Sikh Nation as its sole objective, to establish Khalsa 
     Raj by liberating Khalistan, severing all political ties with 
     India. If the BJP wants Hindu Raj, it cannot object to Khalsa 
     Raj.
       The Sikhs in Punjab have suffered enormous repression at 
     the hands of the Indian regime in the last 20 years. The 
     Indian government wants to break the will of the Sikh Nation 
     and enslave them forever, making Sikhism a part of Hinduism. 
     This can only be stopped if we free Punjab from Delhi's 
     control and reestablish a sovereign, independent country, as 
     declared on October 7, 1957. Then Punjab will be a member of 
     the United Nations and we will have Ambassadors in almost 200 
     countries.
       Khalsa Ji, remember that a free Khalistan will bring 
     economic prosperity to Punjab farmers. They will be able to 
     sell their produce internationally which will fetch them much 
     higher prices than they are getting now from the Indian 
     government. The Indian government fixes prices of produce so 
     low that farmers get deeper and deeper in debt while they 
     sell fertilizer, seeds, and insecticides to the farmers at 
     artificially high prices. The Indian government has diverted 
     Punjab river water to neighboring states without any 
     compensation to Punjab. Punjab farmers are forced to pump 
     subsoil water for irrigation. This is expensive and brings 
     salinity to soil, which lowers the crop production.
       Remember, 3 million (30 lakh) Sikhs live outside India. The 
     outside Sikhs are free, prosperous, well educated, 
     professional, and committed to establishing an independent, 
     sovereign Khalistan. The Indian government does not have any 
     control over the Sikh diaspora. Outside Sikhs have exposed 
     the atrocities committed on the Sikhs by the Indian 
     government. Outside Sikhs have also preserved the true 
     history of the Sikhs since 1984 by documenting every incident 
     in the U.S. Congressional Record while the Indian government 
     tries to alter Sikh history. Outside Sikhs are committed to a 
     continuing effort to free Khalistan. Remember the words of 
     Professor Darshan Singh, former Jathedar of the Akal Takht, 
     during the celebration of Guru Nanak's birthday: ``If a Sikh 
     is not a Khalistani, he is not a Sikh.'' He was only 
     reiterating the Guru's blessing, ``In Grieb Sikhin Ko Deon 
     Patshahi.'' The time to achieve our independence is now.
       Khalsa Ji, remain in Charhdi Kala. Always remember our 
     heritage: Raj Kare Ga Khalsa; Khalsa Bagi Yan Badshah. 
     Freedom for Khalistan is very close.

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