[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 18]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 23810-23811]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




            SUPPORTERS OF S.S. MANN BEATEN UP IN TARN TARAN

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. EDOLPHUS TOWNS

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Friday, December 8, 2006

  Mr. TOWNS. Mr. Speaker, on December 3, supporters of the former 
member of India's Parliament, Simranjit Singh Mann, were beaten up in 
the town of Tarn Taran in Punjab, which Mr. Mann used to represent in 
parliament.
  Mr. Mann was burned in effigy. He has blamed former Chief Minister 
Parkash Singh Badal for the incident. Badal's party is aligned with the 
Bharatiya Janata Party, BJP, the former ruling party, which is under 
the umbrella of the fascist, Hindu militant Rashtriya Swayamsewak 
Sangh, RSS.
  The Hindu extremists attacked Mr. Mann's supporters and Mann's 
supporters were the ones who got arrested.
  Tarn Taran is a central place in Sikhism, built by the fifth of the 
Sikh gurus, Guru Arjun Dev, and there is a historic Gurdwara--Sikh 
place of worship--in the town. The fact that supporters of the RSS are 
able to beat Sikhs in Tarn Taran is distressing. It shows the need for 
Sikh independence in a sovereign Khalistan.
  According to SS News online, at least six people were injured in the 
clash, which broke out after one of Mann's supporters wrote an article 
critical of Shiv Sena, one of the militant branches of the RSS.
  Mr. Speaker, Dr. Gurmit Singh Aulakh, president of the Council of 
Khalistan, has issued an excellent press release on tbe incident. He 
notes that a free, sovereign Khalistan, the Sikh homeland that declared 
its independence from India on October 7, 1987, would help put an end 
to incidents like this. As long as Sikhs are under Indian subjugation, 
the RSS and its allies are going to be able to run roughshod over Sikhs 
and other minorities. Remember that last year, 35 Sikhs were arrested 
simply for making pro-Khalistan speeches and raising the Khalistani 
flag. Since when are making speeches and raising a flag crimes in a 
democracy?
  India has kllled more than a quarter of a million Sikhs, over 90,000 
Kashmiri Muslims, 2,000 to 5,000 Muslims in Gujarat, over 300,000 
Christians in Nagaland and tens of thousands of other minorities such 
as Assamese, Bodos, Dalits, Manipuris, Tamils, and others. If India is 
the democracy that it claims to be, how can it do such things?
  America is the beacon of freedom, Mr. Speaker. That is why we need to 
act. Incidents like this must not be allowed to continue. We should 
stop our aid to India and end

[[Page 23811]]

our trade with that country until human rights are respected for all 
people there. And we should put the Congress on record in support of a 
free and fair plebiscite on independence in Khalistan, Kashmir, 
Nagalim, and wherever else it is sought. That is the best way to help 
bring freedom, security, safety, dignity, and prosperity to all the 
people of South Asia.
  Mr. Speaker, I would like to put the Council of Khalistan's press 
release on the beating of Mann supporters in the Record at this time.

       Washington, DC, Dec. 7, 2006.--Supporters of former Member 
     of Parliament Simranjit Singh Mann were beaten up in Tarn 
     Taran by members of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Mr, 
     Mann's effigy was burned. Mann has publicly blamed former 
     Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, who is allied with the 
     BJP, a branch of the fascist Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh 
     (RSS), for the beating. Mann was elected to represent Tarn 
     Taran in the Indian Parliament with 95 percent of the vote 
     while he was in jail in 1989.
       Tarn Taran is the center of the Sikh religion. Guru Arjun 
     Dev Ji, the fifth Sikh Guru, established Tarn Taran and there 
     is a historic Gurdwara there. Captain Amarinder Singh, the 
     chief minister of Punjab, is establishing a Guru Arjun Dev Ji 
     University there.
       ``It is outrageous that supporters of Mann could be beaten 
     up and his effigy burned in a place so central for the Sikh 
     Nation as Tarn Taran,'' said Dr. Gurmit Singh Aulakh, 
     President of the Council of Khalistan. ``We hope that Badal 
     is not behind the incident,'' said Dr, Aulakh. ``If he is, 
     shame on him. Ultimately, the Indian government is behind 
     this act and both Badal and Mann are under the control of the 
     Indian government, as their letters published in Chakravyuh: 
     Web of Indian Secularism demonstrate,'' said Dr. Aulakh. In 
     one letter, Mann pledges, ``I reiterate my allegiance to the 
     Constitution and I stand by the integrity of the country.'' 
     On his trip to the United States in 2000, Mann attended a 
     Sikh event and said, ``Close the offices of the Council of 
     Khalistan, headed by Dr. Gurmit Singh Aulakh in Washington 
     DC.''
       ``If the BJP can carry out its nefarious activities in a 
     place as central to the Sikh Nation as Tarn Taran, then the 
     handwriting is on the wall for the future of the Sikh Nation. 
     They cannot protect their respect and honor and they are 
     salves in India. This shows why we must liberate Khalistan 
     from Indian occupation and oppression,'' said Dr. Aulakh. 
     ``That is the only way for Sikhs to protect ourselves from 
     India's brutality.''
       After human-rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra exposed 
     the Indian government's policy of mass cremation of Sikhs, in 
     which over 50,000 Sikhs have been arrested, tortured, and 
     murdered, then their bodies were declared unidentified and 
     secretly cremated, the police kidnapped him. Khalra was 
     murdered in police custody. No one has been brought to 
     justice for the kidnapping and murder of Jaswant Singh 
     Khalra. Rajiv Singh Randhawa, who was the only witness to the 
     Khalra kidnapping, has been repeatedly subjected to police 
     harassment. This includes being arrested for trying to hand a 
     piece of paper to then-British Home Secretary Jack Straw in 
     front of the Golden Temple. The police never released the 
     body of former Jathedar of the Akal Takht Gurdev Singh Kaunke 
     after SSP Swaran Singh Ghotna murdered him.
       In 1994, the U.S. State Department reported that the Indian 
     government had paid over 41,000 cash bounties for killing 
     Sikhs. A report by the Movement Against State Repression 
     (MASR) 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.''
       The MASR report states that 52,268 Sikhs are being held as 
     political prisoners in India without charge or trial, mostly 
     under a repressive law known as the ``Terrorist and 
     Disruptive Activities Act'' (TADA), which expired in 1995. 
     Many have been in illegal custody since 1984! There has been 
     no list published of those who were acquitted under TADA and 
     those who are still rotting in Indian jails. Tens of 
     thousands of other minorities are also being held as 
     political prisoners, according to Amnesty International. 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. 
     Aulakh.
       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. There is 
     nothing in common in the culture of a Hindu living in Bengal 
     and one in Tamil Nadu, let alone between them and the 
     minority nations of South Asia,'' Dr. Aulakh said.
       ``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. ``Currently, there are 17 freedom 
     movements within India's borders. It has 18 official 
     languages. A country having 18 official languages cannot hold 
     its people together for very long,'' he said. ``We hope that 
     India's breakup will be peaceful like Czechoslovakia's, not 
     violent like Yugoslavia's,'' Dr. Aulakh said. ``Earlier this 
     year, Montenegro, which has less than a million people, 
     became 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.''
       Dr. Aulakh stressed his commitment to the peaceful, 
     democratic, nonviolent struggle to liberate Khalistan. ``The 
     only way that the repression will stop and Sikhs will live in 
     freedom, dignity, and prosperity is to liberate 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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