First, I deeply resent the titling of four article on S.S. Mann in I/A March 3, 1994 captioned, “Burton on Attack, Citing Sikh’s Detention,” If an Indian opposition leader like Advani or Narayan gets arrested again, (as in the past), would you identify them as Hindu is detained, would you also write that a Christian or a Jew is detained if a person belongs to these religious faiths? How prejudicial, negative and shallow form of reporting can your paper stoop to?
Secondly.is Mr. Burton doing some Whine criminally wrong in attacking India on TADA the way you have been portraying it. Isn’t TADA, a classic text book banana republic draconian law of political convenience being used by Congress from past several years to intimidate, suppress, torture, torment and eliminate principally Punjabi Sikhs, and now Kashmiri Muslims waging a war of liberation or anyone who appears to be a threat to the ruling Congress or to India. Didn’t Mahatama Gandhi say about the harsh British laws during his struggle, that an unjust law itself is enough reason to further encourage Violence and resistance, or something along that line? Why would only Sunjay Dutt’s recent arrest under TADA for allegedly being involved in Bombay bombing, ‘wakeup some other influential Hindu Indians including his father Member of Parliament, to demand the toning down of TADA? That seems to be rather ironic! Is his life more precious than that of tens of thousands of Sikh prisoners of conscience or others being held in the dreaded hell holes of India since 1984?
Mr. Mann undoubtedly is one of the last thorns of resistance in Punjab in the side of the totalitarian Indian state where dissent is not addressed in democratic forums but stamped out,” to use the words of its current Prime Minister, Rao, Since 1984, Mann has been arrested/detained over 30 times ‘on trumped up or old frivolous charges and has never been convicted or tried. That alone should speak enough about the foolishness of TADA! Under TADA, in the past many members of Punjab Human Right Organization, lawyers, doctors, are tired chief justice, former head priest of the Sikhs were arrested without convicting any one of them, how can India explain these arbitrary and abusive arrests? Is the right to free speech only reserved for the majority population and their Leaders including BAL Thackeray who has been opening known to incite violence against the Muslims and has never once been arrested?
India must immediately repeal TADA, release all political prisoners and stop the harassment and the fear by which it is ruling people in Punjab and elsewhere. It is time for India to wake up and make political concessions to the betrayed Sikh community, before the bread basket state breaks away and other states follow its course.
Article extracted from this publication >> June 16, 1995
