Rajiv Gandhi’s widow for the first time has publicly criticized the Indian government headed by Narasimha Rao for not taking speedy measures to bring to book culprits involved in Rajiv Gandhi’s murder. Sonia Gandhi’s aired her grievance at Rae Barelli where she addressed a public meeting. Rae Barelli was represented at one time by Rajiv in the Indian parliament. Sonia, along with her daughter, Priyanika, went to the constituency evidently to renew the family’s contact with the electorate to give rise to speculation in the Indian media that either of them may be preparing to enter active Congress (I) politics. This may pose a threat to Rao whose relations with Sonia are far from cordial. Political observers in India are analyzing the import of Sonia’s observations. The matter was raised in Indian parliament to further embarrass the ruling group. On behalf of the government, the home minister S.B. Chavan denied that the government intention- ally delayed the prosecution of the culprits. He also said that the government’s refusal to produce before the Jain Commission, investigating the possible “wider conspiracy,” certain classified documents was motivated by its desire not to let a family being discredited.
The minister’s statement remains shrouded in mystery. But analysts believe that he had in mind no other family than the Nehru family itself. Now, how will the exposure of certain documents go against the Nehru family? The Indian authorities are not willing to let the public know the truth. The facts are quite obvious and sections of the Indian media have been exposing them in bits and pieces in the past.
The truth is that, first Indira Gandhi and then Rajiv Gandhi had been giving shelter as well as training and weapons to those proponents demanding a separate country for Tamils in Sri Lanka to be known as Eelam. These armed groups, known as LTTE, were in active, day-to-day contact with Indira and Rajiv during 1984-85.
The Indian aim initially was to teach Sri Lankans a lesson for getting politically militarily closer to the USA. The plan was to create chaos in Sri Lanka culminating in that country’s division. Subsequently, the Indian government itself patched up with the USA. While the Sri Lankan movement was seen to be lending psychological support to separatist movements inside India itself That led Rajiv Gandhi first to put a halt to the Indian flow of arms to the LTTE, and later to mount an armed attack on the LTTE right inside Sri Lanka. That brought about a sea change in the Rajiv – LTTE relations. The latter turned Rajiv Gandhi’s enemy. It plotted his killing to teach him a lesson for the betrayal. There is evidently documentary evidence in the possession of the Indian government giving graphic accounts of the 1984-85 developments which are sufficient to damn not only the two Indian prime ministers but also the Indian state. For, they brazen-facedly interfered in the internal affairs of a neighbor by giving arms and training as well as shelter to Tamil guerrillas.
After this exposure, India hardly has any moral justified for complaining that Pakistan is providing support to the armed groups in Kashmir and Punjab.
In any case, India has to do a lot of explaining as to why it did whatever it did in Sri Lanka. In the light of its actions, India cannot effectively rebut the Kissinger analysis that New Delhi is following in the footsteps of the British imperialists to redraw the map of south-east Asia. The British had annexed Burma, Sri Lanka, Nepal and what now constitute Bangladesh and Pakistan to form the grand India of the 19th century. Let Sri Lanka and other Asian countries demand from India publication of the documents being withheld by it from the world. Some Concerns
As a Canadian and a member of the Sikh community of Canada, I would like to express my concerns for Canadian Sikhs. I sincerely hope that the perceptions be- low are mistaken; however, in the event that they are not, I hope and that your government will take appropriate measures to prevent a recurrence of Indian intelligence activities in Canada, as witnessed prior to and following Operation Bluestar in 1984 and in June, 1985 (Air India Flight 182 mishap of 23rd June). This aftermath of Operation Bluestar still haunts the Sikh community, although little doubt remains that it was a brutal act committed by the Indian government (Kilgour D. 1994 Betrayal The Spy Canada Abandoned. Prentice Hall, Inc.. Scarborough, ON; Singh S. 1995 The Sikhs in History, Printed in USA).
Recently, Balwant Singh Ramuwalia, a former member of the Indian parliament and now a member of the Minority Com- mission of India, visited Toronto and Vancouver, and gave misinformation and preached the gospel of his master, the Indian government. Ramuwalia is a former member of the outlawed All India Sikh Students Federation, by the Indira Gandhi administration, an architect in the down- fall of Master Tara Singh’s leadership at the behest of the New Delhi administration of Indira Gandhi and her predecessors. Ramuwalia created a havoc in Toronto. Details of this unpleasant feelings may be obtained from the producers of community Radio and Television pro- grams (Aug. 5&12, 1995; World Sikh News, Aug.18,95), and from the president of the Dixie Road Gurdwara (WSN, Aug.4, 1995). Toronto. Specifically, Ramuwalia said that “everything is fine in Punjab” and if people, the visiting Canadian Sikhs, have any problems, they should come to him. Despite his assertion, one must question why Ramuwalia’s relatives have been residing in North America, and under the refugee or landed immigrant status? If everything is fine in his country why did the Government of India expelled two Canadian students, one from British Columbia and John Cockell of Ottawa studying at the Jawaharlal University, Delhi (The Globe and Mail, Aug. 24, 1995)? According to a recent publication by a former civil service employee of the External Affairs of India, Dr. Sangat Singh, a graduate of Punjab University and Sinologist, cites that the Sikhs were killed brutally and indiscriminately by Indian administrations. The number has been between 1 to 1.2 million from 1981 to 1994. This extermination of the Sikhs in India is equivalent to ‘genocide.’ The murder of Sikhs, in addition to other ethnic minorities like Christians, Dalits, Jains and Buddhists, in staged encounters, is for financial gains, to achieve promotions at ranks by armed, intelligence, paramilitary and police forces and are officially endorsed, especially in Punjab where the so- called democratically elected government is in place with a less than 7% of the total electoral votes. Dr. Singh writes that more than 200,000 had been killed in Punjab from 1978 to 1990. Dr. Singh’s recent compilation exposes the Indian government’s policy of the annihilation of the Sikhs and violations of the Sikhs’ civil rights. As compared to Dr. Singh’s figures, the killings of the Sikhs stated in earlier compilations of Harjinder Singh Dilgeer and Awatar Singh Sekhon (1992). and of the president of the Council of Khalistan, Dr. Gurmit Singh Aulakh, Washington, DC, are just 20%. India’s P.V. Rao, his foreign missions and government machinery are deliberately engaged in spreading false information in foreign countries, including Canada.
India’s administrations have become notorious in conferring a democratic appearance to undemocratic processes including the betrayal of their citizens due to tampered election results, term any justified demand of non-Hindu minorities as communal, especially in the case of Sikhs and Muslims. The Indian administrations used police officers like Ashvani Kumar, J.F. Rejbero (who said ‘bullet for bullet’ during his term of Director-General of Police in Punjab), K.P.S. Gill, A.S. Sandhu; Pratap Singh Kairon, Darbara Singh (one time accused of causing assas- sination of Kairon, World Sikh News, Aug.11, 1995), and Beant Singh (all of the Congress party), Prakash Singh Badal and Surjit Singh Barnala (both Akali leaders and former Chief Ministers of Punjab). S.S. Ray (commonly known as the ‘butcher’ of Bengal and Punjab, former Governor of Punjab and presently India’s ambassador to Washington), S.D. Sharma (former Punjab Governor and the President of India), Surender Nath (a police officer and adviser to the Governor of Punjab who was killed in an air disaster), and O.P. Malhotra (former Governor of Punjab and a retired army general). The universal recruitment of the army and police officers for civilian tasks demonstrates that India is devoid of any civil service and functions democratically in name only. The Economist of July 15, 1995 (page 26) states that the “India is ruled by rascals.” The underworld happily finances the politicians. Many Indians witness the country’s unlawful. Op- position parties state that the Youth Congress is a den for rascals and murderers. Several members of the party’s youth wing have in the past been charged with rapes and kidnapping. Officials respond that all parties have their thugs. Politicians use thugs to capture booths and stuff f ballot boxes. It is stated further, that these thugs are provided with virtual immunity and then become politicians. In 1993, an explosion first thought to have been set off by a militant turned out to have resulted from an accident in small bomb factory run by a member of the ruling Marxist Party.
Because the country’s political corruption is systemic, the law-enforcing agencies are nothing but patronage networks, devoid of respect for human rights, and providing needed support to morally bankrupt politicians.
“A committee of senior government of ficers chaired by a former Home Secretary, N.N. Vohra, points out that in states like Bihar, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, the Mafia-type groups enjoy the patron- age of local level politicians, government functionaries and police. Some politicians have become leaders of these gangs or armed senas (groups or army of thugs). In the opinion of the editor, the Indian state itself has become a criminal outfit thanks to the manner in which it had handled political problems in states like Punjab, Kashmir, Assam and Andhra Pradesh. Beginning with Punjab, the Indian state installed carefully selected persons with active criminal histories behind them in seats of political power and influence, police and the administration. Crime, murder and sex have been the standard arsenal in India’s fight against the Sikhs. The state of India has allowed the politicians to indulge in kickbacks, smuggling. illicit distillation, land grabs, satta (stock market domination) and prostitution (Editorial, World Sikh News, Aug. 11, 1995).” In view of the polluted politics of corrupt Indian politicians as well as administrations since Aug. 15, 1947, denial of civil liberties to the Sikh leaders like Sardar Simranjit Singh Mann, who has just been released from the jail, following the demands and intense lobby of Dr. Gurmit Singh Aulakh, President of the Council of Khalistan, Washington, the Hon David Kilgour, Deputy House Speaker, House of Commons (who apprised you with the situation of Sardar Mann, Dr. Sohan Singh and Sardar Ajmer Singh Lakhowal a while ago), and the United States Congress and the members of the Congress individually and collectively. Fifty-three (32 Republicans, 20 Democrats and 1 independent) to the Indian Prime Minister demanding retoration of passports to Sardar Mann and the Dalit leader, V.T. Rajshekhar. The Congressman asserted that continuing to charge them diminishes India’s stature in the eyes of the world and hence, that, the passports of Mann and Rajshekar be re- stored immediately.
The above events reflect the question- able democratic nature of India. The author has no doubt in his mind that the morally bankrupt and unethical politicians of Indian administrations have been using every unfair practice to cause dissension, disturb peace and propagate misinformation in foreign countries through their missions, missionaries, and journalists like Jagjit Singh Anand and Ramuwalia. I would humbly request Sir, that you take measures to preserve the dignity and respect of your Canadian Sikh community, including Sikh parliamentarians, from further smear campaigns. These measures include the use of your immeasurable influence to secure the release from Indian custody of the ailing veteran Sikh leader, Dr. Sohan Singh, Bhai Kanwar Singh Dhami, his wife Bibi Kulbir Kaur and more than 70,000 Sikhs imprisoned under the repelled TADA, a draconian act.
Awatar Singh Sekhon, Ph.D., FIBA, RM (CCM).
Article extracted from this publication >> September 1, 1995
