NEW YORK: Sikh leaders all over the United States have taken a strong exception to the report published in the Jan 31 edition of India Today which has distorted the truth about the hanging of Bhai Satwant Singh and Bhai Kehar Singh.

Dr. Gurcharan Singh president of the World Sikh Organization in a statement said “All international newspapers including Time Magazine and The Observer in London, as well as The Indian Express in New Delhi, said that Bhai Satwant Singh and Bhai Kehar Singh walked to the gallows reciting the prayers and saying “Bole So Nihal, Sat Sri Akal.”

The India Today says they “waIked shivering and fearful.” That this is not a simple mistake but a part of a sinister conspiracy is evident from the fact that not one but two reports in the same magazine are on the same lines,” he added.

The Sikhs should read between the lines of the Hindu controlled media he asserted.

  1. Didar Singh Bains, the first president of World Sikh Organization said he was not surprised about the news. “The Hindu media has always distorted the truth, the so called free media in India sophisticated attack was really free in just one way, it is free to criticize the Sikhs,”

The bigger a magazine is, the more sophisticated its attack on the Sikhs,” said S. J Singh Mangat, the President of the Sikh Cultural Society in Richmond Hill, New: York. Referring to the article in India Today he said, “every media in India and out of it said Bhai Satwant Singh and Bhai Kehar SIngh went to the gallows saying “Bole So Nihil Sat Sri Akal,” and “Khalistan Zindabad”. The reports in India Today were government’s misinformation.

A letter by the Human Rights Organization Churchil also said that propaganda by India Today against Sikhs and Sikhism needs to be countered immediately. It pointed out that the magazine, in earlier editions said government of India should ban the construction of new Gurdwaras near the border because “they threatened the security of India. How? In a future war, the light of the Nishan Sahibs will help Pakistan troops to advance into India by providing them direction at night: This is a classic example of misusing security issue to interference with a religion. The letter states.

Article extracted from this publication >>  February 24, 1989