PORT WASHINGTON: A large number of Sikhs gathered at the Polish hall to hear three top journalists at a fund raising dinner for the World Sikh News on April 22.

Zuhair Kashmiri and Brian McAndrew the co-authors of the book Soft Target and Mr. Ismail Sagar, the Assistant Editor of daily Nawai Waat, the largest circulating Urdu language newspaper, in Lahore Pakistan addressed the gathering. They had earlier addressed the congregation at the Sikh Cultural Society, Richmond Hill white they had been bestowed Sir Opas on behalf of the sangat by Jagjit Singh Mangat, the President of the society.

In his address Kashmiri stressed that he had not started to write the book with the intention of espousing the Sikh cause, but his increasing perception that the Canadian Sikhs were victimized led him to sympathize with the Sikh community.

“Trade is the enemy,” he said explaining how the Canadian and other governments did not respond to the pleas of the community on human right violations in India.

He advised the community to use the system and use organizations like the World Sikh Organization and the World Sikh News, as well as hire a public relations company to sell the cause and the image of the Sikhs.

Referring to the international human rights organization Amnesty International’s report on India, he pointed out that India was similar to Latin America in human rights violations. He cited the example of former Punjab police chief Julio Ribeiro’s statement that for every policeman killed, four Sikhs would be killed.

Mr. Ismail Sagar spoke on the importance of the media for nations. The war is being fought on two fronts, the freedom fighters are fighting it there and you have to wage the media war to counter the Indian government’s propaganda. If you don’t wake up now, you will lose your chance,” he said.

Brian McAndrew in his address said his newspaper had been inundated with the earth day stories in which people are promoting environment. It would be in the spirit to include living in harmony with ourselves, ‘‘people of all creeds, cultures and particular religions.” He described the differences as well as the underlying similarities in race relations in Canada and United States. Canadian racism, reflecting the people was more subtle, he said.

Sikhs in Canada, like the blacks in United States have faced racial intolerance and prejudice he said, because many Canadians were ignorant of the Sikh culture, just as they were ignorant of other cultures. He said that he and Kashmiri co-authored the book Soft Target to tell the truth and an interesting story. “We found that there was a campaign being performed in Canada to discredit the Sikhs by the Indian government, Intelligence agents, RAW agents, and local businessman.” since Indian government wanted to neutralize the demand for Khalistan and against human right violations in India.

He narrated a number of incidents in which the Indian government had a hand including the story of a Sikh Terrorist Camp in the jungles of British Columbia which was never found, but attracted a great deal of interest in the media and helped create the image of Sikhs as dangerous and violent people. This image has persisted for no fault of the Sikhs but with a great amount of work done by the India government,” he added.

He took the example of Balkar Singh, an innocent limousine driver of Toronto, who was visiting his sick sister in Punjab, when he was picked up by the police, tortured and made to sign a paper saying he had come to India on behalf of the WSO a terrorist organization.

Not long after that Joe Clatk, a Minister in Canada issued a letter asking various official agencies not to associate with “Subversive and terrorist organizations.” WSO was one of them, which it clearly is not, it is a lobbying organization,” McAndrew said.

Baldev Singh the trustee of Sikh Cultural Society who was the stage secretary in his remarks thanked the two eminent journalists of Globe and Mail and the Toronto Star for exposing the machinations of the Indian government.

In his speech Dr. Gurinder Singh Grewal, President of the World Sikh News said that the Jews in Europe prior to the creation of Israel, Sikhs would be persecuted till they have their own country. This only the Sikhs would have to fight for, no one would give it to them on a platter he said citing the example of how the Iranians overthrew the despotic rule of Shah of Iran by themselves even though the superpowers wanted to prop him up. “We have to stand on our own feet,” he added.

Dr. Grewal spoke of the importance of WSN and said that we should all put as much effort for community work as we do for our personal work.

H.S. Bhullar, Manager of the World Sikh News spoke to the audience and told them about the trials and tribulations of the paper. He said that with the cooperation of the people, WSN would be able to achieve greater heights.

Talking to World Sikh News, Jagjit Singh Mangat thanked to all those who had worked to make the parade and the dinner a great success. WSO and WSN leaders also met JKLF leaders who assured them of full cooperation. The Sikh leaders also met the two Sikh freedom fighters in New York detention.

Article extracted from this publication >> April 27, 1990