SAN FRANCISCO: An immigrant judge in San Francisco gave Political asylum to Surinder Singh an Activist of the All India Sikh Students Federation on February 22.

Judge Phillip Lead better gave asylum to Thakur Singh on the grounds that he had well-founded fear of persecution in India, according to Mohinder Singh the attorney for Surinder Singh. This is the second case in which a judge granted asylum to a client of Mohinder Singh.

Surinder Singh came to the United States on November 1, 1988; He was arrested at the San Francisco airport for travelling on another person’s passport with his picture.

In his testimony Surinder Singh said he joined the All India Sikh Student’s Federation right after the June 1984 holocaust of the Golden Temple.

The AISSF is opposed to the present regime and seeks to establish an independent state of Khalistan.

Surinder Singh deposed that his hair had been forcibly cut by a mob at Jamalpur on December 5, 1985. He was tied to a tree and police eventually untied him.

On January 26, 1986 he and a friend Mohan Singh were arrested by police in Delhi who tortured and beat them up and sodomized him for possessing Khalistan material.

Surinder Singh was arrested four times by the police for a total of 41 days with a year. At each incarnation he was severely beaten up. On September 25 he and his wife were amongst the Sikhs who bore the brunt of Hindus who beat up everyone and shaved the heads of everyone staying in Gurdwara Sahib Bhagat Singh Colony, Bombay. Subsequently police came, hauled all the Sikhs and put them in the jail. Surinder Singh was released on September 26 but his wife was still in the jail and he has no news about her.

Hearing the testimony, the judge granted Surinder Singh asylum in spite of the now standard letter by the state department that “the allegations made in the application do not constitute a valid claim of persecution on the basis of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion.

When the Immigration and Naturalization Service lawyer said Surinder Singh had entered the country illegally, the judge said, “Desperate men do desperate things.”

Protest Against Award For KPS Gill

NEW DELHI: A number of womens organizations, political and social activists educationists and lawyers have protested in an open letter to the President, Mr. R. Venkataraman, against the inclusion of The State Home department is baffled by the news reports from. Batala. But since Governor Ray is now personally handling Batala incident no one will offer any comments. The Punjab administration is presenting a picture of directionless government despite all the well intentioned words of Governor Ray. If any top ranking officer of the state government have any choice they will prefer to go to the center.

Going back to Batala incident there can be no two opinions that the police force headed by KPS. Gill enjoys the confidence of Ray. “That’s what it appears to me that the current campaign is only breeding terrorism and alienating the Sikhs from the mainstream of the country. There are not may supporters of the present policy not even the congressmen of the state. There is now a widespread talk that though Ray has been successful for wiping out terrorism from West Bengal but has lost the state to Marxists forever. The current wave of repression will only alienate the people at large from the government and provide the much needed recruit for the militants. the controversial Punjab Director-general of Police, Mr. K.P.S. Gill, in the Republic Day Honors list. The letter points out that a criminal complaint of misbehavior with a female colleague is pending against Mr. Gill. Giving an award to such a person indicated a lack of respect for the constitution, the signatories to the letter declared. ‘The signatories included Ms Vibhuti Patel of FAOW (Bombay), Ms. Minal Swaminathan of the Centre for Women’s Development Studies, Ms. Priti Joshi of Lady Irwin College, Ms Deepa Jain also of Lady Irwin College, Ms. Lotika Sarkar of CWDS, Ms. Vina Mazumdar of CWDS, Ms Promila Dandavate of the Mahila Dakshata Samiti and Ms Nandita Haksar, Supreme Court advocate. The following is the test of the letter: SriR. Venkataraman, President of India, Rashtrapti Bhawan New Delhi Sir, We wish to record our protest at the award of Padma Shri to Shri K.P. 8, Gillon Republic Day 1989.

A criminal complaint has been filed against him, the outcome of which is awaited. The case concerned his unseemly behavior with a woman colleague an officer of the Government and has already created public controversy. While we do not want to comment on a case which is currently sub judicial.

We do wish to draw attention to the 44th Amendment of the Constitution, which imposes a fundamental duty on all citizens to abjure practices and behavior which are derogatory to the dignity of women. The government has, to the best of our knowledge, been singularly inactive in the matter, despite demands for an early settlement from various groups.

Giving an award to a person who is accused of a criminal of. Fence which also violates a constitutional mandate appears to us to indicate a lack of respect for the Constitution and the rule of law. As citizens, we ask your intervention to prevent such misuse 0) governmental powers, which reduces the prestige of these honors.

We feel that pending the judgment of the court, the award should not be conferred on Shri Gill.

Article extracted from this publication >>  March 3, 1989