‘Trade consideration more than human or ethical values have ‘come to dominate foreign relations. Nations behave like bargaining and profiteering shopkeepers and traders rather than acting as torchbearers of truth, morality and freedom. Principles have no ‘sanctity. Nothing seems hollower than the professed concern for human rights and civil liberties. Palmerton had rightly observed that nations never have permanent friends, they only have permanent interests, The joint communiqué issued in Delhi by the British Foreign Secretary and the Indian minister for Foreign Affairs indicates that India has finally succeeded through its powerful trade lever in forcing the United Kingdom to enact new laws that will provide for the trial of British subjects by Indian courts.
It is an ominous development and it is particularly painful because the British know full well the extent to which Indian judiciary has been subverted by the ruling dynasty. Judges dance to the tune of the Executive. There is not even a semblance of justice and fair play. Trials are held in camera. Neither the names of the complainants nor that of the prosecution witnesses are disclosed to the accused. He is held guilty till he proves otherwise. He faces blind charges and bail is invariably denied to him, He is left with no means to collect evidence in order to establish his innocence. Police specialises in fabricating evidence and has hordes of stock witnesses on its pay rolls. Delhi rulers have circumvented even these courts as far as are concerned. In Punjab Paramilitary forces and police act both as prosecutors and judges. They have developed a short cut to trials. ‘They pick up young Sikhs from their homes and gun them down in what they describe as “encounters”. Recently Border Security Force killed in cold blood ten young men in Dera Baba Nanak Sector near Pakistan border. The Deputy Commissioner confirmed that the victims were unarmed, yet no opposition leader and no Hindu organisations condemned the heinous crime alone glamour for a judicial enquiry. The Chief Minister instead constituted a Cabinet Committee to report on the incident. But Rajiv Gandhi torpedoed the Committee on the plea that it would adversely affect the morale of the Security Forces.
In Rajiv’s India morale of the security forces is more important than the lives of innocent citizens. It is a country where hundreds of Sikhs are rotting in jails for over two years without any charge and without any trial. Yet it is has the audacity to claim that there is democracy in India. Through a feverish campaign, Sikhs have been painted as potential “terrorists” to a degree that Hindus exult and rejoice whenever police kills Sikh even when the victim turns out to be a bridegroom returning late from his in laws.
Such is the climate to which the British would be turning over their subjects. What a detestable bargain to secure the sale of a few helicopters! Would the British public digest and condone this ‘outrage? Would it not demand that International Court of Justice should try all cases with political overtones? The proper step for the British government would be to mobilise opinion in favour of referring all cases against Sikhs in India to some International court So as to preserve human and moral values as well as to end their ‘ongoing persecution by the communal rulers of India. As a cradle of democracy England must uphold truth and justice, otherwise history ‘will record one more victory for the devil.
Article extracted from this publication >> December 19, 1986
