Dear Congressman Solarz: This is to acknowledge your July 1991 letter inviting me to join the Solarz Congressional Club. Before I can consider doing so I would like you to respond to the following questions:

  1. What are your thoughts about Operation Blue Star in which 38 Sikh temples were attacked in 1984 by the Indian Army under Indira Gandhi’s orders killing several hundred innocent Sikhs? (These are Government of India’s figures. Actual casualties are undetermined.) Do you believe it was an attack on the Sikh religion and people as a whole? Are you aware that thousands of Sikhs had gone to jail in peaceful political protest in 1982-83 demanding autonomy and Indira Gandhi did nothing to solve the problem? Is this how secular democracy should work?
  2. Why did Indira Gandhi use her powers as prime minister to make her sons extra-constitutional centers of power? Should a people’s democracy be subverted for dynastic succession?
  3. When Indira Gandhi was assassinated in 1984 several thousand innocent Sikhs were killed in Delhi and their properties bummed. Rajiv Gandhi was prime minister and present in Delhi at that time. If he had wanted he could have ordered the army to stop the killing within a few hours. Why nobody was convicted for those crimes? Do you think he had a hand in that nefarious gruesome business?
  4. Punjab is under police rule for the last several years and thousands of innocent Sikhs are being imprisoned tortured and killed without due process. People are routinely killed in fake encounters and Amnesty International is not allowed to find the truth. Similar things are happening in Kashmir U.P. Bihar and Assam. Are these the attributes of a democratic government?
  5. In Sri Lanka the Indira Gandhi Government trained Sri Lankan Tamil guerrillas to fight the Sri Lankan Army. Later Rajiv Gandhi sent the Indian Anny to interfere in the affairs of a weak neighbor. Do these actions reveal the mentality of a democrat believing in international law or that of a bully?
  6. The ruling Congress party believes in socialism nationalization of banks life insurance and bureaucratic controls resulting in persuasive corruption. History shows that socialism strangles freedom and leads to poverty. How do you justify supporting a system which denies autonomy to the provinces stifles freedom and discourages foreign investments?
  7. India has been a consistent supporter of the Soviet Union indifferent to their invasion of Afghanistan friendly to Sadam Hussain and the kings and dictators of the Arab world while not even recognizing democratic Israel. How do you justify that?

I am looking forward to hearing from you.

Amarjit S. Buttar Vernon CT

Article extracted from this publication >> August 30, 1991