Dear Sir
It pained me beyond endurance to read in your magazine the article: writ by Sardar Balwinder Pal Singh about my book My Own Witness.
Only purpose of my writing this novel (my 17th published work) was to let the world see what an forgivable 5th at Les coma to the Sikhs by desecrating their most sacred shrine the Golden Temple
By portraying Onkar Singh as a nonviolent pacifist it was not the authors intention to demean the strength and character of the Sikhs On the contrary it was to high light the fact that the Indian government should take to heart that violence is not the answer The book speaks of injustice done to the Sikhs even beyond the desecration of the Golden Temple It underscores the mockery of the judicial system when clearly An innocent man was sent to the gallows.
Quotations from pages 760 135; 154 were taken out of context Those remarks were made by the governments military officer Manga Ram who ordered firing the first shot at Akal Takht. This was the action of a fanatic a Hindu chauvinist. Manga Ram was later shot by a Sikh hence of hic hatred for the Sikhs and their religion. That is the dramatic version of the story. Naturally the author does not sympathize with those remarks. | believe that objective readers will find that more has been said in Sikh honor.
Let people read the book and judge for themselves the author’s point of view. How he as anon Sikh felt the pain for the hurt inflicted on another religion I believe that a full review of the book will render a service to the Sikh community. Since you have published the article
Will provide the opportunity t0 the same readers to see my point of view Romen Basu
Article extracted from this publication >> May 20, 1994
