NEW YORK: In a recent landmark decision, the U.S. Board of Immigration Appeals (U.S. Department of Justice), has granted asylum to Mr. Bhajan Singh, a ranking member of the All India Sikh Students Federation in the Punjab from 1985 until his flight from India to the United States in 1988. In so doing, the Board has reversed an earlier decision of Immigration Judge Patricia A. Rohan in the New York region in which she had denied Mr. Singh asylum based in part upon his long standing membership in the AISSF.

Mr. Singh was represented on a pro bono basis by Ms. Virginia Bishop, an attorney associated with the New York City law firm of Phillips, Nizer, Benjamin, Krim and Ballon. Ms. Bishop who has distributed copies of the Board’s decision for publication commented that Bhajan Singh’s case gave the Board of Immigration Appeals the perfect opportunity to illustrate. A change in its policy regarding the recognition of refugees from countries which are normal U.S allies but which persecute their dissidents under the cloak of maintaining law and order.

In the Singh decision, the Board specifically recognized the night of organisation such as the AISSF to promote a nationalist political agenda.

The AISSF, as the applicant described it, is a religious organization having a “political agenda aimed at creating a separate state for Sikhs called Khalistan in order to ‘break the chains of slavery’ of all Sikhs.”

In recognizing that Mr. Singh deserved asylum in the United States, the Board bluntly criticized the policies of the central government of India as well as the actions of its local police and security forces in persecuting members of the AISSF such as Mr. Bhajan Singh:

As there is no evidence of record that the applicant himself ever personally engaged in violence, or that the AISSF is an organisation that is banned, we can find no persuasive evidence of record that the police were justified in arresting the applicant based on his membership in the AISSF, and certainly no justification for the brutal treatment he was forced to endure treatment that included bringing his hand cuffed family to the jail where he was detained and threatening to torture them unless he answered their questions. Even given the violent nature of certain organizations in India that have targeted the police as well as the general population, such lawlessness by the police and security forces cannot be condoned.

This is perhaps the first time that such a high government body in the United States has openly recognized and criticized the methods used by the government of India to control dissent within its borders.

It is also of great significance that the Board in the Singh decision clearly stated that the existence of extremist elements within a large political organization such as the AISSF cannot be considered an adverse factor working against the grant of political asylum in the United States to other members of such an organization who have no record of having themselves participated in such acts. In so doing, the Board made lengthy references to the voluminous documentary evidence submitted in support of Mr. Singh’s application by Ms. Virginia Bishop. This documentary evidence not only verified the widespread lawlessness and cruelty of the Indian police and security forces towards politically active Sikhs, but also indirectly exposed the bias against Sikh organizations that exists in the Indian press and certain documents circulated by the U.S. Department of State.

(Human Rights Observer)

Article extracted from this publication >> July 6, 1990