The Sikh community often uses personal suffering as a yardstick of political legitimacy. Dr Gurmit Aulakh’s credibility is negligible. Ironically .Aulakh claims to be the President of not one but three organizations.

Let the facts speak for themselves. In 1985 after working for few months as a sole paid employee of the World Sikh Organization .Aulakh floated a new party International Sikh Organization (ISO) ISO is basically a one man party with no general membership whatsoever. ISO is more or less defunct now but Dr.Aulukh is still clinging on as its President

On January 261986 a Sarbat Khalsa was held at the Darbar Sahib Amritsar and a five member Panthic Committee was appointed. On April 29, 1986 Panthic Committee declared that the establishment of independent and sovereign state of Khalistan. On October 71987 Panthic Committee announced the creation of the Council of Khalistan through the then three head priests namely Jathedar Kashmir Singh Jaswant Singh and Swinder Singh. This council of Khalistan had 11 members with .Aulakh as its president.

Without question this ill-advised creation of Council of Khalistan has hurt the struggle instead of helping it. Notwithstanding what time has wrought the majority of the members of council of Khalistan the three jathedars who announced it and even some members of that panthic committee have been exposed to be either helping themselves or the Indian Govt

Sakktar Singh member of council of Khalistan (one of the main culprits of Black Thunder operation May 1988) surrendered to the security forces during the Operation. More than Rs10 million of stolen kar sewa money was recovered from his house Surprisingly he was released after a few months by the govt. Luckily the genuine militants caught up with him and he paid with his life for all his anti-panthic activities

Harinder Singh Khalsa (member council of Khalistan) former ambassador to Norway who returned to India in early 1990 and joined PHRO as its chairman few months ago he ditched the PHRO and jumped into the election fray against the wishes of the militants.

Likewise other members of Council of Khalistan namely Tejinder Singh Kaloe Tejpal Singh Dhami Gurnam Singh Bundala have failed to accomplish anything so far Even the three Jathedars who announced the council of Khalistan are now forced to live under the protection of the armed security ‘guards due to ‘some of their questionable activities. The majority of the people associated with the Council of Khalistan have besmirched our struggle.

Likewise Aulakh who was appointed president by default of the Council of Khalistan also cashed in on his new found fame. He used this office to the best of his ability for his personal monetary gains and self-promotion. No doubt .Aulakh has done some public relations work but he considers himself above the very panthic committee which appointed him.

.Aulakh claims he to be the foremost proponent of Khalistan in United States and considers himself to be above any kind of accountability to the Sikhs. The very basic principle of Sikhism is equality and panthic committee realized its mistake and abolished the office of president of Council of Khalistan and reduced Aulukh’s status to an ordinary member. He reportedly told the panthic committee that he was their president and they should take orders from him’ and not vice-versa.

Whereas Aulukh who claims himself to be an ardent Khalistani is not ready to work in any organization unless he is the president of that organization without accountability to anyone.

A few months ago Khalsa Raj Party was launched in Punjab by Col. Partap Singh as its convenor and guesses who the Co Convenor was? Aulukh. The Khalsa Raj Party is also a two-man show Col. Partap Singh in Punjab and Dr.Aulukh in Washington D.C. Col. Partap Singh’s track record is also very questionable due to his past alliances with the likes of Ram Jethmalani Raja Amrinder Singh Kuldip Nayar Gen Jagjit Aurora etc.

Aulukh was supposed to carry on the work of this party in Washington D.C. but few weeks ago Col.Partap Singh joined Aulukh in America. Interestingly according to Aulukh’s own Statement the passport of Col.Partap Singh was confiscated by the Indian govt and Col Partap Singh claims that he is charged under Terrorists and Disruptive Activities Act (TADA) in India Aulukh claims Khalsa Raj Party is the only legitimate Sikh political party which has come out openly and clearly for the independence of Khalistan.

These facts go against all established practices of the Indian govt as it will never allow a Khalistani to leave India and carry on the struggle in United States. How did Col Partap Singh do it? This is the same govt which without compunction kills dozens of. Sikhs every day in false encounters Forget militants those suspected to be mere sympathizers to the cause are murdered out of hand.

Here again according to the track record of Aulukh he will cling on to the convenor ship of the Khalsa Raj Party even though this party does get any support from the Sikhs.

No doubt there has been a growing concern in U.S. Congress and in various human rights organizations of the world pertaining to the Sikh human rights. Majority of the credit for developing this awareness regarding the abuse of Sikh human rights goes to Punjab Human Rights Organization Amnesty International Asia Watch etc

The rekindling of the struggle for the independence of Kashmir since 1989 has provided an additional boost to the Sikh struggle. Kashmiri’s are actively lobbying against Indian govt in Washington D.C. and United Nations and Pakistan govt and other Muslim countries have come out openly in their support. Sikhs should not equate themselves with Kashmiris as Dr.Aulukh always does because no govt in the world has yet supported independence for the Sikhs. In Washington D.C. lobbyists are often referred as night flowers a flower which thrives in the dark and dies in the sun. Likewise Dr.Aulukh should be sensible enough to not to exaggerate his claims about the support for Khalistan and Sikh human) nights in Congress because he won’t survive the scrutiny of unbiased Sikhs. Even a very moderate pro-Sikh human rights bill had only enjoyed a limited support in the U.S. Congress. No bill has passed the initial stage yet. Aulukh: is trying to attract all the attention and the resources of the Sikh community towards himself.

Recently .Aulukh has Claiming he played a major role in pushing through a Lagomarsino amendment which terminates development aid to India until India halts its nuclear weapons program this claim also is as far from the truth as most of this claims are. The govt. of Pakistan hired a lobbying firm Dennis Neill and Young which was solely responsible for this amendment according to various newspapers. Other success that Aulukh claims is that he got the Congressional Human Rights Caucus to hold a hearing of human rights abuse in Khalistan Firstly there was no hearing of Human Rights Caucus held for Khalistan. It was for the human rights abuses in India particularly in Kashmir and Punjab. Secondly pro-Kashmiri groups had the major role in these hearings because ironically the letter written by the congressional caucus to Indian govt after the hearings only raised their concerns about human rights in Kashmir. Though Aulukh did a commendable job in these hearings but he cannot make the claim that it was all his effort. We would like to tell Aulukh and other Sikhs that the emergency of viability of Khalistan on the world map is mainly due to the selfless sacrifices of our Martyr’s in India and not due to lobbying of Aulukh’s office as he so readily and so often claims.

Even though we know the answers but we would like to ask Aulukh about his personal contribution to the militants in Punjab. We know that he shamefully used the resources at your disposal for self-promotion and have tried to manipulate the gullible Sikhs in thinking that his office is playing the most important role in our struggle.

You have always stayed away from the militants and pointed maliciously at other Sikhs who don’t support you personally even though they could be ardent supporters of Khalistan..

We had warned Aulakh to carry on whatever he was doing and to leave World Sikh News alone. Despite assurances of well-wishers of the panth and its struggle that Aulakh would not speak against WSN for 6 months he promptly issued a letter with the same garbage of WSN being a Indian govt paper. He has also spoken against WSN from public platforms in the past month. He wrote a letter to us detailing all his accomplishments with the words PUBLISH THIS printed boldly across the top WSN is being run on hard earned money we can’ tallow it to become a mouthpiece of any self-promoting man. We urge him to come to his senses. Gurmit Singh Aulukh may qualify as a public relations official but can never become a leader unless he acquires some humility. We wish him well.

Article extracted from this publication >> August 16, 1991