We the Sikhs have to learn to unite for the causes of concern to the entire community while maintaining our individuality. This is a common cause, mass murderers cannot be allowed to escape the punishment of their actions. Let us unite to work on this issue, let us write to our representatives, to the media which has let the anniversary of this holocaust against the Sikhs pass unnoticed. We ‘owe this to the memory of those who died and to our conscience. We also have to help those who lost everything but survived.
United States has set the example of denying entry into the country of criminals who have committed crimes against humanity. Numerous Nazis and others who persecuted a section of the society have been denied the privilege of access to this nation. A prominent example is the Austrian president Kurt Waldheim.
No one said that Waldheim had physically killed Jewish prisoners himself, what was contended was that while serving in the German army as the aide to the Nazi general he was a party to the activities which included the carrying out of Hitler’s disgusting “final solution” the annihilation of Jews.
It is important to note that a person of such stature who had served in New York as the Secretary General of the United Nations was also not spared by the administration and the Justice department despite the fact that he was a head of the state.
The masterminds of the 1984 carnage against the Sikhs, the horrifying pictures of which were broadcast on the American TV and have been printed in various papers, have yet managed to escape punishment. This is a shame, but it can be remedied.
We call upon all Sikh organizations to make their political representatives and the media aware of the monstrous in justice to the Sikhs. They should launch a barrage of letters, phone calls and meet their representatives in a campaign to make the Justice Department ban the entry of those who were indicted by Human Rights organizations as bearing the prime responsibility of the Delhi carnage, especially Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and his Cabinet Ministers H.K.L. Bhagat and Jagdish Tytler, into United States. They may not have actually physically killed the Sikhs, just as Hitler did not physically kill the Jews, but they organized the killings and protected the killers.
Rajiv Gandhi, Indira Gandhi’s son who succeeded her, tried to justify the carnage by saying “When a big tree falls the earth shakes” and when prominent Indian politician Chandera shekhar categorically stated Rajiv Gandhi’s involvement in the carnage in a videotaped interview recently, the government censored the news video and prevented its release.
The report “Who are the Guilty” published by the Peoples Union of Civil Liberties and the Peoples Union of Democratic Rights have specifically indicted Bhagat, Tytler and other Congress I officials for their role in the Delhi carnage.
The World Sikh News has the documentation necessary to substantiate our case. The struggle to bring these mass murderers will be long and only by mobilizing the public opinion can we put sufficient pressure on the Justice department to act,
The campaign to bring the mass murders to justice is not just a political activity, but a moral need. It should not be confined to any one organization but must involve all the Sikhs and the right thinking individuals in the United States it is morally imperative that we act together and act now.
Article extracted from this publication >> November 10, 1989
