CHANDIGARH: The suspension of Punjab Deputy Minister for CW Aviation Malkiat Singh Birmi from the primary membership of the party is likely to put further strain on the already sour relations between Chief Minister Harcharan Singh Brar and Pradesh Congress Committee president Virendra Kataria. Brar, who has been camping in Delhi and he has not so far publicly reacted to the action against Birmi. Kataria has been equidistant in the ongoing power struggle in the Congress Legislature Party but his relations with the Chief Minister are far from cordial, Brar has been keeping away from the mass contact program launched by the PPCC from July 14 despite request from Kataria to participate. Action against Birmi came at one such meeting at Ludhiana July 28. Kataria, on his part, made it clear that the suspension of Birmi had nothing to do with any factionalism or his being a member of the Council of Ministers. He said a lenient view of Birmi’s conduct could be taken provided he expressed his sincere India a Terrorist State? [By: Kuldeep Singh, President Sikh Youth Federation of USA.

A number of incidences have forced us to believe that India is a Terrorist State. It will not be an exaggeration if I say that this Indian phrase “Bagul men churt, muhn men ram” is a most befitting phrase for countries like India. It means beware of people who have a weapon (dagger) concealed under their armpit but have the name of Go on their lips. India claims to be nonviolent in its approach to solve problems, yet they always use force to get their message across. Right after the partition of India on August 15, 1947, they invaded Hyderabad in 1948 using its mighty armed forces to brutally kill and torture their own people to occupy the State of Hyderabad.

They did not even spare one of their own a Hindu Maharaja Hari Singh, who resisted the occupation of his own country Kashmir. He was moved to Bombay in 1949 and was never allowed to return to his own motherland. He was put under house arrest until the time of his death in 1961. A country which strongly propagates not to interfere in the internal affairs of others has gone to the extent of sending her own armed forces in December, 1971 under the guise of Bengali salvation army ‘Mukti Bahini’ across the border in the then East Pakistan to “Liberate Bangala Desh.” This violent and terrorist mentality of the rulers of India is, in fact, the real policy of India. That is the reason India does not want to sign a Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, refuses to allow Amnesty International a free and independent assessment of its human rights violations and is the reason for a News blackout in India to silence the voice of minorities.

In a desperate attempt to kill the movement for the Liberation of the Sikh Homeland Khalistan, the Government of India has launched its latest cowardly attack on the leader of the Sikhs Dr. Jagjit Singh Chohan. In the early hours of July 7, 1996, twenty plain clothed men belonging to the various intelligence forces of India (RAW & IB) attacked a 68 year old Bangkok bound Sikh leader, who developed a cardiac condition and was advised by the Doctor aboard the Thai plane for immediate hospitalization. Soon after their arrival at Delhi Airport, they pulled off his turban, started beating him with fists and whipped him with a leather belt. They pulled his hair and beard, pulled him down to the hard concrete floor, twisted his arms and ankles and squeezed his testicles as per the report received from the Care of Victims of Torture, London, UK. The Thai Airways Manager was a helpless eyewitness to this incidence. After doing all this the government run Press Trust of India had the audacity to send this dispatch to the press: “After living in exile more than 15 years, the Sikh separatist leader Dr. Jagjit Singh Chohan tried to enter India by feigning illness on July 6 during a stopover of a London Bangkok flight, but was put back aboard the plane, official sources said.” Justice Ajit Singh Bains, Chairman of the Punjab Human Rights Organization has rightly pointed out in his book Siege of the Sikhs that “the government and its armed forces are carrying out a repressive and murderous campaign against the people in Punjab and across India.”’ Here in an eye witness account recorded in the book Soft Target, which tells us how low the Indian Government officials can go to defame the Sikhs; “In Toronto, 19yearold Jasbir Singh Saini was listening to the hourly radio news” about the operation Blue Star on June 5, 1984. “After the fourth report of the Golden Temple massacre, he could no longer contain his rage. Wearing a black turban, the one armed 12th grade student took the subway to the Indian Consulate at Bloor and young Streets. Entering the 22nd floor office, he went on a rampage, smashing a portrait of Indira Gandhi, he was chased away by security guards. When one of the privately hired guards returned to the office, she was surprised to hear the sounds of destruction continuing.”

“In a swom testimony to Metro Police, the security guard said that she watched consul general Surinder Malik directing the demolition of more portraits and the over timing of furniture. She also heard him say that it should be done hurriedly before the media arrived. Her testimony was corroborated by a radio reporter, Dana Lewis, who picked up the emergency call on his police monitor. He arrived at the consulate in time to witness Malik finishing what the one armed student has started.”

On June 23, 1985 a bomb was exploded in the state run Air India Flight number 182 in which all the 329 passengers were killed. According to the book ‘Soft Target’, then Consulate General of India in Toronto Surinder Malik canceled seats for his wife and daughter on this flight claiming that his daughter had to write some school examination unexpectedly.

Another Indian government official Siddhartha Singh (not a Sikh) who was scheduled to fly on this flight changed his travel plans at the last minute. Other cancellations on flight number 182 included the owner of a Toronto Car dealership who was a friend of Mr. Malik. Can these be just mere coincidences or a planned terrorist act by the Indian government to be blamed on the Sikhs in order to prove that the Sikhs are terrorists? It is apparent the Indian Government has given instructions to all the law enforcement agencies as well as their ambassadors in foreign countries to do whatever they can to malign the Sikhs, to cause irreparable harm to their reputation and to dissolve their identity.

The history of the past 49 years is a history of betrayals of Sikhs by the Brahman government of India. The incidents such as arrest of S. Harpal Singh Gosal of Toronto in India under TADA; Murder of the editor of Des Pardes S. Trsem Singh; Murder of S. Jaswant Singh Khalra are few of the cowardly attacks by the Brahman butchers to demoralize, humiliate, and destroy the Sikh people. Considering the abovementioned acts of the Indian government, I appeal to the conscious of the governments of the world to stop any aid to India until it stops torturing and murdering innocent people.

Article extracted from this publication >>  July 31, 1996