LUDHIANA: The “Sikh Nation” and the Akali Dal believe in free enterprise and U.S. technocrats and industrialists have been invited to come to see for themselves the opportunities available in Amritsar and elsewhere in Punjab for US investments.

This invitation was contained in a memorandum submitted to Mr William Clarke US Ambassador to India, during his visit to Punjab by the Akali Dal (Mann). A copy of the memorandum was released to the Press by Mr Jagmohan Singh, press secretary of the party, here.

The memorandum said there was ample scope for agro based industries and the Pepsi project should be seen as a pioneering effort to exploit the agro industrial potential in the state. The Coca Cola Company was also invited to establish a unit in Punjab.

The party appealed to the USA to set up a school for teaching economics, arts, science and management in Amritsar just as the Americans had set up a school and a university in Beirut. Thus school could be affiliated to Harvard or Yale University.

The memorandum sought scholarships for the kith and kin of victims of “state repression” as they had been “left in the lurch” by the Centre.

The US health department was urged to set up a modern hospital and a full-fledged nursing school in Amnitsar.

The memorandum urged Pan Am and other US airlines to operate flights twice a week via Amritsar. It said Voice of America should have a Punjabi service for listeners in Asia. This was long overdue. In view of the importance and significance of Punjab in the geo political situation in the Indian subcontinent, regular correspondents of The New York Times. The Washington Post and AP must be stationed in the state.

The 15page memorandum sought the right to self-determination for the people of Punjab. The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and, more specifically, the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights, which was ratified by the Indian Government of March 27, 1979, stipulated that all people had the Tight to self determination. Thus under Article of the Constitution of India, the government was bound to respectable Sikhs right to self-determination.

The memorandum alleged that the Indian state was violating all norms of diplomacy and statesmanship and was using favoritism to suppress the apirations of the people of Punjab.

The memorandum further alleged that during the past decades, the Sikhs had been exploted economically, socially and culturally, The Punjabi language was not allowed to flourish. “We face religious persecution at the hands of Hindu Braminical forces”.

The Akali Dal (Mann) charged that “in the recent past the government has resorted to police and military intervention to run the state in June, 1984. The government killed thousands of Sikhs within the precincts of the Golden Temple. Simultaneously, Operation Woodrose was launched and people in the countryside were made to bear the brunt of the attack by the military and para military forces. This was done in contravention of the St Petersburg Convention of 1868 and the Hague Convention of 1908”.

The memorandum continued “Since then Punjab is police camp. The people are reeling under extra judicial actions of the Security forces comprising the military divisions the Border Security Force, the National Security Guards, the Central Reserve Police Force, the state reserve police the Punjab polices the Home Guards and the special police officers. Hundreds of Sikh young men and women are being killed in staged managed encounters”.

The memorandum said “whatever may be the apparent picture, the people of Punjab know very well that this country is not being run on democratic and secular lines. The previous regime of Rajiv Gandhi amended the Constitution of India and suspended the right to life of the people of Punjab. The present government, following the policies of the previous government passed the 10th Amendment and slaughtered democracy”.

The memorandum alleged that although the Indian state professed that it was pecular, it practiced fundamentalism of the worst kind. It is high time that the US and its Western allies see the writing on the wall. It is the need of the hour to exert diplomatic pressure on India so that it respects all norms of international law”.

Article extracted from this publication >> August 24, 1990