Government of India’s decision to recruit hundred thousand additional troops from a neighboring country Nepal to replace the brave and tried Sikh sons of the soil is both shocking and reprehensible. Recruitment of mercenaries to fight external enemies is an age old practice. Even in dark ages, rulers used to engage mercenary troops both for defense purposes as well as for extending the frontiers of their kingdoms. But hiring foreign mercenaries to keep religious minorities within the country in subjugation is an unpardonable outrage against the fundamental human rights and civil liberties. It is a crime against the humanity as a whole and an insult to God.
These mercenaries would be trained for deployment in Punjab to unleash a reign of terror and extermination against the Sikhs who constitute 65% of the population in the state but 2% in the country. Foreigners are being imported to crush Sikhs who are citizens of India. Evidently Sikhs are being regarded as enemies by the ruling party and would, in all probability, continue to be so treated as long as Nehru family is in power. There are two compulsive factors that are chiefly responsible for the yawning dichotomy and increasing alienation between Sikhs and the government presided over by Rajiv Gandhi (1) his mother’s assassination allegedly by her two Sikh bodyguards, and (2) presence of villains like H. K. L. Bhagat in the corridors of power in Delhi as important policy makers. Every action of Rajiv Gandhi betrays his deep distrust and psychological antagonism towards Sikhs and also exposes his unfortunate dependence upon Sikh baiters who are only too anxious to reactivate Hitler’s notorious gas chambers to permanently silence the vibrant Sikh minority.
Whereas Indian foreign policy is determined by Soviet exigencies, its internal policy is characterized by religious intolerance and its approach towards minorities is typically that of a boa constrictor that enfolds the opponents into its capacious interior and crushes them. Recruitment of foreign mercenaries in the context of Indian army’s acknowledged fighting ability inescapably points to sinister designs against minorities; It is a situation that demands of all lovers of freedom and human dignity to raise their voice against Indian government’s destructive policies. Let the world wake up to the reality of Indian democracy which has been systematically reduced to no more than a rule of intolerant communal fanatics wedded to the cult of dictatorship by the majority community. Remedial measures need to be urgently initiated to prevent repetition of the November holocaust. Indian government needs to be unequivocally told to stop recruiting mercenaries. Nepal must also not allow its citizens to be used for the extermination of minorities in India. Gurkha regiment’s occupation of Punjab will in no way be different from Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. In fact it will amount to Soviet occupation of Punjab by proxy.
Article extracted from this publication >> July 5, 1985
