Rajiv Gandhi has launched a vigorous diplomatic offensive against the Sikhs living outside India. He is using every conceivable ploy from flourishing the Western origin of his consort to calculated trade pressures and other tactics in order to force countries sympathetic to the Sikh predicament into signing extradition treaties with India.
He has even bent backwards in wooing Pakistan President Zia ul Haq simply to ensure that persecuted Sikhs do not find a friend or a refuge anywhere.
After successfully taming the Akali party at home, he has aimed his guns at the Sikh organizations and institutions in foreign countries, particularly in England, America and Canada. The object is to silence all those voices that unravel the truth about communal repression in India and to freeze the financial and intellectual reservoir that helps to sustain the Sikh struggle both in India and abroad.
Indian government was greatly incensed at the scathing criticism by Amnesty International of the fascist violation of human and civil rights of the Sikhs. To counter the commendable work of Sikh organizations in putting the record straight and in blasting the laboriously woven fiction of Sikh “terrorism,” Indian government has created a network of intelligence agencies. The purpose is to divide and discredit the Sikhs so as to neutralize its effectiveness.
The agents infiltrate into Sikh bodies and set one against the other leading to self-destructive internacine quarrels. Instead of identifying and combating the crafty enemy, the easily inflammable Sikhs pounce at each other’s throats to the extreme satisfaction and exultation of the Indian government.
Before reacting, Sikhs must subject every rumor involving their leadership to a ruthless process of analysis and dissection. They must realize that three determined forces are working to defeat their purpose and mission. Indian government is supported by two other dangerous accomplices Congress (I) Sikhs and the ruling Akali party in Punjab. The self-seekers among the Sikhs have bartered away their conscience for a handful of silver and feel no compunction in torpedoing the moves of honor loving Sikhs. Such renegades are being used by the Indian government to poison the minds of their relatives and friends abroad. The innocent and unsuspecting Sikhs become willing victims in the hands of those whom they believe to be their well-wishers.
Yet another malady that is eating into the vitals of the Sikh nation is the uncompromising ego problem. Some of the leaders talk of sacrifices and high sounding moral values but practice quite the opposite. Sniping at their comrades is their favorite pastime. This is a deadly disease that needs to be cured and if
found incurable, it must be operated upon because the nation is greater than any individual.
Article extracted from this publication >> December 20, 1985
