The fact that the harassment of American Sikhs by the F.B.I. is increasingly assuming the character of Russian K.G.B. will distress every freedom loving heart. Highly qualified professionals and socially distinguished Sikhs are being shadowed and questioned as if they were confirmed criminals. Evidently, F.B.I. is acting not on its own perceptions and intelligence reports but on the basis of the information supplied by the Indian consulates. All those Sikhs who raise their voice against the genocidal war let loose against Sikhs by the Indian government are singled out as special targets. The idea is to hound and harass them into silence lest the world should distinguish between reality and appearance.
F.B.I. seems to have become an unwitting partner in the evil design of the Indian Consulates which operate as virtual factories fabricating fictional yarns to malign and isolate the Sikhs. Sikh organizations are solely concerned with disseminating truth about the plight of their brethren in India so that the people, the media, the Congress, the Senate and the government of America should come to the succor of a besieged minority community.
No Sikh organization here advocates or encourages violence. Rather they are protesting against the ongoing State terrorism in Punjab. The free world today is unaware of the truth and is victim of a very clever propaganda blitz. America, the land of Liberty, has yet to wake up to the tragic realities of Sikh persecution. It has yet to recognize the real villain. Indian rulers know that America cannot be made to indefinitely ignore such fascist acts as the continued army occupation, the draconian laws, and the ban on foreign media in Sikh majority State of Punjab. Hence, their anxiety to suppress and strangle those Sikhs here who are striving to raise the issue in appropriate forums. The pity is that the Indian Consulates seem to have succeeded in making F.B.I. its accomplice in this dirty game.
F.B.L topbrass would do well to probe deeper into this vicious conspiracy. In this context it would be useful to remember that responsible officials and important functionaries of the ruling party in India have been repeatedly accusing C.I.A. and Pakistan for creating the Sikh problem. To the communists and Indians, they sell C.1.A. and Pakistan complicity. To the free world they sell the so called Sikh “terrorism and separatism’’. Deception is their creed and through deception they thrive. Peaceful protests of Sikhs abroad are portrayed as dangerous expressions of international terrorism. Sikh doctors, engineers, attorneys, professors, and successful businessmen are projected as active collaborators of “terrorists”. F.B.I. Officials are provided with contrived leads with the express aim of discouraging conscientious and concerned Sikhs from highlighting Indian barbarity.
Instead of subjecting the law-abiding Sikhs to unnecessary and embarrassing interrogations, the wise course for the F.B.I. would be to hold meetings with the office-bearers of various Sikh organizations and discuss matters in a free and frank manner. These discussions can be useful in identifying government planted agents.as well as help F.B.I. discover how Indian consulates interfere in the Sikh religious institutions, how their men promote and provoke violence, how millions are being spent to spread misinformation and disinformation, how these Consulates have become hotbeds of anti-Sikh intrigues.
America prides itself as the champion of Liberty. Everywhere the oppressed and the enslaved are convulsing to challenge fascist forces and’ they look upon America as their Saviour. Would it not be a thousand pities if on its own soil officials of the F.B.1. Were to harass decent American domiciles at the instance of a scheming foreign government? Would it not rob the victims of slavery and tyranny of all their hopes and comforts? It would only make them exclaim like Mark Antony that “Liberty has fled to the forests and America too has joined the rapacious band of “‘Comrades’”’.
Article extracted from this publication >> February 6, 1987
