Sir,
I am writing in reference to a letter (give VP a chance? by Amrik S. Gill) in your December 15 issue.
I cannot believe that some of us are still continuing the dream of a future for the Sikhs within India. Mr. Gill’s suggestion that our freedom fighters should give a chance to the new government misplaced in my opinion. I am a firm believer of giving anyone a chance, or two, or even three for that matter. But any more than that is absolute foolishness. The Indians have had infinite chances since 1947. It is now 1990. I say NO MORE. If a chance should be given, then we should give Khalistan a chance for a change. It may be a long, and certainly a painful, road to freedom. However, it is the ‘only one that can guarantee our freedom and assure our survival.
Mr. Gill mentions that “the Hindu majority must have learnt a lesson by now.” Why should they learn a lesson? It simply is not in their interest to do so. They have everything to gain by NOT learning. If anyone should have learned a lesson by now, it is us the Sikhs. We should know that without our own home, Khalistan, we are sitting ducks at the mercy of the Indian government. In fact, we are in DIRE need of this lesson. I am deeply saddened to say that if we have not learned this lesson by now, paid for dearly by the lives of our brothers and sisters, then we probably never will! If we do not take this opportunity now to establish Khalistan, we are asking for everything we get. And we can be rest assured that the consequences will be much graver than any of us can dare to imagine. The history of the last few years attests to this.
Please, I deplore all of you who still hold any thoughts of our survival under India to look deep within yourselves, bearing in mind the events of the last few years and see if you really are doing justice to yourselves as a Sikh and the Sikh Panth as a whole with these false hopes. Our future generations will never forgive us for the colossal mistake of settling for anything less than Khalistan now. Too much has happened for us to be within India anymore.
We must not be misled by the formation of a new government in India. Only a small percentage of the officials who run the government have been replaced. Otherwise, the vast bureaucracies, including the police, the intelligence are the same. Therefore we should consider the new government as nothing more than a face lift to the governmental structure, Consequently our expectations should reasonably be no more than to expect some basic “malm patti” and that is all. Besides, how long is this government going to last? What happens when the next Gandhi or another such “rakhsh” comes in to power?
My father once told me, “apna ghar huna chaahida hai, be-shak khakhan-di-kuli hi qiuon na hove.” I feel the same way about Khalistan. Good or bad, big or small, it will mean we will not be at someone else’s mercy again. Khalistan, Zindabad!
Ms Balvinder Kaur Gill Holmdel, N.J.
Article extracted from this publication >> January 5, 1990
