Faced with growing pressure from the U.S. Congress and international humanitarian organizations, Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi promised last week to make a number of changes in his policies toward the Sikhs. among these were promises to release hundreds of Sikh political prisoners (out of thousands currently languishing in the Indian Gulag Archipelago), curb the unrestrained powers of the Indian security forces, and to open the hitherto off-limits state of Punjab to foreigners.
Such promises are steps in the right direction but Sikhs have heard many promises from the Indian government in the past. Jawaharlal Nehru the first Prime Minister of India promised that the Sikhs would “experience the glow of freedom” in their own “set up in the North”. This never happened. The steps which Gandhi promises to take now were already agreed to in the Longowal Accord of 1985. The Indian government has been clearly motivated to take these steps by a bill currently before the U.S. Congress which calls for a suspension of most favored nation trading status with India unless that country improves its human rights behavior in the Punjab.
The bill, H.R.1067 calls on the President to restore India’s “most favored nation” status only on condition that India releases the detainees from the jail at Jodhpur allows Human Rights Groups to visit the Punjab to compile a complete report rights groups to visit the Punjab to compile a complete report and to curb rights abuses by the Indian police and paramilitary forces.
Indian government disinformation has been very successful over the years in depicting the Sikhs as terrorists. But in making its current promises, the Indian government is admitting its guilt in committing atrocities commonly associated with a terrorist state, it is now clear who is terrorizing whom. Amnesty International has documented Indian government torture, torture center and the existence of death squads.
In 1987, the Sikhs exercised their right to self-determination in accordance with the U.N.s, Universal Declaration of Human rights by declaring their independence from India. It is in the best interest of India and her people to withdraw their occupying forces from the Sikh homeland and to negotiate the boundaries between the two nations in peace.
India must realize that merely paying lip service to the issue of human rights in the Punjab will not improve the situation. India must be held to its word by withholding “most favored nation” status until it complies. Only time will tell if India is motivated by a genuine concern for human rights or merely by short term political and economic gains.
Article extracted from this publication >> March 17, 1989
