Strange as it might seem HR 1067 introduced in the Congress by Congressman Wally Herger and 24 other Congressmen has put the Indian government in a tight spot.
The Indian government and its bureaucrats have been ordered to counter and negate the bill in Washington. Furthermore, Indian Council offices in Chicago, New York and San Francisco have been advised to mobilize the Hindu community to counter the Sikh efforts in relation to the law makers. So we have a spectacle of various Hindu groups hobnobbing with the Congressmen apparently attempting to simulate what the Sikhs have been doing.
But wait! What is the truth of the matter. As Amnesty International, Asia Watch, Churchill etc., have reported in their well-researched publications, a reign of terror has been let loose on the hapless population of Punjab, mainly Sikhs. Terrorist And Disruptive Activities Act (TADA) 1985 and several of its amendments, TAA (Special Courts), NSA 1980, the infamous 59th Amendment to the Constitution have all given brute powers to the Indian government and its henchmen in Punjab which even Hitler would have envied. As a result thousands of innocent Sikhs (over 4500) continue to be detained in Punjab under the above laws (sic) or mislaws; riots against unwary Sikhs have become a daily affair, common criminals who killed thousands of Sikhs in 1984, 1988 and January 1989 go about freely; police fake encounters go on endlessly.
The Indian government instead of accepting the findings of the Human Rights Organizations has come up with an extraordinarily misleading proposition that these reports are baseless and that they represent mainly opposition’s view point. Until the early 1980’s the Indian government used to taunt Pakistan and other states about lack of human rights etc. in their countries on the basis of the annual reports of such human rights bodies. How can the Indian government say now that Amnesty International and similar organizations have become hostile to India?
Although Rajiy Gandhi has declared that outsiders can visit Punjab, his staff is saying the Amnesty International etc. cannot enter Punjab as an organization but as individuals. Foreign press is also banned. The Indian government must realize that Amnesty International reports are the standard by which human rights are judged including by the United Nations Organization.
We are urging various human rights organizations and lawyers to assist various congressmen in countering the Indian government propaganda that human rights and civil liberties of Sikhs in Punjab are safe.
Most important of all the Sikh nation salutes the U.S. Law makers and several of various human rights organizations in taking up the cause of the hapless Sikhs trapped in the never-ending terrorization by the Indian police state. We thank them with our deepest gratitude.
Article extracted from this publication >> March 24, 1989
