LUDHIANA: Several prominent socio-political organizations of Punjab, while strongly reacting upon the posting of Siddarth Shanker Ray as the Indian Ambassador to United States, have called upon the Bush Administration not to accept his credentials, The International Human Rights Organization (JHRO), Sikh Vichar Manch (SVM) and Punjab Sikh Lawyer’s Council (PSLC) after a meeting here on Oct.20, stated that the appointment of the former Punjab Governor S.S.Ray as the ambassador to USA is an insult to the ideals of human rights, liberty, and democracy for which America stand for.

The IHRO General Secretary Mohinder Singh Grewal, SVM President Gurbhajan Singh Gill and PSLC Presidium Member Gurdish Singh Grewal, said in a joint statement that Ray’s past record is nothing but a commentary of human rights violations. “As the chief minister of Bengal, he introduced criminality into the state politics, and by ‘virtue’ of his eliminating political rivals through professional criminals, he became a member of Indira Gandhi’s coterie, Moreover, it was under his nefarious advice that she clamped the Emergency in 1975, and even that declaration was drafted by this very man,” they added. “When New Delhi decided to usher the reign of terror in Punjab, it was only Ray, who was considered capable of implementing the repressive policies or who could even exceed their expectations, As the Governor of Punjab, he introduced various novel methods to annihilate Sikh youth and shatter the dignity of the Sikh people, which is still in practice. Along with the then Director General of Police, J.F.Rebeiro, he formed state sponsored death squads of criminals to eliminate state dissidents, dishonor Sikh ladies and extort money from the villagers, besides killing Sikh youths advocating independent Sikh state in staged encounters and subjecting them to inhuman torture, Under his regime the security forces started the practice of stripping womenfolk and village mayors and councilors and beating them with leather straps publicly.

The phenomenon of liquidating Sikh youths and disposing off their dead bodies as unidentified persons by the police was also introduced by him. No international human rights organization was allowed to enter Punjab and investigate these abuses by the security forces,” further said the statement.

Keeping in view the commitment of the Americans to human rights, the three organizations expressed the hope that the U.S. administration would not accept the credentials of Ray, “because of his record as a violator of human rights and a perpetrator of tyranny.”

Article extracted from this publication >> October 30, 1992