WSN Special Report by Timothy B. Phares WASHINGTON, DC:” if I were to say that (there are no human rights violations in India}, I would be telling you a lie,” said Siddhartha Shankar Ray, Indian ambassador to the United States. ‘This contradicts the position taken by Prime Minister P.V Narasimha Rao when he was visiting the United States in May. At that time, Rao was asked whether there were human rights violations in India. He answered simply “No.” But Ambassador Ray said that “there are human rights violations everywhere.”
Asked about the charges which were recently filed against Sikh activist leader Simranjit Singh Mann, Ambassador Ray said that “I don’t know if he has been charged. If he has been, it was for something he said that was against the law.” When that Mann informed had spoken at a Sikh gurdwara and endorsed self-determination for the Sikh nation and a free Khalistan, Ambassador Ray’s only answer was, ‘thought that he had stopped talking about that.”
Ray described the Indian Human Rights Act of last year as “one of the best in the world.” He dismissed the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities Act (TADA) and the National Security Act, which provide for summary arrests and detention without, charge for up to two years, as “specifically designed to meet a particular situation.” the Sikh struggle for independence, which he claimed had now been subdued. But asked about the July 25 order which requires the seizure of all mail addressed to Sikh organizations in Punjab, Khalistan, including the Akali Dal, and all mail from Sikh organizations in the United States, including the Council of Khalistan, Ray professed not to know about that either. ‘The Council of Khalistan placed information packets in the room where Ray spoke. The Council of Khalistan describes itself as “the organization leading the Sikh struggle for independence.” Ray, who is known as “the Butcher of Bengal” for his role in the burning of Bengali villages, charged that when he was governor of Punjab, it was routine that “police would go’ home to their village and find their whole family has been wiped out.”
Human Rights Watch/Asia has reported that torture centers have been erected in at least 200 critics and towns throughout Punjab, Khalistan, by the Indian regime, The State Department reports that Between 1991 and 1993, 41,000 cash bounties were paid to police Officers who killed Sikhs. Reliable observers have counted at least 115,000 Sikhs killed since 1984. In addition, India has reportedly killed 150,000 Christians in Nagaland since 1947 and 40,000 Muslims in Kashmir since 1988. Ray said that the complaint by 28 Sikh attommeys who felt they were in danger after the kidnapping of Ropar Attomey Sukhwinder Singh Bhatti had “been investigated and found not to be correct.” Mr. Bhatt was the fourth such attorney to disappear.
Ray said that in India, “the press is totally free and independent.” Press Trust of India, the most prominent news service, is owned by the Indian regime.
Ray implicitly admitted that the Indian regime is trying to make Hindi the single official national language. Citing India’s 18 official languages, he said that “until all states agree to have Hindu a5 the official language, English is one of the official languages.” Ray admitted that India has tested nuclear missiles, but he said, “We have no intention of fighting any: body. We have no intention of entering any country anywhere: India has never entered any country.” In the late 1980s, Indian troops invaded Sri Lanka to put down 4 rebellions by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a group India had created.
Article extracted from this publication >> September 16, 1994
