We have already finished our fifth year of incarceration in Metropolitan Correctional Center, New York. The incarceration which in the beginning felt like a cruel joke of fate, but with passage Of time seems like nothing short of _ blessing in disguise, The love and Support of our Khalistanis friends and supporters has made our stay in M.C.C. New York bearable. We are trying our best to make this time meaningful to educate and prepare ourselves for the unknown which awaits us in India. Even though we face adverse conditions every day, we have tried our best to maintain our sanity and to conduct ourselves in a dignified way. Our extradition proceedings are still in process in the U.S. District Court New York.
Since our arrest the World has witnessed a particularly eventful era. The world has gone through many unpredictable and historic changes this century; The idea of communism is defeated. The Soviet Union is history. In its place 14 new nations were born. Yugoslavia has broken into five nations. Many despots have been overthrown by popular struggles around the world.
Four decades after the formation of the United Nations, the idea and dream behind its genesis is finally coming to be realized. Today the United Nations multinational peace keeping forces are helping to enhance peace in more than 10 Parts of the world. The United Nations have mediated and achieved peace in many decades old bloody conflicts. The United Nations helped resolved the bloody civil wars in Ethiopia, Angola, El-Salvador, Namibia Somalia, Sudan, and is continuing its efforts in Yugoslavia, Cambodia and Western Sahara. The role of United Nations was particularly unanimous when Iraq invaded Kuwait. Seeing the growing clout of United Nations some western countries particularly the United States are trying to hijack this institution, But we think this will be the sole super power in the coming years,
Likewise India has also closed the chapter of the Nehru-Gandhi Dynasty for the time being if not for ever.
But the Sikhs have yet to find anything positive out of these changes. The United Nations, after realizing its new found muscle, has not even acknowledged the Sikh problem, let alone try to solve it.
We personally believe that every claim for nationhood has to fulfill some prerequisites. Without these prerequisites no foreign sponsorship or United Nations will come to rescue of that nation. Keeping the present international conditions in perspective, the support from the United Nations can become the single most important factor in achieving our objective of an independent and a Sovereign state of Khalistan.
In our view, Sikhs fulfill nearly all the prerequisites for their claim for an independent nation. But we are unable to educate the world about our aspirations,
The basis for establishing any nation is: (a) History The present land of Punjab was once sanctified by the presence of Sikh gurus and Sikhism was born there. This area was also once a Sikh kingdom. So, no one has stronger claim on the land of Punjab than Sikhs. (b) Geographic Punjab is a predominantly Sikh populated area hence enhancing our claim. (c) Size numerous independent nations who are members of United Nations are smaller than Punjab, Size should not be a deterrent. (d) Language and Religion A common language and shared religious belief by the majority of the population makes our claim even stronger. (¢) Above all, the will of the people We think that given a fair chance the overwhelming majority of Sikhs will opt to break away from India,
One has to wonder, having all the above factors in our favor, and considering the enormous sacrifices made by the Sikhs, why there is not even a lukewarm response from the outside world for our cause. We think that the most important task in front of the Sikhs is to convince the outside world of our aspirations, The easiest way could be through voting; but in the present circumstances the Indian Government will not give us a chance to prove our Sovereignty that easily. The near unanimous boycott by the Sikhs of the last elections demonstrated complete disenchantment of the Sikh masses towards the New Delhi government Sikh militants and political leaders should put all their energy towards harnessing this disenchantment into a single juggernaut against the Delhi Regime.
It is about time that militant and political leaders stan working in Unison. The political leaders, namely Akalis, should shun sophism and start matching their deeds with words. The militants should also operate under specific guide lines, so that unabated violence could be brought under some reasonable control. The militants have to always keep in mind the repercussions of their every action which breaks the norms of any armed struggle; All the militants in the armed struggle phase should be adhere to engaging military targets with regard to International Humanitarian law.
The present course pursued by some armed militants is only creating distrust of potential allies and sympathizers, All the militants should bear in mind the people’s right to be free of all forms of legitimate and illegitimate oppression, Also they must rise above the brutality of the oppressor and make conscious and consistent efforts to not to become the very dragon, in this case the Indian Government. This gives the militant a bearing of being morally forthright in his or her struggle tor liberation,
The choice of some targets by the militants is self-defeating. If militants feel that some percentage of Hindus will have to migrate out of Punjab, then Hindus should be given ample time and warning before being pursued, If the militants have this forced migration of Hindus in their agenda, then they should also define their policy towards more than three million Sikhs living in different parts of India,
The militants should also bear in mind that Pakistan, although a major power broker in our conflict, cannot withstand a military thrust by India, Pakistan has yet to even officially acknowledge the miserable condition of Sikhs in India, let alone condemn it; (same thing goes for other major Muslim organizations of Indian Sub-Continent}. Banking on Pakistan support for Khalistan is fool hardly. The recent success of Afghan Mujahideen in overthrowing the Kabul regime can be attributed to Pakistan’s unrelenting support of their cause. Similarly Pakistan has a direct interest in Kashmir; We should not equate or confuse our problem with that of Kashmir.
Due to the strategic location of Punjab and its natural resources, India won’t let it go easily. If Sikh leadership (Political and Militant) don’t wise up then Sikhs are in for a painful and protracted struggle.
In a recent Foreign Policy Quarterly journal article by U.S. Senator Harris Wofford Democrat Pennsylvania} a member of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, named India among few other nations where central Government is likely to lose its control. We wish and hope this happens sooner than later. Guru Fateh,
Article extracted from this publication >> May 22, 1992
