The Sikhs in America are far removed from the realities in India so says a respected Indian Journalist and former ambassador to U.K. Kuldip Nayar in his recent article “The Alienated Children of India”.
In the recent Ayodhya incident, where an ancient unused mosque was demolished by Hindu mobs When close to half a million Hindu arrived at the call of their leaders, in a town of 50,000, the BJP and RSS politicians and the Indian journalist referred to them as ‘Kar Sewaks” (God’s pure voluntary workers), or as pro-Hindu activists and or as RamRajya’s Sewaks in many news articles and interviews.
Whereas the militants fighting in Punjab are invariably referred to as “Sikh terrorists” in Indian media for the last 10 years and have been branded as a terrorist Community in the international press from the news emanating from Indian controlled News media. Is this being removed from realities Nayar? Oh please, Nayar don’t add salt to injury, let us have the nerve to call a spade a spade, these Hindu destroyers were not born from Sita’s womb, they are no different from the unpunished thousands of ‘“Goondas’ who were involved in Sikh massacre following Indira’s assassination in 1984, or from current police gang rapists in Punjab or the people involved in state terrorism or extortion in Punjab.
Some Indian journalist reported that army could not be sent to Ayodhya to prevent this national disgrace because it is a small town with narrow lanes and it would have lead to a mass scale loss of human life. Well the Indian army attacked the Golden Temple in Amritsar in 1984, with tanks and full artillery to fight Sant Jamail Singh Bhinderwala and several hundred of his comrades. Were streets around Golden Temple any broader?
If an army of half a million can be deployed in Punjab for the last several years to check Sikh militancy and where hundreds are killed every month in alleged encounters, why can’t the same any be used to protect other minorities in India besieged by Hindu Goondas, supported by RSS or Congress in India?
If Justice Bains and thousands of other Sikhs can be thrown in jail swiftly and tortured and harassed for supporting Sikh rights and exposing wrongdoing under the TADA acts why can’t Advani, Joshi, Sehgal and many other Hindu leaders of Goonda parties and their supporters be charged under TADA acts for inciting racial hatred and destroying public property and prosecuted?
If the answers to these troubling questions make the American Indian Sikhs far removed from the realities in India then count me in one of the alienated sons of India, Nayar. And if you want to bring alienated American Indian Sikhs back to supporting corrupt and incompetent politicians in India then start by requesting all Indian journalists to call a spade a spade and not make a laughing stock of your colleagues in 1993.
Harbir Singh, Mahwah,NJ
Article extracted from this publication >> January 15, 1993
