Dear Editor:
Your coverage of S. Sukhminder Singh Sandhu and S. Ranjit Singh Gill’s trial in the New Jersey court was very complete, concise and accurate. Please accept my sincere appreciation and personal thanks for exhibiting high standards of journalism and courageous acts to standby the truth and support the genuine cause of two innocent Sikhs. I wish that the present Sikh readership also had demonstrated the same strength and courage. The Sikh community members from the United States and Canada who attended the hearing at New Jersey noted with great pain the absence of S. Didar Singh Bains, President WSO: S. Manohar Singh Grewal, President WSO-USA; S. Arjinderpal Singh Sekhon, Member of Khalistan Council. The Sikh community members present at the hearing felt that once again they have been betrayed by their leadership. If these leaders cannot even offer moral support to these two youngmen then I urge these respected leaders to step down from their respective positions. Khalistan cannot be libratrated by raising empty slogans at the meetings or at the gurdwara stages. It will be liberated only by making sacrifices as made by Sardar Sandhu and Gill. If our present leadership is so scared that it even cannot extend moral support to the Sikh cause, then, what kind of sacrifice can we expect from these gentlemen?
It is also worth noticing that S. Manohar Singh Grewal and S. Amarjit Singh Buttar who frequently write on Sikh issues live at a driving distance from the New Jersey court and S. Gurmeet Singh Aulakh was in New Jersey. Gurdwara a day before the hearing. I believe the public is entitled to know the reasons for their indifferences to the case of two freedom fighters.
Rajinder Singh New York
Dear Editor:
Having read your report of Guru Gobind Singh Ji’s Gurpurat celebrations by the International Institute of Gurmat Studies in La Habra, I felt I had to add to it and give a few comments as well.
Your paper could have covered this occasion more elaborately and prominently, for it was a unique celebration. This was one occasion when Sikh sangats were present in thousands and yet no one grabbed the opportunity to air a pet peeve or to try and win support for himself/herself by tearing other Sikh groups to pieces. This was the only occasion of its kind that reassured us, the parents, that all is not lost yet. This was the only ceremony that I (and many other concerned Sikh parents) know of that was not only conducted by our youth but was planned, organized and presented by them, too; with help from the organizers, of course. The sight of our youngsters clad in the white (including beautifully tied white turbans) singing and swaying to mellifluous kirtan brought tears of joy and gratitude to many a parents’ eyes. They were not only presenting to us what they had learnt in a rather brief mini winter camp at IGS house, but their mood, their behavior and the way they conducted themselves, represented the values that have been drilled into them during repeated attendance of IGS diwans (held on the first and third Saturday of the month of IGS house) and IGS camps. That morning our children showed us that if they can swing, sway and bounce to the beats of a favorite rock group, they can also learn to be high on Waheguru, given half a chance.
If our children stumble and stray from the Sikh teachings and “Rehat Maryada”, the fault is not theirs but ours. We, the parents, leaders and Sikh preachers have totally neglected this aspect of their future. We all want our children to be successful in life; we all want them to be doctors, engineers, and business executives and. use all our resources to make them what we want them to be. How many of us try to make them good Sikhs, well-versed not only in the fundamentals of their religion, but also to be able to practice their religion? Children from all other faiths have schools where they can learn to be proficient in their religious principles and practices, but where do our children learn? Sikh religion will survive, especially in this and other foreign countries, only if the future generation remain Sikhs. If we ignore this aspect, no matter what we attain in our lifetimes, the religion will not survive for long. Our generation should learn from our history and not make the same mistakes our rulers and Jeaderls had made. If Maharaja Ranjit Singh had paid any attention to the religious and political training of his future generations, Sikh history would have been different. I do not want to (Cont. Page. 7, Col.5) name any other leaders because I do not want to convey any political overtones. We are a family of “a-political” people and are concerned about the future of our children in this country. From that point of view, we think IGS is a “God-sent”. The Sikhs of Los Angeles and surrounding vicinities must have done something right that Waheguru sents this organization right when we needed them!
To the IGS all I can say is “thank you”! It is because of you that our daughters are speaking Punjabi, even though not perfect, singing kirtan and are inquisitive about their religion. Thanks to you our four year old son sings shabads with his sisters, plays the tabla (to his own taal, of course) and has shifted his loyalty from the Beastie Boys to IGS kirtan group and to Ranjit in particular! There are hundreds of other families who are saying “thank you IGS”! Youarea part of all our families and we all love you. We thank you for making Southern California your permanent home. I hope when fame and fortune beckons and you are tempted to expand from one shore of this great country to another, you will still remember us, L.A., your first family.
I thank the World Sikh News for giving me an opportunity to express my views. Please let me commend you for the great service your paper is providing to the Sikh community.
Harbir K. Hayreh
Dear Editor:
Mr Gurcharan Singh Dhillon’: letter published in your esteemed paper, smells very Divisive and casts grave reflection on general character of today’s Sikh leadership. We think Sandhu-Gill case needs more. Co-operation and less friction from our leadership. We fail to understand how the presence of a leader in the court of law whom these youngmen have never met or seen before, could affect their hearing. Our upcoming leadership perhaps needs to orient themselves more towards positive thinking.
This letter in part and Mr. Grewal’s observation about the Khalistan Council, leaves little doubt in our mind that WSO has no respect for the Panthic Committee and Khalistan Council. Is this a major WSO achievement to alienate Sikhs from their chosen path of freedom and liberty?
Kulwant Singh Avtar Singh
Sharanpal Singh Ajit Singh
Gurmukh Singh A. Singh Kamaljit Singh Ajit Singh
Surjit Singh G_ Singh
K.S. Kahlon El Sobrante
Dear Editor’ PREDICAMENT OF MINORITIES IN INDIA
THE amount of humiliation and disgrace, not to speak of the physical and mental torture suffered by the Sikhs all over the world, as a result of the unprecedented and infamous military attack on their holiest shrine Golden Temple and heinous carnage unleashed by the fanatic Hindu government, subsequent to the murder of Mrs. Indira Gandhi, and the ever growing genocidal attitude of the majority Hindu fundamentalists, leave Sikhs with no option but to part with their centuries old relationship and ask for a sovereign state like Khalistan. The question whether it would be viable or not is no longer relevant. The question now is of survival of the Sikhs and their culture.
If history is any guide, no country has ever given a square inch of here territory willingly and peacefully, however justified the claim may sound to be; and India is no exception. Consequently, therefore, ever growing agonizing and unsecular Hindu Nationalism, under the influence of RSS & Arya Smajic Fundamentalists make the life of minorities more and more unbearable every day. Presently, the Sikhs, who make hue and cry to draw the Government’s attention to redress their legitimate grievances bear the brunt, by being clamped them down as “terrorists” and then being liquidated in the name of extremists, militants, terrorists, traitors and so on, and then killed in fake and direct police encounter, at Indo-Pak border, at point blank range, without trial and record.
The conceited Fascist Hindu Regime is also well aware of the fact that conceding to “Khalistan” demand will not be the end of the trouble, but, instead, be the beginning of the end of the uneasy “integration” of India. J & K, Nagaland and Gurkhaland are already itching to sever their relationship with India. Should the discriminatory and suppressive activities of the unholy alliance of Arya Smajic RSS and JS etc. continue unabated by the government, I dreadfully shudder to anticipate demand for another Pakistan followed by Christland and land for Schedule Cast coming to surface, in a more violent shape and form. Needless to say that if Muslims and Christians flare up, God forbid, they shall not be fighting by themselves. With the backing of millions of their-religionists, all over the world, the situation may well turn out to be more serious than what the Government could handle. Our relationship with the adjoining countries is already far from neighborly. That the politics in India is utter dis-array is a gross understatement.
While no tangible action has thus far been taken by the government to settle the Punjab tussle, apparently hoping vainly that the movement will wear off under their ruthless repression, in due course of time, Sikhs, on the other hand, feel increasingly alienated from the mainstream and are adamantly out on the non-violent spree to force the government to scum to their and world pressure to come to terms and concede to their demands which they strongly feel justified. They strongly believe that once they submit to the “injustice”, under threat or force, they would lose their identity for good, which, obviously, they hate to do and thus the violence is ever on the increase. The situation is really very precarious but the delima is of the Government’s own making. They have now, somehow, to act and manifest statesmanship, worthy of national prestige and restore the lost credibility, with a sense of urgency.
SRI RAM RAMAYA
Article extracted from this publication >> February 12, 1988
