Dear Editor:
Government of India and the Sikhs Chief Editorial in the Globe and Mail on January 26, has rendered, yet another cardinal service to truly rational and independent journalism. Media in the free countries of the world are traditionally known for their free and bold approach, which is highly commendable.
The following lines will further elucidate the Editorial:
Since India’s independence in 1947, the government’s passive inherent anti-Sikh stance, treacherously masked under the garb of “secularism”, is now being openly enforced with full fury.
When the government could no longer resist its ugly and mean intentions towards the Sikhs, it staged an army assault on Punjab in 1984. In justification for the assault, they (government) proceeded with a carefully preplanned campaign of spreading of violence in Punjab, which was executed through the government’s puppet Sikh Chief Minister of the State. Acts of violence were masterminded by the central government’s intelligence bureau at Delhi and arbitrarily dubbed on the Sikhs.
When the time was ripe, a full-fledged army attack was mounted on the entire state, completely sealing its borders from the rest of the world; the army destroyed everything that came across their way. In addition to killing countless innocent Sikh men, women and children, unique religious, cultural and irreplaceable exhibits were deliberately burnt to ashes and a number of religious shrines were ransacked. People in rural areas were humiliated. The army remained in complete occupation of the state for more than a year thereafter. Atrocities committed by the army during this period remain a mystery to the world up till today because of the rigid ban on foreign journalists to enter Punjab which continues even today. The second holocaust started immediately after the assassination of Mrs. Gandhi; when killings and destruction of Sikh property surpassed all records of manslaughter in the history of mankind. Mr. Rajiv Gandhi seized power as a result of the so called elections, by trading his mother’s ashes to win sympathy of his coreligionist voters.
Anti-Sikh campaign at home and abroad 1s being carried on unabated at the cost of enormous drain on the government Exchequer. The financial impact of this campaign may be estimated as the second biggest to Russianizing the Indian Army with Soviet armaments. Sikhs, with their fundamental feature of never submitting to injustice and tyranny are firmly committed for survival, more than ever before.
Unfortunately, government of Canada appears to have been unduly contaminated by the anti-Sikh campaign of the government of India and thereby seems to have been tightly hypnotized and held in trance. This is evinced from the Canadian Unique Justice System and the country’s traditional reputation for upholding of Human Rights, now being sacrificed at the altar of Gandhi Clark wediock by holding back funding of the Chair in Sikh Studies and the proposed totally uncalled for Extradition Treaty with a country which shelved all regard for democracy, justice and human rights. A complete surrender of Virtue to Vice. These are contributory factors towards violence and instability in the world.
Karnail Singh Gill
Ottawa, Ontario,
Article extracted from this publication >> February 20, 1987
