Journalist: Mr. Ambassador, Punjab Minister, Mr. Major Singh Oboke, has charged that Punjab police had become a hot bed of corruption and bribery after Julius Ribeiro took over as its Director General.
Ambassador : That’s right.
Journalist : He also said that he had received authentic information and complaints regarding extortion of money by police from innocent Sikh villagers on the threat of implicating them in seditions or smuggling cases.
Ambassador : Very Correct.
Journalist : When will Barnala dismiss Mr. Oboke for speaking against Rajiv Gandhi’s nominee? Alternating when will Ribeiro silence Oboke for his impudence and, then, blame it on the Sikh freedom fighters?
Ambassador: Not in national interest to disclose.
Journalist: Mr. Ambassador, the working President of Congress (I), Mr. Kamalpati Tripathi, has in a letter to Rajiv Gandhi blamed him for the declining popularity of the party and taken exception to his criticism of ‘power brokers’ who had converted “social revolution’ into a ‘federal oligarchy?
Ambassador : That’s right.
Journalist : He has also contended that Rajiv was surrounded by a ‘number of sycophants who were not only “Indira baiters” but most of them were “Indira haters”?
Ambassador : Very Correct.
Journalist: How is it Mr. Tripathi had to apologies for his forthright criticism to save his expulsion from the party? Does it mean under Soviet influence Rajiv Gandhi has turned the party into a fascist ‘organization that brooks no criticism?
Ambassador : Not in national interest to disclose.
Journalist: Mr. Ambassador, reacting to the shooting of Punjab Minister in Vancouver, Mr. Balram Jakhar, speaker of Indian in Canada does not affect?
Ambassador : That’s right.
Journalist: He also said that only the ‘events that take place in India affect us’. Characterizing violence as negative he said that violence and democracy could not co-exist?
Ambassador : Very Correct.
Journalist : How come, then, Indian Government keeps blaming Sikhs living in foreign countries for all the troubles in Punjab? If violence and democracy can’t co-exist, does it mean brutal massacres of minorities like Sikhs, Muslims and Dalits are not considered violent acts in Gandhi’s democracy?
Ambassador : Not in national interest to disclose.
Article extracted from this publication >> June 27, 1986
