Journalist: Mr. Ambassador, Panjab Chief Minister, S. Surjit Singh Barnala, had sometimes back categorically stated that he had instructed the police not to enter the Golden Temple.

Ambassador: That’s right.

Journalist: Yet police has raided the Temple Complex thrice during the past two and a half months. Ambassador: Very correct.

Journalist: Do you think police in Punjab Is disobeying the Chief Minister and taking orders from the Central government?

Ambassador: Not in national interest to disclose.

`           *                                              *                                                          *

Journalist: Mr. Ambassador, Hindus are protesting against the forthcoming visit of Pope Paul II to India. They are demanding cancellation of his trip.

Ambassador: That’s right

Journalist: Their argument Is that Pope’s visit can lead to large-scale conversions of ‘poor Hindus’ to Christianity. Ambassador: Very Correct.

Journalist: Don’t you think that Christianity offers not economic prosperity but Social equality? Are Hindus willing to grant social equality to the ‘untouchables’ to stop them from embracing Christianity?

Ambassador: Not in national interest to disclose.

*                                              *                                                          *

Journalist: Mr. Ambassador, writing In Surya India, the well-known journalist, Kuldip Nayyar, expressed his horror at the police functioning in India in: following words, “Woe, Woe, Woe, If you arouse the suspicion or anger of the police. For you would be harassed. Or might even be tortured or killed.”

Ambassador: That’s right.

Journalist: He came to this conclusion after learning about the torture of R.K. Dhawan, the trusted confidant of Mrs. Indira Gandhi for 23 years who Is being interrogated in connection with his alleged involvement in her assassination, and about the way the eminent cartoonist and journalist, Mr. Rajinder Puri, was beaten up for participating In a peaceful demonstration.

Ambassador: Very correct.

Journalist: How Is It that Indian journalist generally disbelieved the horrifying accounts of torture and fake encounters Involving innocent Sikh youths and instead kept describing them as “terrorists 2? Was it because of religious prejudice?

Ambassador: Not in national interest to disclose.

Article extracted from this publication >>  November 15, 1985