It is hard to make out what Mrs. A. Basarke wants to convey. The statement rests on puns and nothing else. Assuming that the correspondent belonging as she does to a responsible organization means seriously to argue her point I really wonder about the quality of information that guides the institutions like the W.S.O. Canada on matters Punjab. A Sikh detainee may succeed now and then in smuggling out his account or views on politics and have them printed in a sympathetic newspaper or publicized through human rights soups. Does that warrant the host of conclusions drawn by the W.S.0 representative?
Mrs. Basarke had been more concerned about the substance of the views of an ordinary Sikh detainee like Mr. Jasbir Singh who expressed his anguish over his and other detainee’s inability to meet the Canadian parliamentary delegation to tell the tale of their woes.
The delegations visit was to assess the human rights situation in Punjab. There are two direct parties to the dispute: the Indian state and the Panthic committees and their associate groups. The delegation fully heard the Indian state through the Punjab governor the Chief Secretary and the Director-general of Punjab police but had no opportunity of hearing the other side. The best possible course for the MPs was to meet the Sikh detainees in one or more jails in view of the fact that they could not meet the underground Sikh leaders. The question is: did the sponsors of the trip coordinators suggest to the MPs the need for hearing both sides before making up their minds on the situation in Punjab? The Indian government could not have refused such a request from the Canadian delegation Outsiders are known to have been allowed to Meet imprisoners. The Indian authorities and gone to the extent of permitting a Press Conference by Bhai Jasbir Singh Rode while he was in Amritsar Jail in 1987.
A larger issue thrown up by the visit is whether the W.S. Canada which sponsored the trip is satisfied with the views expressed at Amritsar by the members of the delegation without hearing the “other side”? Mrs. Basarke and her friends would do well to answer this cardinal question The Honorable MPs on their part could perhaps enlighten to world public opinion about the action they took and the response of the Indian government to the Amnesty International suggestions to them to raise the questions of access to Punjab by international human rights groups and the follow-up action by India on the May 1991 report of Amnesty International.
Despite the fact that the Canadian friends did leave work half done as was aptly stated by an ordinary Sikh detainee the P.H.R.O. is thankful to them for the concern shown by them for Punjab and apologizes to them for any possible embarrassment caused to them in the process.
Sukhdev Singh
Punjab Human Rights
Organization
Head Office: District Courts
Ludhiana
Article extracted from this publication >> February 21, 1992
