This third time that the issue of human rights violations is being raised in the United States Congress Those that are raising it are certain that there are no civil rights in many parts of India  notably the Punjab and Kashmir. The Sikhs will forever remember in gratitude friends like Mr Dan Burton and Mr Wally Herger for having raised their voice against tyranny and oppression.

Mr Burtons Bill like his effort last year (HR4641) and Mr Hergers Bill (HR 1076) in 1989 seeks to stop developmental assistance to India if it does not permit human rights monitors like Amnesty International to visit Punjab. The terrible repression and brutality unleashed by the State indiscriminately against Sikhs must be stopped.

India calls itself a democracy a free nation. Nothing could be farther from the truth India is fascist Hindu state which is committing crimes comparable to those of Hitler and Stalin on its minorities .The martial race of Sikhs who resisted economic exploitation and political bullying are facing a virtual genocide. Over 100000 Sikhs have died at the hands of Indian police and paramilitary forces since 1978. Holy Sikh shrines have been desecrated and Sikh culture and identity sought to be obliterated. What to talk of human rights monitors even foreign media persons are not allowed into Punjab and Kashmir. All foreigners are required to have special permits to enter these states. These are rarely issued Why? The Indian government will tell you these are disturbed areas and terrorism is rampant. This is true. But what you will not be told is that the State is the terrorist that the jails are full of innocent men women and children. A retired chief justice during a brief tour found 15000 Sikhs in jails without having been charged or produced in court. The Indian government has spent millions of dollars in trying to tell the world that all Sikhs are terrorists. It even went to the extent of blowing up an airliner with 329 innocent people on board just to malign Sikhs in the eyes of the world. This was exposed by two impartial Canadian journalists in a book Soft Target which was predictably banned.

There are three districts in Punjab which border Pakistan. They are inhabited by women children and very old men. All the young men have either been killed by the police or have fled the area. Rapes and murders in police stations are so common as to go unreported in the free presses. The local newspapers toe the official line because not only is newsprint controlled and supplied by the state most of their income is from government advertisements.

India has much to hide. The enormity of its crimes is staggering. The world is averting its face from what it thinks is unnecessary ugliness. But for how long? In rejecting a simple demand for an investigation India is proving all charges against it to be true. A British MP Mr Max Madden who visited Punjab last year was shocked at the police barbarity. He reported “I shall never forget the Sikh father whose 14-year-old daughter was raped and drowned by a police officer. The father was brutally beaten by the police thrice over two days for seeking the return of his daughter’s body. He was warned that if he did not stop complaining what had happened to his 14-year-old daughter would happen to his seven-year-old daughter.

Article extracted from this publication >> February 22, 1991