LADY LIBERTY AND THE SIKHS

‘Warships fired twenty one gun salutes, fighter planes roared in the clear skies and enthusiastic crowds cheered as the stately ships saluted to the refurbished Lady Liberty on the fourth of July. Fourth of July is not simply the nativity of the American nation. It has come to symbolize a new hope for the shackled millions of the world. ‘Lifting its lamp beside a golden door’, the statue of Liberty beckons “the tired, the poor, the huddled masses yearning to breathe free” ‘and invites “the homeless, the tempest-tossed, the wretched refuse from the teaming shores” to seek in its vast expanses a safe haven.

Jean Jacques Rousseau missed his tryst with Lady Liberty and lamented, ‘Man is born free but everywhere he is in chains’. From out of this lament arose the French Revolution of 1789. It was the French Revolution that first demonstrated the power of the people and gave the immortal slogan of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity. Enthralled by its liberating experience, the great English poet, William Wordsworth, had intoned “Bliss it was to be alive in that dawn, but for be young was very heaven’.

Fourth of July and French Revolution are two great events that have influenced and shaped the course of history in an unparalleled way. These events opened new vistas for the realization of man’s primal quest for freedom, equality and justice. Over the years ‘America developed into a powerful champion of these ideals and had come to be recognized as the friend of the oppressed, the homeless and the huddled masses. But lately Lady Liberty’s torch seems a bit tarnished with the base alloy of trade interests and foreign policy permutations. It would be really catastrophic, ii America were to turn a deaf ear or become selective in its response to the fate of those’ suffering at the hands of fascist and totalitarian regimes. Long back while demanding impeachment of British Viceroy of India, Mr. ‘Warren Hastings, Sir Edmund Burke had said in the Parliament, ‘the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing’.

‘America could not be unaware of the ugly State terrorism that the Indian government is ruthlessly practicing against the minorities in general and Sikhs in particular. In Brahmin India all men are equal except the Dalit’s, the Sikhs, the Muslims and the Christians, Despite the draconian laws and the controlled media, stories of brutal massacres, inhuman torture and fake encounters have been recorded by eminent men of conscience, These stories expose the hypocrisy of the Indian government. The predicament of Sikhs in India is far worse than that of the Blacks in South Africa, Yet America has been feigning ignorance and has refrained from speaking up even for the basic human rights of the Sikhs, Rather the State Department has been speaking the language of the Indian rulers and blaming Sikhs for the so called ‘separatist’ activities.

America insists on ignoring the real problem and appears to be over-sensitive about the Soviet factor in the South East Asia. The problem, in effect, lies in Government of India’s obduracy in treating an essentially political problem as a law and order situation and in its determination to perpetuate Hindu dominance. If only American people were to learn about the horrid fate of Sikhs, there would, then, spontaneously surface such vocal concern and sympathy as ‘would compel the State Department to exercise its moral pressure with the Indian government to ensure justice for Sikhs. Sikhs must, therefore, use every conceivable mean and opportunity to project the truth and expose the Indian fraud.

Article extracted from this publication >> July 11, 1986