WASHINGTON: A bipartisan group of Congressional leaders, including several committee and subcommittee chairmen, wrote to Indian Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao protesting the ongoing detention of Sikh leader. Simranjit Singh Mann. Mann, a former Member of Parliament, was arrested January 5 after calling for a peaceful movement to achieve full independence for Khalistan, the independent Sikh nation declared on October 7, 1987.

Speaking to a Sikh conference on December 26, Mann asked the crowd of 50,000 to raise their hands if they supported freedom for Khalistan. Every hand was raised in a clear demonstration of the Sikh nation’s desire for a free Khalistan.

“We find it very troubling.” the letter says, “that a leader of Mr. Mann’s stature can be arrested for exercising his freedom of speech.” Mann was arrested under India’s Draconian, antidemocratic “Terrorist and Disruptive Acuities Act” (TADA), which the letter says has “been widely criticized by respected human rights organizations as falling far short of international standards for the protection of human rights.” The Washington Post has quoted one human rights activist as labeling TADA “a tool of absolute repression.”

Congressman Dan Burton, a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee and Chairman of the Southern Hemisphere Subcommittee, initiated the letter. Signatories to the letter included California’s Gary Condit, Gerald B.H. Solomon. Chairman of the powerful House Rules Committee, Commerce Committee Chairman Thomas J. Bliley, Africa Subcommittee Chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, and Subcommittee on Trade Chairman Philip M. Crane. Freshman Representative Enid Greene Waldholtz and Democrats like Ronald V.. Dellums, Esteban Edward Torres, James Traficant, Neil Abercrombie, and William J. Jefferson also signed the letter. In all 26 Members of Congress signed the letter, representing a bipartisan effort ranging across the spectrum.

“We are elated that these important Congressional leaders have spoken out so strongly about the repression of the Sikh nation by the tyrannical Indian regime,” said Dr. Gurmit Singh Aulakh, President of the Council of Khalistan. “Their support is helping to achieve freedom for Khalistan.”

Article extracted from this publication >> January 27, 1995