Sikh Organizations have protested to India Abroad and India ‘West, the two Hindus newspapers, against their malicious reporting of Sikh related news and events. Ina telegram to Indian West, the World Sikh Organization described its feature on ‘Khalistan Lobby,” September 23, issue, as a “bundle of distortions, concoctions and extraneous data parading” and decried its “malicious yellow journalism.” In a separate telegram to India Abroad strong exception was taken to the report on Bidar killings. “Your story contains insidious insinuations blaming Sikhs for provoking Hindu mobs rather than condemning the coldblooded murder of innocent Sikh students,” said the telegram. The protest telegrams reflect the collective resentment of the Sikhs against the reprehensible campaign of vilification that these two newspapers have been systematically carrying on for quite a while to malign them perhaps out of their own communal allergy or may be to please their “benefactors” in Delhi.
India A broad’s coverage of the brutal killing of the Sikh Students at Bidar is a story churned in hatred and malignity.
Its reporter, Nupur Jain appears to have reproduced the story as dictated to him by the local Congress (I) MLC, Mr. Bhimana Khandre who runs a couple of educational institutions in the area. Mr. Khandre felt cheated of his plan to start a capitation fee based medical college at Bidar when the Karnataka government allowed the Sikh institutions to promote the medical college there. To sabotage the proposed Sikh medical college, he conspired with the local RSS and Shiv Sena units and executed a mini November 1984, holocaust. The crowd that attacked the Sikh students was carrying lathi of uniform size and colour. The pattern of killing was also the same. What the Indian Express described as “loss of innocent lives,” ‘was made to appear by Mr. Jain as killing of “sex maniacs”. His motive is obvious. He wants to preempt International Human Rights ‘groups and justice loving governments of the world from reacting to the communal hysteria of the Hindus in persecuting the Sikhs. His indirect justification of the killings is designed to sustain the illusion of some simple minded Sikhs who even today look for fair coverage in these Hindu newspapers.
The consternation of India West at what it called Khalistan Lobby’s “attempt to influence Indo American relations is a typical instance of its forked tongue. On the one hand, it is calculated to dissuade American Congressmen from voicing legitimate concern for the Sikh plight in India and on the other, it ridicules their commitment to human nights by parading irrelevant figures from ACLU records.
The joint resolution by twelve Congressmen, which was moved in the House by Hon. Dan Burton, called upon the U.S. government “not to give a dime in aid to India until Rajiv Gandhi stops the repression of Sikh rights.” The reporter was so much incensed by the resolution that he termed it as a pack of “half-truths” or a “fantasy of the author”. If the reporter honestly doubts the veracity of the concerns in the resolution, would it not be proper for him to persuade his masters in Delhi to allow an international commission of eminent jurists and human rights activists to visit Punjab and make a truthful report. Would it also not be proper to allow foreign journalists to independently cover the events rather than taking a few favorite ones on a guided tour of preselected places to meet thoroughly screened people? What is it that the government is trying to hide? Is it the truth about staged encounters, or murders in police custody, or deployment of specially recruited killer squads? Is the Indian government afraid of letting the world know what the Sikh population of Punjab really wants and feels? Let the world discover first hand whether the common Sikh was Happy at the so called “liberation” of the Golden Temple from the militants or whether he was filled with rage at its occupation by the Para military troops. Would the reporter persuade the Indian government to hold referendum to determine Sikh ascontpirations? Government of India knows well, even as the reporter himself knows well, that the Sikh freedom fighters enjoy full support of the Sikh masses. They are not looked upon as “terrorists,” as the reporter would have the world believe, but as jewels of the nation who have staked their lives not for any personal gain or fame but to uphold the honor, freedom and integrity of the Sikh nation.
The game of Sikh baiting has been going on for quite some time now, and these newspapers are not likely to give it up. It is not in their interest to report correctly and lose the generous patronage extended to them by the Indian government and its lackeys. However, Sikhs have become weary of their yellow journalism and do not feel comfortable in associating with them.
Article extracted from this publication >> October 7, 1988
