bajwa@nacho.DEC (BAJ DTN 381-2851) (11/05/85)
The following memorandum was presented at the UN during
its 40th anniversary celeberations by protesting Sikhs. It
mostly talks about human rights violation against the Sikhs
in India. I think its worth reading if one is attempting to
guage the general mood of the Sikh population in North
America. The excerpts from various publications are
intersting in that they shed quite a different light on the
goings on in the Punjab over the last several years than that
projected by the media (with most sources at least
semi-controlled by the Indian govt.).
THE PUNJAB CRISIS - FACTS AND FICTION
The 40th anniversary of the United Nations is a
befitting occasion to, once again, "reaffirm faith in
fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of human
person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations
large and small," (U.N. Charter), and to remind ourselves
that "the inherent dignity," and "inalienable rights of all
members of the human family is the foundation of freedom,
justice and peace in the world." (Universal Declaration of
Human Rights).
It is a time for commemoration, candid reflection and
for prayers for millions of innocent victims of violence --
by individuals, groups, and states. While the leaders of the
world have assembled in New York to renew their pledge for
peace among the nations, more and more innocent people are
suffering in jails, subjected to brutality and torture and
murdered in fake encounters by state agencies, which are
expected to protect the life and property of citizens.
In this context, the Punjab crisis is a classic case in
point. Throughout their 500 year history, the Sikhs have
stood for justice, human dignity, freedom of religion,
respect for cultural diversity and for universal brotherhood
and sisterhood.
During the last four decades, the Sikhs have been
struggling to retrieve their distinct status as a national
minority, which was lost during the partition fiasco of 1947.
They have been asking for a genuine autonomy in the Punjab,
where the Sikh heritage could pick up the "bits of shattered
rainbow," to borrow Tennessee Williams' words. Instead of
dealing with the genuine Sikh grievances in a candid and
forthright manner, the ruling party relied on intimidation,
misinformation and distortion through a semi-controlled mass
media -- which has surpassed the worst fears of George
Orwell.
The following observations by many eminent Indians and
foreigners -- journalist, scholars, human rights advocates,
jurists and women's groups among them -- speak for
themselves:
"It is a pity that the Sikhs have to agitate,
struggle and sacrifice lives for their
constitutional demands, the kind of which are
usually granted automatically to other states and
communities."
Asha Bhatnagar
Hindu-Sikh Conflict: Causes and Cure
(London: Transatlantic India Times, 1983)
"When the agitation began...it was led by reasonable
men seeking a reasonable settlement of reasonable
demands. And at least three times there were
prospects of agreement...but each time Prime
Minister Indira Gandhi sabotaged the agreements."
Kuldip Nayar
(India Abroad, New York, June 22, 1984)
"That the Sikhs are one of the finest people is
recognized all over the world. Their superiority
has often given rise to a sense of inferiority
complex and hence jealousy towards them among other
communities in India...The sacrifices that this
community has made in the protection of our
motherland at all times of need are unparalleled and
exemplary."
"The ugly situation prevailing in Punjab would not
have taken place if the legitimate demands of the
Sikh community had been conceded. In fact, there
should have been no need for anyone to have agitated
for these demands in the first place if events had
moved on the principle of justice and fair play."
Bharat Kumar Baweja
(India Abroad, New York June 29, 1984)
"Extremist activities have emerged mainly after the
police atrocities, especially those at the Asiad and
Rasta-Roko satyagraha..."
"There is a truth in the Akali charge that some of
their supporters have been killed by police by fake
encounters."
S.M. Sathananthan, Editor
Hindu-Sikh Conflict:Causes and Cure
(London: Transatlantic India Times, 1983)
"The proud Sikhs of India have experienced two
embittering traumas that have radically altered
their sense of being the full members of a
pluralistic nation."
"The first was the bloody army assault in June (1984)
on the Sikhs' most sacred shrine, the Golden
Temple...The second shock was the savage wave of
murder, looting and arson -- centered on Sikh homes,
shops, taxis and factories -- that washed over
northern India after Indira Gandhi's assassination."
James M. Markham
The New York Times, November 11, 1984
"It was really like being a Jew in Czarist Russia or
Nazi Germany," commented Khushwant Singh, a
cosmopolitan Sikh historian...He recounted that "in
the past few days scores of distressed Sikh friends
had posed the same unsettling question: "Do we have
a place in this country?"
James M. Markham
The New York Times, November 11, 1984
"The pattern in each village appears to be the same.
The Army moves in during the early evening, cordons
a village, and announces over loudspeakers that
everyone must come out. All males between the ages
of 15 and 35 are trussed and blindfolded, then taken
away."
"Thousands have disappeared in the Punjab since the
Army operation began. The government has provided
no lists of names; families don't know if sons and
husbands are arrested, underground or dead."
Mary Anne Weaver
Christian Science Monitor,
October 15, 1985
"The attacks on members of the Sikh community in
Delhi and its suburbs......far from being a
spontaneous expression of "madness" and or popular
"grief and anger" at Mrs. Ganghi's assasination as
made out to be by the authorities, were the outcome
of a well-organized plan marked by acts of both
deliberate commissions and omissions by important
politicians of the Congress(I) at the top and by
authorities in the administration."
"The targets were primarily young Sikhs. They were
dragged out, beaten up and then burnt alive."
"In some areas...even children were not spared. We
also came across reports of gang-rape of women."
"Policemen were reading newspapers and drinking tea
inside the car while the arson was going on all
around."
Rajni Kothari and Gobinda Mukhoty
Eminent Indian scholars and Human Rights
Advocates
Who Are the Guilty? In eye-witness
accounts published by People's Union for
Democratic Rights,
New Delhi (November 1984)
"Instead of trying to protect innocent victims, the
police, except in a solitary instance, were either
utterly indifferent or positively hostile to the
Sikhs." "The fact that 20 percent of Delhi police --
who happened to be Sikh -- was removed and locked up
during the entire period of the violence, was a clear
indication to the police of Delhi how to deal with the
Sikhs."
V.M. Tarkunde, an advocate of the Supreme
Court of India, in a report prepared by the Citizens
for Democracy (January 1985)
"If the Sikhs, the valiant guardians of our Western
marches who have fully contributed to the independence
of our country and to its progress and prosperity, feel
injured or alienated, it weakens the fabric of our
society and the vitality of our nation."
S.M. Sikri
Former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court
of India, headed The Citizens' Commission,
which published a fact-finding report on
the massacre of the Sikhs (January 1985)
In a writ petition filed under public interest litigation in
the Supreme Court of India by the three highly respected
professors of Delhi University (Madhu Kishwar, Ruth Vanita and
Rakesh Bharadwaj) against the State of India, cases of many Sikh
women who were subjected to inhuman, degrading and atrocious
treatment were cited. A 45 year old Sikh woman, Gurdip Kaur, gave
the following testimony:
"They tore my clothes and stripped me naked," and raped
me right in front of my son."
"She said even nine to ten years old girls were
raped...The attackers first emptied the houses of men
who were burnt alive. After that, they dragged the
women...and gang raped them."
"The police officers, "stood by and watched violence,
arson, rape, looting and murder, without making any
attempt to intervene to protect citizens belonging to
the Sikh minority."
(Excerpts from Manushi: A Journal About
Women and Society (December 1984)
In a news dispatch from New Delhi, Steven Weisman reported:
"The new report, titled 'Oppression in Punjab,' contains
a foreword by judge V.M. Tarkunde, which accuses the
Government of 'inhuman barbarities' against the people
of Punjab,"
"It asserts that 'clearly innocent' people have been
arrested and that the police in the state had carried
out 'sadistic torture,' ruthless killings, fake
encounters, calculated ill treatment of women and
children..."
"The report, published by a group called Citizens for
Democracy...was banned and copies seized and
destroyed," by the Government
The New York Times, September 16, 1985
In another news dispatch, titled: "Brutality, Incompetence Blamed
for Making Sikh Turmoil Worse," Steven Weisman
observed:
"the political crisis over Sikh demands for greater
autonomy in the state of Punjab seems to have been
aggravated by police mistreatment of Sikhs there and
elsewhere."
The New York Times, September 1, 1985
Professor Madhu Kishwar of Delhi University, an eminent scholar,
human rights advocate and editor of a reputed women's
magazine, wrote in a recent article:
"no one blinks an eyelid when suspected extremists are
tortured and killed in police custody."
"Even before these arrests, the media had ascribed the
bomb blasts to "Sikh extremists" without a shred of
evidence. On what basis can we be so sure that these
are not agents provocateur of some communalists group
out to inflame hatred against the Sikhs?"
The Spokesman Weekly, July 14, 1985
The above captioned evidence is only the tip of the iceberg.
The U.N. should establish an International Commission of Inquiry
to investigate these charges of 'inhuman barbarities,' and
'sadistic torture'. The Commission should talk, face to face,
with thouands of Sikh widows, orphans, and the families of the
innocent victims of this State Terrorism, Inc.
ganpaty@ut-ngp.UTEXAS (S.Ganapathy) (11/07/85)
The refernced article was a very good one especially the quotes by respectable renowned authourities on the atrocities committed on the Sikh community at large following Mrs. Gandhi's death. There is no doubt about that fact. I think all right thinking indivijuals should condemn the acts and punish those responsible for it. Now since the persons who planned the acts are politicians in high positions in the congress(I) party the present leadership headed by Rajiv Gandhi is going to require hell of a lot of will, integrity and courage to own up the acts of injustice on sikhs and punish the guilty. I rarely doubt that it would rarely occur due to false pretext of not leeting down those who had stood by Mrs. Gandhi's family etc. (loyalty). I think the people in India and the press at large should see that the guilty are punished. What has happened to the sikhs could happen to any community in India which is at cross roads with the govt. While on the other hand I do not support militancy and violence to solve any prroblem. Violence begets more violence. There is not doubt the congress govt. headed by Mrs. Gandhi bungled in solving the Punjab crisis. This is a warning to the current leadership not to try to politically exploit any crisis but to solve it in a judicious and sincere manner before it grows out of hand. I think the process of healing should begin by the govt. first apologising to the sikhs for the atrocities committed on them , the sikh community should also publicly disown the militants and give up violence. I think it is also important for those Sikh brothern who live abroad and who are affluent not to subcribe,sponsor and subsidise acts of terror and violence. They should realise that their deeds and acts touches each and every sikh living in India. I ardently hope that the grevience of the sikhs would be amicably resolved and everyone would learn some good lessons out of this human tragedy. *** REPLACE THIS LINE WITH YOUR MESSAGE ***
rkp@mgweed.UUCP (Rakesh Khetarpal) (11/11/85)
> "The ugly situation prevailing in Punjab would not > have taken place if the legitimate demands of the > Sikh community had been conceded. In fact, there > should have been no need for anyone to have agitated > for these demands in the first place if events had > moved on the principle of justice and fair play." These demands were masterminded by some selfish Sikh politicians to gain power. The only way they could have done this was to create anti ruling-party feelings in the minds of people. Even if these demands had been immediatly conceded by the ruling party more similar demands would have followed. Indira Gandhi very well understood this. These demands were never important to the Sikh politicians nor they are today. You don't have to be a political pundit to understand what was behind the longoval agreement (there was an unwritten agreement that the congress will loose the election). Those politicians who could not get share of the pie with this agreement are still crying about the demands while others are now satisfied. > The first was the bloody army assault in June (1984) > on the Sikhs' most sacred shrine, the Golden > Temple... In the fight that took place bombs and gunfire used by Bhindrawale and his group were equally damaging to the Temple. So, why to blame only the army for the damage. Actually, "attack on the Golden Temple by the army" is a phrase mischievously propogated by some Sikhs to distort the facts and misguide people.