COUNCIL OF KHALISTAN SENDS NEW YEAR GREETINGS
(Extensions of Remarks - February 15, 2006)

HON. EDOLPHUS TOWNS
OF NEW YORK
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2006

Mr. TOWNS. Mr. Speaker, last month the Council of Khalistan sent out New Year's greetings to the Sikh Nation. In the letter the Council noted that the flame of freedom still burns brightly in Punjab, Khalistan, despite India's ongoing effort to stamp out the freedom movement. In both January and June of 2005, Sikhs were arrested for making speeches in support of freedom Khalistan, the Sikh homeland, and raising the Khalistani flag. When did making speeches and hoisting a flag become crimes in a democracy?

The letter took note of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's apology to the Sikh Nation for the massacres of November 1984 that killed over 20,000 Sikhs. This clearly admits India's culpability for this horrible massacre. While that apology is a positive step and we applaud it, it was not accompanied by any compensation to the victims' families. Nor was it accompanied by an apology for the military attack on the Golden Temple or any other Indian government atrocity against the Sikhs. Nevertheless, it shows India's awareness of the rising tide of freedom in Punjab, Khalistan.

Last month, the Indian government bulldozed the homes of Sikh farmers in Uttaranchal Pradesh, farms they had worked all their lives for, and expelled them from the state. This is the height of discrimination against the Sikhs. No Sikhs are allowed to own land in Rajasthan and in Himachal Pradesh, but outsiders are allowed to buy land in Punjab. The government encourages Hindus to buy land in Punjab. Is this secularism in action? Is this democracy at work?

Mr. Speaker, these are just the latest acts against the legitimate freedom movement in Punjab, Khalistan. The repression has been ongoing. The Indian government has murdered over 250,000 Sikhs, according to figures compiled by the Punjab State Magistracy and human-rights groups. In addition, the Movement Against State Repression, MASR--an organization that should be unnecessary in a democratic state--reported in one of its studies that the Indian government admitted to holding 52,268 Sikh political prisoners. Some have been held since 1984! These are in addition to tens of thousands of other political prisoners, according to Amnesty International. And the Indian government has killed over 90,000 Kashmiri Muslims, over 300,000 Christians in Nagaland, tens of thousands of Christians and Muslims throughout the country, and tens of thousands of Assamese, Bodos, Dalits, Manipuris, Tamils, and other minorities. And the repression continues, not only in Punjab, Khalistan, but throughout the country.

We can and must do something about it. We can stop our aid and trade with India until it respects full human rights for all people living within its borders. And we can and should declare our support for self-determination in Punjab, Khalistan, in Kashmir, as promised to the UN in 1948, in Nagalim, and wherever the people are seeking freedom. India claims to be democratic and the essence of democracy is the right to self-determination. Democracies also respect the human rights of the minority.

Why is India afraid to put this simple question to a free and fair vote? Where is its commitment to democratic principles, Mr. Speaker? Mr. Speaker, I would like to place the Council of Khalistan's open letter in the Record at this time.

January 23, 2006

NEW YEAR’S MESSAGE TO THE KHALSA PANTH
May Guru Bless the Khalsa Panth in 2006
With Freedom, Happiness, Unity, and Prosperity
Freedom Lies in the Heart of the Sikh Nation; No Force Can Suppress It

Dear Khalsa Ji:

WAHEGURU JI KA KHALSA, WAHEGURU JI KI FATEH!

Happy New Year to you and your family and the Khalsa Panth. May 2006 be your best year ever. I wish you health, joy, and prosperity in the new year.

The flame of freedom continues to burn brightly in the heart of the Sikh Nation. No force can suppress it. The arrests of Sikh activists, mostly from Dal Khalsa, last January and again in June merely for raising the Khalistani flag and making pro-Khalistan speeches shows that the movement to free our homeland is on the rise. It has gotten the attention of the world.

The Indian government is reacting to the rising tide of freedom for the Sikh Nation. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh apologized to the Sikh Nation for the Delhi massacres of November 1984 that killed over 20,000 Sikhs. It is good that he apologized and it clearly shows India’s responsibility, but what good does it do the Sikh Nation? Where are the apologies for the golden Temple attack and the other atrocities? Where is the compensation for the victims’ families?

Earlier this month, Sikh farmers were expelled from Uttaranchal Pradesh and their land was seized. They were beaten up by the police. Their homes were bulldozed by paratroopers. Their homes in many cases were built using their life savings and by their own hands. We condemn this act of state terrorism by the government of Uttaranchal Pradesh. As you know, Sikhs are prohibited from buying land in Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh. Now Uttaranchal Pradesh joins that list. Yet there are no restrictions on land ownership in Punjab by non-Sikhs. People from anywhere can buy land in Punjab, including people from Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh. India is trying to subvert Khalistan’s independence by overrunning Punjab with non-Sikhs while keeping Sikhs from escaping the brutal repression in Punjab. We must redouble our efforts to free our homeland, Punjab, Khalistan. That is the only way to keep these atrocities from continuing and to protect the Sikh Nation. This is a direct challenge to the Sikh leadership, irrespective of their party affiliation.

Any organization that sincerely supports Khalistan deserves the support of the Sikh Nation. However, the Sikh Nation needs leadership that is honest, sincere, consistent, and dedicated to the cause of Sikh freedom. But we should only support sincere, dedicated, honest leaders. We must be careful if we are to continue to move the cause of freedom for Khalistan forward in 2006 as we did in 2005.

The Akali Dal conspired with the Indian government in 1984 to invade the Golden Temple to murder Sant Bhindranwale and 20,000 other Sikh during June 1984 in Punjab. If Sikhs will not even protect the sanctity of the Golden Temple, how can the Sikh Nation survive as a nation?

The Akali Dal has lost all its credibility. The Badal government was so corrupt openly and no Akali leader would come forward and tell Badal and his wife to stop this unparallelled corruption. Now Badal and his son have accused Chief Minister Amarinder Singh of being tied in with Khalsitanis. If this were true, what would be wrong with it? The Akali leaders also walked out when I predicted at a seminar around the celebration of Guru Nanak’s birthday that Khalistan will soon be free, a prediction that was greeted with multiple enthusiastic shouts of “Khalistan Zindabad.” How will these Akalis, including Badal and his son, account for themselves? Remember the words of former Jathedar of the Akal Takht Professor Darshan Singh: “If a Sikh is not a Khalistani, he is not a Sikh.” Badal and his son are not Sikhs.

The corruption of the Badal government was just part of a pattern of corruption in India. Jobs are sold, legislative seats are rigged, judges preside over cases being tried by their family members, and so many other forms of corruption occur. As Dr. M.S. Rahi has pointed out in his excellent new paper on the corruption, this kind of corruption leads to the kind of atrocities that have unfortunately become so routine in India.

The Council of Khalistan has stood strongly and consistently for liberating our homeland, Khalistan, from Indian occupation. For over 18 years we have led this fight while others were trying to divert the resources and the attention of the Sikh Nation away from the issue of freedom in a sovereign, independent Khalistan. Yet Khalistan is the only way that Sikhs will be able to live in freedom, peace, prosperity, and dignity. It is time to start a Shantmai Morcha to liberate Khalistan from Indian occupation.

Never forget that the Akal Takht Sahib and Darbar Sahib are under the control of the Indian government, the same Indian government that has murdered over a quarter of a million Sikhs in the past twenty years. These institutions will remain under the control of the Indian regime until we free the Sikh homeland, Punjab, Khalistan, from Indian occupation and oppression and sever our relations with the New Delhi government.

The Sikhs in Punjab have suffered enormous repression at the hands of the Indian regime in the last 25 years. Over 50,000 Sikh youth were picked up from their houses, tortured, murdered in police custody, then secretly cremated as “unidentified bodies.” Their remains were never even given to their families! More than a quarter of a million Sikhs have been murdered at the hands of the Indian government. Another 52,268 are being held as political prisoners. Some have been in illegal custody since 1984! Even now, the capital of Punjab, Chandigarh, has not been handed over to Punjab, but remains a Union Territory. How can Sikhs have any freedom living under a government that would do these things?

Sikhs will never get any justice from Delhi. Ever since independence, India has mistreated the Sikh Nation, starting with Patel’s memo labelling Sikhs “a criminal tribe.” What a shame for Home Minister Patel and the Indian government to issue this memorandum when the Sikh Nation gave over 80 percent of the sacrifices to free India.

How can Sikhs continue to live in such a country? There is no place for Sikhs in supposedly secular, supposedly democratic India. Let us work to make certain that 2006 is the Sikh Nation’s most blessed year by making sure it is the year that we shake ourselves loose from the yoke of Indian oppression and liberate our homeland, Khalistan, so that all Sikhs may live lives of prosperity, freedom, and dignity.

Sincerely,

Dr. Gurmit Singh Aulakh
President
Council of Khalistan

This material is circulated by the Council of Khalistan, which is registered with the Department of Justice (DOJ) in Washington, DC under the Foreign Agents Registration Act as an agent of the Council of Khalistan, Golden Temple, Amritsar, Punjab. The material is filed with the DOJ where the required registration is available for inspection. Registration does not indicate approval of the contents by the U.S. Government.