SIKHS CELEBRATE BIRTHDAY OF GURU NANAK, FIRST SIKH GURU
Extensions of Remarks

HON. EDOLPHUS TOWNS
OF NEW YORK
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Wednesday, December 6, 2006

Mr. TOWNS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today because earlier this month, about 15,000 Sikhs from all over the world celebrated the birth of the first Sikh guru, Guru Nanak, in his birthplace, Nankana Sahib, which is now in Pakistan. The Sikhs in attendance chanted slogans of "Khalsitan Zindabad'' calling for the liberation of the Sikh homeland, Khalistan . Over 3,000 Sikhs from Punjab were in attendance and many of them commented on how much better they were treated in Pakistan than in their own country.

A delegation of Sikhs met with Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz. He pledged to build a road from Kartarpur, where Guru Nanak died and where there is a shrine to him, to the Indian border if India would build a road to the border also and repair a bridge at the border. This would enable Sikhs to go to Kartarpur and honor Guru Nanak whenever they choose to do so. I call on the governments of Punjab and India to build this road and fix the bridge.

The Pakistani government also issued an open invitation to Sikhs to come and visit Nankana Sahib whenever they wish with no restrictions, although they did express concern that agents of India's Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) would use this to come in and try to undermine Pakistan. That is a very real and legitimate concern.

It is tragic and offensive that the Sikhs who went to Nankana Sahib felt that they were better treated in Pakistan than in their own country. That just shows why the Sikhs in Punjab need to be free of Indian rule. The sovereignty of the Sikhs , recognized in the Indian constitution, was used in cancelling Punjab's water deals with India . It should be used by the Legislative Assembly to declare Punjab's independence, as the Sikhs did on October 7, 1987. Such a declaration from the legislature would carry a lot of weight.

Mr. Speaker, the time has come for the beacon of freedom, America, to take a stand. We can help to stop the tyranny and the repression by stopping our aid and trade to India until full human rights are restored to all people there. And it is time for a free and fair plebiscite in Punjab, Khalistan on the question of independence, as well as Kashmir, Nagalim, and wherever people seek their freedom. India promised Kashmir a plebiscite in 1948 and it has not yet delivered on the promise. When will "the world's largest democracy'' decide that it is time for the people to enjoy the most basic of democratic rights, the right to self-determination? If India is the democratic country it says it is, what could be wrong with a simple vote?

I request the permission of the House to insert the Council of Khalistan's press release on the events in Nankana Sahib into the RECORD at this time.

Sikhs Celebrate Guru Nanak’s Birthday With Reverence

WASHINGTON, D.C., November 16, 2006 – More than 15,000 Sikhs came from the United States, Punjab, Thailand, France, the United Kingdom, Germany, and around the world to Nankana Sahib celebrate the 537th anniversary of the birth of their first Guru, Guru Nanak, founder of the Sikh religion. Guru Nanak was born in 1469. This is he highest number of Sikhs who have attended the event since the partition of India. Over 3,000 Sikhs came from Punjab. At the celebration, the air was filled with slogans of “Khalistan Zindabad.”

The delegation met with Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz in Islamabad on November 4. He welcomed the Sikhs with open arms and offered a road link between Kartarpur and the Indian border if India agrees to build a road on its side and repair the bridge. He said Sikhs were free to visit Kartarpur whenever they want without a visa. The Pakistani government has issued an open invitation to Sikhs from around the world to come and visit Nankana Sahib with no restrictions. Any genuine Sikh who wants to come and visit may do so. There was some concern about agents of India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) coming to destabilize Pakistan, however.

The government and people of Pakistan welcomed the Sikhs and treated them so well that Sikhs from Punjab asked why they were treated so well in Pakistan, which is not our country, but in the Sikh homeland, Punjab, Khalistan, the Indian government does not treat them fairly. India attacked the Golden Temple, the center and seat of Sikhism, in June 1984. Since then, the Indian government has murdered over 250,000 Sikhs and another 52,268 are being held as political prisoners, according to a report by the Movement Against State Repression (MASR.) India has killed over 90,000 Muslims in Kashmir as well as 2,000 to 5,000 Muslims in Gujarat, over 300,000 Christians in Nagaland, and tens of thousands of Assamese, Bodos, Dalits (the dark-skinned, aboriginal “Untouchables”), Manipuris, Tamils, and other minorities. In 1994, the U.S. State Department reported that the Indian government had paid over 41,000 cash bounties for killing Sikhs. A MASR report quotes the Punjab Civil Magistracy as writing “if we add up the figures of the last few years the number of innocent persons killed would run into lakhs [hundreds of thousands.]” The Indian Supreme Court called the Indian government's murders of Sikhs “worse than a genocide.”

Last year, 35 Sikhs were charged and arrested in Punjab for making speeches in support of Khalistan and raising the Khalistani flag. “How can making speeches and raising a flag be considered crimes in a democratic society?” asked Dr. Gurmit Singh Aulakh, President of the Council of Khalistan, which leads the peaceful, democratic, nonviolent struggle to liberate the Sikh homeland from Indian occupation. The Gujarat massacre was pre-planned, according to a police officer who spoke to Indian newspapers. Nuns have been raped, priests have been
murdered, churches have been burned, Christian prayer halls and schools have been attacked, and police broke up a Christian religious festival with gunfire.

India is also destroying Sikhs economically. The Indian government fixes the price for fertilizer very high and the price for produce very low so Sikh farmers can’t even get the cost of production for their crops. This year it fixed the wheat price at Rs 750 per quintal. Even Badal demanded Rs 1000 per quintal. If Punjab farmers could sell their produce across the border in Pakistan and the Middle East, they could easily get close to Rs1,500 per quintal and would be able to make a living. India seeks to destroy the Sikh Nation religiously, economically, and politically.

“Freedom is the God-given right of every nation and every human being,” said Dr. Aulakh. Sikhs must be allowed to have a free and fair plebiscite on the issue of Khalistan. In a democracy, you cannot continue to rule against the wishes of the people. As former Senator George Mitchell said about the Palestinians, “the essence of democracy is the right to self-determination.” “We must reclaim the sovereignty of the Sikh Nation,” Dr. Aulakh said. Dr. Aulakh appealed to the Akali Dal and other Sikh parties in the Punjab Legislative Assembly to pass a resolution documenting all the mistreatment and economic exploitation of the Sikhs by the Indian government since independence.

India diverts Punajb’s river water, its natural resource, to neighboring Haryana and Rajasthan without any compensation despite Chief Minister Amarinder Singh cancelling Punjab’s water agreements with India. We salute Captain Amarinder Singh for this legislation. In the legislation, the Legislative Assembly explicitly affirmed the sovereignty of Punjab as described in the Indian constitution. This same sovereignty can be used by the Assembly to declare independence. India will be helpless and the Sikh diaspora will help to free Khalistan.

India is on the verge of disintegration. Kashmir is about to separate from India. As L.K. Advani said, “if Kashmir goes, India goes.” History shows that multinational states such as India are doomed to failure. Countries like Austria-Hungary, India’s longtime friend the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, and others prove this point. India is not one country; it is a polyglot like those countries, thrown together for the convenience of the British colonialists. It is doomed to break up as they did. Currently, there are 17 freedom movements within India’s borders. It has 18 official languages. “We hope that India’s breakup will be peaceful like Czechoslovakia’s, not violent like Yugoslavia’s,” Dr. Aulakh said. “Montenegro, which has less than a million people, has become a sovereign country and a member of the United Nations,” he said. “Now it is the time for the Sikh Nation of Punjab, Khalistan to become independent. The sooner the better.”

“The only way that the Sikh nation can flourish and progress is in a sovereign, independent Khalistan,” said Dr. Aulakh. “As Professor Darshan Singh, former Jathedar of the Akal Takht, said, ‘If a Sikh is not a Khalistani, he is not a Sikh,’” Dr. Aulakh said. “We must free Khalistan now.”

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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.