INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SIKH AFFAIRS NOVEMBER 2009 Volume 19 No. 2 Published By: The Sikh Educational Trust Box 60246 University of Alberta Postal Outlet EDMONTON, Alberta T6G 2S5 CANADA E-mail: <[email protected]> http://www.yahoogroups.com/group/IntJSA ISSN 1481-5435 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SIKH AFFAIRS Editorial Board ADVISORS Dr S S Dhami, MD Dr B S Samagh Dr Surjit Singh Prof Gurtej Singh, IAS Usman Khalid New York, USA Ottawa, CANADA Williamsville, NY Chandigarh Editor, J LISA, U K J S Dhillon “Arshi” M S Randhawa Dr Sukhjit Kaur Gill Gurmit Singh Khalsa MALAYSIA Ft. Lauderdale, FL CA Chandigarh AUSTRALIA Managing Editor and Editor in Chief: Dr Awatar Singh Sekhon The Sikh Educational Trust Box 60246, University of Alberta Postal Outlet EDMONTON, AB T6G 2S5 CANADA E-mail:<[email protected]> NOTE: Views presented by the authors in their contributions in the journal are their own and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Editor in Chief, the Editorial Advisors, or the publisher. SUBCRIPTION: US$85.00 per anum plus 5% GST plus postage and handling (by surface mail) for institutions and multiple users. Personal copies: US$30.00 plus & 5% GST plus postage and handling (surface mail). Orders for the current and forthcoming issues may be placed with the Sikh Educational Trust, Box 60246, Univ of AB Postal Outlet, EDMONTON, AB T6G 2S5 CANADA. E-mail: [email protected] The Sikh Leaders, Freedom Fighters and Intellectuals To bring an end to tyranny it is a must to punish the terrorist -Baba (General) Banda Singh Bahadar Sikhs have only two options: slavery of the Hindus or struggle for their lost sovereignty and freedom -Sirdar Kapur Singh, ICS, MP, MLA and National Professor of Sikhism I am not afraid of physical death; moral death is death in reality Saint-soldier Jarnail Singh Khalsa Martyrdom is our ornament -Bhai Awtar Singh Brahma (General) We do not fear the terrorist Hindu regime. We are tireless: we shall return home before freedom of Khalistan -General Labh Singh The coward Hindu regime will never achieve our surrender -Baba Gurbachan Singh Manochahal One must have superior morality and lifestyle than the person he is going to punish -Bhai Harjinder Singh Jinda and Bhai Sukhdev Singh Sukha My real life will begin from the moment of my martyrdom for the Panth Bhai Amrik Singh Khalsa The siege of Darbar Sahib is the siege of the Sikh Nation -Justice Ajit Singh Bains No power on the earth can stop the freedom of the Sikh Homeland - -Simranjit Singh Mann, MP Even they dismember my body, I will not surrender before the terrorist police chief KP Gill -Bhai Kanwar Singh Dhami We are alive, we are awakened, we are struggling and we shall surely win -The Declaration of the Sikh Nation The lessons of Guru Gobind Singh ji must be followed. No Sikh, whether a politician, sarpanch or jathedar, should be followed if they do not openly and unequivocally speak out for a free and sovereign Khalistan and encourage a peaceful movement -Dr Gurmit Singh, President, Council of Khalistan, Washington DC The goal of Khalsa Panth is sovereign Khalistan. The Akali government has backed away from it. It has lost its credibility with the Sikh Nation. Do not let these Akali leaders get away with it. It is our responsibility to liberate Khalistan. -Dr Gurmit Singh Aulakh Freedom is never given, it is won through preservance and struggle by peaceful means -Dr Gurmit Singh Aulakh Akali Party id dead -Dr Harjinder Singh Dilgeer The top priority of the Sikh Nation is to “Re-establish the Sovereignty of the Sikhs’ Holy and Historic Homeland, Punjab, Khalistan, by peaceful means.” -Dr Gurmit Singh Aulakh, President, Council of Khalistan, Washington DCPRINTED IN CANADA ISSN 1481-5435 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SIKH AFFAIRS NOVEMBER 2009 Volume 19 No. 2 CONTENTS Introduction Usman Khalid 1 From Tagore to Gandhi to Armed Forces’ attack on the Guru’s Darbar in 1984 Gurtej Singh 8 Everything is fine in the Sikh Homeland, Punjab (Under the Occupation of the alleged Indian democracy since 15th August, 1947). is it really so? Awatar Singh Sekhon 19 Dr Sekhon speaks at the XI session of the UN Human Rights Council 22 An undeclared war on the Sikh nation, Punjab: “Operation Bluestar” of June, 1984 Awatar Singh Sekhon 25 The Swiss Sikh Federation: Memorandum to the United Nations Human Rights Council 43 Preface: 25 years after assault on Durbar Sahib laying foundation of Khalistan Usman Khalis 44 Dr Sekhon writes to the Sikh leaders in Punjab NEWS, VIEWS, SHORT ARTICLES, ETC. 46 Immediate Press Release 11th November, 2009 Awatar Singh Sekhon 47 I am an important witness to Hhopal gas tragedy (India) B S Goraya 56 Joint Statement of Manipur people and other eastern states 59 China protect ‘Gwadar Port’ & topple Indian plot Shahid Qureshi 59 Dr Sekhon writes to : Sirdar Gurmit Singh Khalsa 48 The Hon Ansar Burney 49 Saleh [email protected] 51 Janab Randhawa 53 Hon Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada 55 [email protected] 48 Sardar Gurdip Singh Bains 48 The live scene of fight between two rival groupsat Vienna, Austria, Gurdwara 25 Slave nations 54 * * * Copyright © 2009 The Sikh Educational Trust ISSN 1481-5435 Call for papers: Submit your contributions, via electronic mail using the MS Office 10 programme, of academic interest only on the Sikh philosophy, and the Sikh Affairs. The authors of the accepted contributions for publication will be notified. RELEASED: 18th December, 2009 International Journal of Sikh Affairs 19, No. 2, 1-7, 2009© Introduction* (in “25 Years After 1984 Assault on Durbar Sahib Complex Laying Foundation of Khalistan (ed) Dr Awatar Singh Sekhon June 2009 ISBN 0-9548929-4-1.) Usman Khalid Director London Institute of South Asia I knew very little about India or the Sikhs until I started the The Government of India has used political carrot and sticks London Institute of South Asia. As its Director, I have come know to sideline the issue of Khalistan. It has sought to subvert the about the complex ethnic and caste mosaic, which is India. Behind faith by several gimmicks the purpose of all of which was to its colorful diversity there is a lot of pain inflicted by systematic ‘divide’ the Sikh nation. Such measures can be classified into two repression. Some have been the victims (the ‘untouchables’ who categories: are 65% of the population of India today) for so long that their cries of anguish are still inarticulate and their objectives still 1.Those that sharpen caste division within the Sikh nation by unclear. But there are three areas where the people are unable as measures like ‘reservation’ of seats in education and jobs for ‘low- well as unwilling to Hinduise. These are: 1. Muslim majority caste’ Sikhs. This has had the effect of splitting and polarising the Jammu and Kashmir, 2. Sikh majority Punjab, and 3. the tribal Sikhs and at the same time ‘hinduising’ them. That is because the peoples of Assam. Caste System is abhorrent to the Sikhs faith while it is the central feature of the Hindu faith. In the name of ‘positive discrimination’ The Kashmiri and Assamese struggles for self-determination of the low caste Sikhs, the central feature of the Hindu faith crept are the oldest, having started well before the partition of the back into the Sikh faith. British Empire in India in 1947; they are essentially international in nature. The Kashmiris wants to join Pakistan 2. Creating new sects or redefining old ones has been continually with which it shares its polity. Besides, their state is physically employed to ‘divide and rule’. Ravidasis now have separate linked to India by a few fragile bridges over River Ravi. Gurdwaras and wish to be classified as Dalits rather than Sikhs. Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) is still a part of India because of the Leaders of the Nirankari sect have been used by the Indian ineptitude of the Pakistani rulers – civil as well as military. The Intelligence to raise distractions whenever a new popular Sikhs seven states of Assam (with Sikkim as the eighth member of the leader came on the scene to espouse a popular cause. Nirankaris group) are starkly different to India in their culture, history, were used against Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale. More language and religion. These eight states of Assam also have a recently an impostor calling himself Gurmit Ram Raheem is very tenuous link with mainland India through the Siliguri preaching a composite faith asserting that all religions are the corridor. Left to decide their own destiny, they would choose same except that they call God by different names. There are even Myanmar and Tibet over India with whom they share history and new Sikh scriptures Dasanth Granth in circulation attributed to the long borders. It is only the Sikh struggle for self-determination Tenth Guru Gobind Singh, which is almost pornographic. that is entirely indigenous; it is also the most robust. Despite 25 years of efforts - offering every incentive and putting every Countless Hindu NGOs have emerged all over India ostensibly constraint - the Sikh national identity has crystallised even more, to ‘help’ the minorities in their fight against ‘State repression’. its leadership has alacrity and wisdom, and its objective is clear. There are many Hindu organisations demanding ‘impartial investigation’ of the events of 1984 – the assault on Durbar The objective of the Sikh nation is to have a sovereign state of Sahib in June and pogroms against the Sikh in Delhi in November their own – Khalistan - in areas where the Sikhs are in majority. the same year.