Khalistan Calling newsletter dated February 04, 2004.

The three million strong diaspora Sikhs, unlike their 21 million compatriots captive in India, are free and prosperous and they are determined - as they believe it is their destiny and pray for it every day; "Raj Karayga Khalsa; (Sikhs will rule) Aaaqi Rahaya nah Koyay: Khawar hoiyey Sab Milaingay; Bachay Sharan Joh Hoyay; DILLI Takht Par Bahay Gee; Aap Guru Kee Fauj; Chattar Chulayn gay Sis Par; Barri Karaygee Mauj," - to create a sovereign, democratic, egalitarian Sikh buffer state of KHALISTAN in South Asia, stretching from the Jumna river on the East, to the Pakistan border on the West, China on the Northeast and Kashmir on the North, playing its God-given role of a granary for countries of Central Asia and acting as a 'bridge of prosperity' and commerce between Central and South Asia.

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PUNJAB CHIEF MINISTER CAPTAIN AMRINDER SINGH

HUMILIATED AT THE BORDER
ON HIS RETURN FROM A VISIT TO PAKISTAN

WHERE HE WAS GIVEN UNPRECIDENTED HEAD OF STATE PROTOCOL

-------

Indian Customs put down the Chief Minister

in the presence of his Pakistanis hosts

by refusing to allow entry to an Arabian horse

gifted to Amrinder Singh by the Pakistani Punjab Chief minister

BY

Dr. Amarjit Singh

Khalistan Affairs Centre

956-National Press Building, Washington DC 20045 USA

Tel: 202-637-9210 :: Fax: 202-637-9211

INTERNET SITE INFORMATION:-

Web Site: www.khalistan-affairs.org

E-mail Address:

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Washington DC: February 04, 2004: The 'head-of-state' level protocol, security and the warm welcome given by the Pakistan government (and people) to the 'Quizling' Punjab Chief minister, Captain Amrinder Singh, (during his recent visit - January 29-31, 2004 - to Pakistani Punjab) was in marked contrast to the public humiliation the man had to suffer as a Sikh at the hands of the bigoted Indian BJP administration, before and after his visit which is symptomatic of how Sikhs are treated as second class citizens in the Indian oligarchy.

Sometime in early January 2004 the Pakistani Punjab Chief minister, Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, telephoned Chief minister Captain Amrinder Singh inviting him to visit Lahore, Pakistan, as a state guest during the three day World Punjabi Conference being held there from January 29 to January 31, 2004. Captain Amrinder Singh, a son of Maharajah Yadavinder Singh and grandson of Maharajah Bhupinder Singh of the Patiala dynasty, accepted the invitation on the phone and thus became the first Chief minister of Punjab to be officially invited to Pakistan - Badal had visited Lahore as a part of the Vajpayee entourage in 1999. As a scion of the Patiala ruling family, known for boot-licking of every, and any ruler, of Delhi after the British capture of that city in 1803, Captain Amrinder Singh decided to show his docility by writing to the Indian External Affairs ministry in Delhi seeking its permission to visit Pakistan - he didn't have to do that. Sirdar Simranjit Singh Mann, Member of the Indian Parliament had defiantly crossed over to Pakistan alone on April 11, 2002 for a four days visit to Gurdwara Punja Sahib without getting anyone's permission in India despite the fact that his personal attendants were detained at the border and not allowed to accompany him. > http://www.khalistan-affairs.org/Main/K_Calling/kc04172002.htm <

To the bigoted Fundamentalist-Brahmin Mandarins of the Indian Foreign Office any Sikh/Muslim get-together is suspicious and is a matter of concern as they don't trust any turboned Sikh, no matter how loyal and want to keep him captive inside Punjab's barbed wire 'Berlin Wall'. These Manadarins, like any typical Indian Babu, just sat on Captain Amrinder's letter, without even acknowledging the Punjab Chief minister's petition seeking permission to be allowed to visit Pakistan. Earlier in October 2003, the Indian Foreign Office, had used the same tactics and did not allow the Punjab Chief minister, Amrinder Singh to lead a delegation of Punjabi industrialists to China to explore various possibilities of trade and investment like other Chief ministers of other Indian states do all the time. The Indian government obviously does not like any Sikh-Chinese relationship either.

When there was no responce from the Union government in Delhi, despite numerous phone calls, the angry Punjab Chief minister Captain Amrinder Singh went public, according to the Tribune of January 21, 2004, and called off the Pakistan visit. A January 20 Chandigarh-datelined report, filed by Sarbjit Dhaliwal, in that newspaper says, "that upset over the "negative attitude" regarding the clearance of his foreign visit by the Union Government, the Punjab Chief Minister, Capt Amarinder Singh, late this evening dropped his proposed visit to Lahore in the last week of this month. Sources said the Chief Minister discussed the issue with his senior officers and decided to call off the visit to Pakistan. The sources said the Chief Minister was of the view that as the Union Government had not responded to his request for permission till date, the idea to go to Lahore should be dropped. He was to go there to attend the World Punjabi Conference."

Captain Amrinder Singh, is a Chief minister of a state, not an ordinary citizen. Even he had to humble himself and fly to Delhi on January 21, 2004, and beg Prime minister Vajpayee to intercede with the Foreign Office to allow him to proceed to Pakistan for three days as he had promised his Pakistani counterpart that he would come. Finally on January 23, 2004, 48 hours after the Prime ministers order, the Indian Foreign Office relented, and granted the Chief minister permission but said nothing about his ten-member entourage. Permission for the 10-member delegation was grudgingly granted, after a lot of to and fro, about 24 hours before the departure date of Jan. 29. Apart from the Chief Minister, the 10-member Punjab delegation comprised Mr Partap Singh Bajwa, Public Works Minister; Mr Avtar Henry, Food and Civil Supplies Minister; Mr Jasjit Randhawa, Minister for Public Health; Mr Surinder Singla, MLA; Rana Gurmit Singh, Political Secretary to the Chief Minister; Mr Jai Singh Gill, Chief Secretary, Mr D.S. Jaspal, Principal Secretary, Public Relations, Tourism and Culture; Mr Parag Jain, DIG CM Security; and Ananya Gautam, SP, CM Security.

After the above month-long humiliation and hassle at the hands of the Indian government Punjab Chief Minister finally held a press conference before crossing into Pakistan by road on January 29. According to the Tribune of January 30, 2004, Capt Amarinder Singh said he would take up issues like renovation of Sikh shrines with his Pakistani counterpart. He said he was going to Pakistan to establish cordial relations between the two Punjabs, besides exploring avenues of bilateral trade. He said he was keen on discussing certain economic issues with the Lahore Chamber of Trade and Commerce at a scheduled meeting regarding the possibility of opening trade in foodgrains and other crops between the two states. The Chief minister pointed out that wheat was being sold at Rs 670 per quintal in India whereas it was Rs 1,260 per quintal in Pakistan. Once trade was permitted, Punjab could import cotton from Pakistan and export wheat to the Pakistani Punjab. Maybe the efforts to thwart the Chief Minister's visit to Pakistan was motivated by the fear that wheat price will go up if any of it is exported to Pakistan, obviously at a higher price which will be good for the beleaduered Sikh farmer but will be bad news for the Banias.

The Chief Minister said he would not discuss the matter of getting Sikh youths released from Pakistani jails as the issue did not fall under his jurisdiction. He replied in the affirmative when asked if he would raise the issue of bringing back certain ancient epics and rare manuscripts from Lahore University to Punjab. He said he was in favour of a cultural exchange programme between the two states.

After the press conference Chief minister Amrinder Singh and party left for Pakistan and were received at Wagah, on January 29, 2004 (2 PM), by the Pakistani Punjab Chief minister, Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi and his cabinet with full fanfare, drums, dancers, guards et al., as a guest with 'Head of State' protocol and security, something no Sikh leader has received from a foreign power in the 20th and 21st centuries. In Lahore Captain Amrinder Singh stayed at the State Guest House and besides attending the World Punjabi Conference was also received by the Punjab Governor. He also visited the Samadhi of Maharajah Ranjit Singh, Gurdwara Dera Sahib and the mazar of Sain Mian Mir in Lahore and Gurdwara Janamasthan in Nankana Sahib as well. During his stay in Lahore the Pakistani Punjab Chief minister presented a beautiful silver grey Arabian horse to Captain Amrinder Singh which was much appreciated.

A 145-member group, including Punjabi writers, scholars, folk artistes, mediapersons, led by Minister for Higher Education Harnam Dass Johar from Indian Punjab also attended the three-day World Punjabi Conference. On the last day of the visit the two Chief ministers held a joint press conference where Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi and his Indian Punjab counterpart Capt Amrinder Singh said they would work to develop mutual relations in the fields of agriculture, art and culture, sports and education.

At the press conference Captain Amrinder Singh in answer to a question tried to show his patriotism for India when he falsely claimed that no Khalistan movement ever existed in his province. Speaking from both sides of the mouth he went on to deny that hundreds of Sikhs had been wrongfully detained by the government and claimed that "people using the nomenclature were grabbing properties and extorting money and the movement had no ideological basis." Some people, he said who broke the law were convicted by courts, but this was another matter. Amrinder Singh boasted that the minorities in India were enjoying full protection. India had secular credentials. It had been a secular country in the past and would remain so in future. Captain Amrinder Singh has not heard of the Gujarat pogrom of 2002 where two thousand Muslims were murdered in the same manner as the over ten thousand Sikhs were murdered in the Delhi pogrom of November 1984.

Captain Amrinder Singh who had been treated like a head of state by the Pakistani Punjab government was seen off at the Wagah border by the Pakistani Punjab Chief minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi with great pomp and show. Captain Amrinder Singh's boast at the earlier press conference about India's secular credentials and minorities enjoying full protection came to haunt the Chief minister as soon as he set foot on Indian soil at the Wagah border accompanied by the beutiful grey Arabian horse, gifted to him earlier by his Pakistani hosts who were standing a few feet away.

A petty Indian customs official, a Hindu, (obviously under orders from the higher authority in New Delhi) denied entry to the horse claiming that Wagah is not a specified port for livestock and the animals had to be kept under surveillance for quarantine for a month in Lahore from where it would have to be taken to Delhi for similar month-long tests before it could enter Indian occupied Punjab.

The red-faced Punjab Chief minister Captain Amrinder Singh, who is proud to be an Indian and carries his nationality on his sleeve, - and denies the Khalistan aspiration of the Sikhs who repeat the Sikh prayer, 'Ray Karayga Khalsa', for it every day in every Gurdwara - looked very uncomfortable and put down with the 'loss of face'. Here was a Rent-a-Sikh who was praising Indian secularism and trumpeted how it protects the minorities just a few hours earlier in Lahore. After the public insult the Punjab Chief minister Captain Amrinder Singh turned around and walked a few feet into Pakistani side of the border and sheepishly asked the amused Pakistanis to take back the Arabian steed gifted to him earlier. He probably got divine punishment for telling a lie, during his press conference in Lahore, about the Khalistan movement and for denying the fact that thousands of Sikh Freedom Fighters are still incarcerated in Indian jails.

Khalistan Zindabad : Long Live Khalistan

 

Khalistan Calling weekly newsletter (and its archives) can be viewed on the South Asia Tribune site at:

> http://www.satribune.com >

by clicking on the 'SIKH CORNER" on the Front Page.

It can also be seen by clicking at: > http://www.khalistan-affairs.org/Main/K_Calling/kc02042004.htm <.

The above newsletter has been published in the leading Punjabi-English newspaper of the Sikh diaspora, Surrey Canada-based CHARHDI KALA, Issue of February 04 - 10, 2004 :: Vol. 20 : No. 05. Last week's Khalistan Calling is available on the Khalistan Affairs Centre website at: (> http://www.khalistan-affairs.org/Main/K_Calling/kc01282004.htm <) The Khalistan Calling newsletter was also published in the first week of February 2004, in the Vancouver-based PUNJAB GUARDIAN, and AKAL GUARDIAN, Toronto-based SANJH SAVERA, Calgary-based SIKH VIRSA and numerous other Punjabi/English weekly and monthly publications which cater to the three million strong Sikh diaspora in Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia.

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