By Dr. Amarjit Singh

Washington D.C: July 15,1998: The day, "Nuclear Shudra", India, opened the nuclear "Pandora's box" with an explosion at Pokharan, on May 11, 1998, in Occupied Sikh Punjab's backyard (in an unsuccessful attempt to blast its way into the five-member "nuclear Brahmin's" club) also on that very day, a small time Punjabi "politician" correctly urged to the Punjab Chief Minister Mr. Parkash Singh Badal to demand from the Rajasthan government a withdrawal of a provocative, and racist, notification that debars Sikhs from purchasing agricultural land in that desert state. The non-riparian entity state, Rajasthan, on the other hand has been "stealing" millions of cusecs of Punjab's river waters, free of charge, every year, for the past half century via the Indira Gandhi and Bikaner canals.

To date, despite the passage of two months, Mr. Prakash Singh Badal, (who incidentally was shown contempt when his BJP partner, Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee did not even care to consult with him about the May 11 nuclear tests, being held in Sikh Punjab's backyard, at Pokharan) has not uttered a word against this disgusting executive order issued by an ungrateful BJP run Rajasthan government to exclude farmers of Sikh origin from the agriculture sector of that state. Sikh Punjab can provide millions of cusecs of life-giving rive water, free of charge, to non-riparian Rajasthan state every year but Sikhs can't buy agricultural land in that state! Bravo!

Does not the Punjab Chief Minister realize that the two canals (Indira Gandhi and Bikaner) which carry the water, stolen from the River Sutlej, to non-riparian Rajasthan, free of charge, meander through Sikh farmlands of the Malwa region, (completely destroying South Punjab agricultural land in the process, especially in the districts of Mansa and Mukatsar) with water logging and salinity, before disappearing in the thirsty sands of Rajasthan desert? Why can't Mr. Badal show some courage - or does he need two bangles from Ms. Jayalalitha to steel his spine - to call a spade a spade and tell the BJP rulers in Rajasthan where to get off ? Perhaps he can inhale some inspiration from the SGPC President, Gurcharan Singh Tohra, who last Friday, in a statement, took a firm stand on the "ethnic cleansing" planned for the Sikh pioneers of Udham Singh Nagar district who were being pushed into joining the new hilly Hindu majority Uttaranchel state being carved out of the U.P. - another BJP ruled state.

The interesting part for all the Sikhs to see, and learn while keeping the powder dry, is the wolfpack manners, in which all Hindu leaders hailing from the proposed area of Uttaranchel State have got together to bait the Sikh pioneers of the Terai region who with their sweat blood and tears have transformed a barren jungle into the most productive farmland's in India. As if stealing the Sutlej water was not enough, past Indian rulers added insult to injury by naming the bigger canal after Mrs. Indira Gandhi, which "lady", as the readers are well aware was "purified" in 1984 by Shaheed Beant Singh and Satwant Singh for ordering the earlier June 1984 massacre of Sikhs in Darbar Sahib.

If the Rajasthan BJP rulers do not want to give equal rights to the Sikh minority in their Hindu majority state, then maybe they should be told to dig some wells in the Rajasthan desert. Perhaps near Pokharan, as the Bikaner and Indira Gandhi canals, as the world is well aware, are "injurious to the health" of South Punjab? How about it Mr. Badal can't you, or anyone of your company, muster enough Sikhi, or enough courage, to cut these fundamentalist BJP fascists in non-riparian Rajasthan to size, and make them pay for the Sutlej water they have been stealing for over fifty years from Sikh Punjab? How about it Mr. Badal? How about showing some moral courage ?

In yet another BJP run state, Himachal Pradesh, a former part of Punjab the Sikhs are not permitted to buy land. A study conducted recently by the state pollution control board has revealed that hospital waste, from the state's thirty hospitals, (which have no incinerator treatment or disposal facilities not even in the Leprosy hospital) is finding its way into the Beas river which joins the Sutlej in Sikh Punjab just short of Harike. The study indicates that the hospital waste includes pathological waste, blood contaminated swabs, bio-medical waste, syringes, needles, sharp tissues, organs and toxic waste etc. The report also mentions that the district hospital at Mandi for example, dumps its entire waste in the Skodi Khud nala whose water flows into the nearby Beas river flowing through upper Sikh Punjab. Isn't it time Mr. Badal to talk to the BJP rulers in Simla to put an end to this brazen environmental pollution terrorism by hospitals in BJP-run Himachal Pradesh . This effects the health of millions of Sikhs in Punjab for whom the Beas river is a drinking water source?

In Delhi, a yet another BJP-run administration, in power for many years, the Hindu fundamentalist rulers have done nothing to punish the criminals of the opposition Congress party, who carried out a pogrom in which thousands of innocent Sikh men, women and children were murdered in November 1984. The present BJP rulers of India's capital city, have not even tried to rehabilitate the thousands of widows and orphans of the 1984 killings, the Delhi pogrom, carried out by the police and ruling Congress party thugs following the death of Mrs. Indira Gandhi. Fourteen years have passed and the Sikhs of Delhi are still seeking justice! Some justice!

Other then a minor cabinet post in the central government for Parkash Singh Badal junior, what has the ruling BJP done for its cringing, and obedient, Akali Dal coalition partners, (or for the 18 million Sikhs living in India) specially in Sikh Punjab, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh and Delhi, all BJP-ruled states? A big NOTHING!

Wake up, Mr. Badal!