The following KHALISTAN CALLING newsletter has been
published in the leading Punjabi-English newspaper of
the Sikh diaspora, Surrey Canada-based CHARHDI
KALA, (Issue of August 29-Sept. 04, 2001 : Vol. 17 ; No. 35). (http://www.khalistan-affairs.org/)
It was also published in the fourth week of August in the Vancouver-based PUNJAB 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. It can be viewed on the Khalistan
Affairs Centre web site: (http://www.khalistan-affairs.org/main/k_calling/kc08282001.htm) The
Overseas Sikhs, unlike their 20 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
Karay Ga Khalsa; Sikhs will rule - to carve 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.
Khalistan Calling newsletter dated
August 28, 2001.
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DIASPORA
SIKHS TAUNT COLUMNIST KHUSHWANT SINGH
(Alias
Khushamad Singh) FOR HIS SILENCE TO JOIN A DEBATE ON KHALISTAN IN WASHINGTON DC
---------
India's most prolific Newspaper Columnist
loses face & credibility
----------
India's Census 2001 halves Delhi's Sikh population
BY
Dr. Amarjit Singh
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:
Washington DC:August, 28, 2001:
We have not heard even a squeak from Mr.
Khushwant Singh although it has been over a month (Charhdi Kala issue of July 25-31, 2001) since we accepted his challenge
which he published in Indian newspapers (posted by him in his widely published
'This Above All' weekly column - July
14, 2001) in which he threw down the gauntlet to some individuals for a public
debate on why the world's 23 million Sikhs want (or need) an independent,
sovereign, egalitarian, democratic buffer state of Khalistan in South Asia
which will be located between warring Pakistan and India. Please see http://www.khalistan-affairs.org/main/k_calling/kc07242001.htm. We even requested a time-tested known Sikh friend - a
Punjabi Muslim - to kindly organize and conduct in a fair manner the proposed
'Open debate on Khalistan' in a central location in the United States, like the
National Press Club building in Washington DC, at a time convenient for Mr.
Kushwant Singh on any day, and any hour, between the dates of August 01 to
October 31, 2001.
Appended below
are two very polite letters the Muslim friend has written to Mr. Khushwant
Singh, inviting him to Washington DC, for a debate in which the raison d'etre of Khalistan will be
openly discussed. Despite the two very sincere letters which were sent care/of
the Tribune, The Telegraph and the Hindustan Times newspapers and some well
known Pakistani and Indian columnists like Mr. Ardeshir Cowasjee and Mr. Kuldip
Nayyar, Mr. Khushwant Singh continues with his Sphinx-like silence. We appeal
to any reader who knows the New Delhi whereabouts of Mr. Khushwant Singh to get
in touch with the talkative man and advise the octogenarian to accept the
invitation to the debate as silence is the most perfect statement of scorn and
only a small mind traffics in scorn; a mind whose truth accords no place to
others. Hopefully Mr. Khushwant Singh, who has often been called Khushamad Singh, will avoid being
additionally tarnished by the above truism.
In the meantime
another 'Brahmin' conspiracy against the Sikh community, as if synchronized
with the SYL Punjab river waters controversy now raging, has surfaced in that
the 2001 Indian Census shows that the Sikh
community in Delhi has shrunk to 599, 577 Sikhs
(men women and children) when it is common knowledge that the Sikhs numbered
10% of the population when the Rajiv Gandhi government ordered the infamous
1984 pogrom in which over 10, 000 Sikhs were murdered in cold blood and for
which crime no one has been punished to this day. Ten percent of 13 million
(current population of Delhi) comes to 1.3 million and NOT 599,577. Perhaps Mr.
Khushwant Singh, who is domiciled in Delhi, will muster some courage to break
his silence and dedicate a future newspaper column to this new episode of
statistical genocide of Delhi Sikhs and hopefully give support to the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee
(DSGMC) which has challenged the phony 2001 Indian Census figures like we
challenged the false 65% national
literacy figure a few weeks
ago. See:http://www.khalistan-affairs.org/main/k_calling/kc05232001.htm
============================================
COMMITTEE FOR VATICAN-LIKE STATUS FOR
AMRITSAR & NANKANA SAHIB
Postal
address: P O Box 14292, Washington DC 20044 USA
To,
Sardar
Khushwant Singh
Author "This Above All" column
C/O Editors, Tribune, The Hindustan Times & Telegraph
India
Subject: Diaspora Sikhs take up Mr. Khushwant Singh's challenge
to
debate raison d'etre of Khalistan
Is India's most prolific columnist
afraid to face the truth
that Sikhs must have Khalistan in order
to survive as a people?
My dear Sardar
Khushwant Singh Sb:
It is over a
month since I wrote to your goodself (please see my letter, dated July 25,
2001, appended below) care/of various Indian and Pakistani newspapers and mutual
friends like DAWN columnist Ardeshir Cowsjee, informing you that the Diaspora
Sikhs have accepted your challenge for a public debate and open dialogue to
discuss Khalistan and its raison
d'etre. The Sikhs have asked me to organize (and preside) over the 'historical'
event to be held at your convenience - before the 31st of October of this year
- in Washington DC.
2. It is difficult to understand your silence Sardar Sahib,
as it was you who threw down the gauntlet in the first place in your July 14,
2001, "This above all"
column (published in various Indian newspapers including the Tribune and The Telegraph) in which
you baited your Sikh compatriots to a public debate on Khalistan. Your silence - after the Sikhs have taken up the
gauntlet - is therefore at a climax, when you have got to speak or lose face.
Your silence reminds me of a ballad: "Sticks and stones are hard on
bones,/ Aimed with angry art,/ Words can sting like anything,/ But silence
breaks the heart."
3. How about breaking your vow of Gandhi-like silence and
responding to the invitation to the debate, Sir? Please be assured that you
won't have to spend a penny on your Washington trip as all the expenses will be
taken care of by the prosperous diaspora Sikhs, in case that concern is restraining
you from accepting the sincere invitation for a debate in Washington DC.
Ahmed Sheikh
Convenor
PS: Allow me to
suggest that you read as a backgrounder the Sikh newsletter Khalistan Calling, dated August 21, 2001
(available on the internet) to get an idea of the conspiracy against the Sikh
Homeland of Punjab which could deprive it of life-giving river water by
syphoning it to non-riparian Hindu-majority states of Rajasthan, Delhi and
Haryana instead of using it to recharge the rapidly falling ground water table
in Northern and Eastern Punjab: http://www.khalistan-affairs.org/main/k_calling/kc08212001.htm
COMMITTEE FOR VATICAN-LIKE STATUS FOR
AMRITSAR & NANKANA SAHIB
Postal
address: P O Box 14292, Washington DC 20044 USA
July 25, 2001
To, Sardar
Khushwant Singh
Author "This Above All" column
C/O Editor, The Telegraph
6-Prafulla Sarkar
Street
Calcutta 700 001
India
& Editor Tribune, Candigarh.
Subject:
Diaspora Sikhs accept Mr. Khushwant Singh's
challenge
published in the July 14, 2001, Telegraph
& Tribune
for
a public debate on Khalistan's raison
d'etre
Respected Sardar
Khushwant Singh Sb:
The diaspora
Sikhs have accepted your challenge, for an open debate (to discuss Khalistan's raison d'etre) which was
published in your This Above All column,
carried in the July 14 Windows section
of Tribune, Chandigarh, newspaper,
headlined; 'A penny for Jagjit Chohan,'
(http://www.tribuneindia.com/20010714/windows/above.htm) appended below
as Appendix "A", and in the July 14 Telegraph, Calcutta headlined; ' It is not easy to change the
spots'. (http://www.telegraphindia.com/archive/1010714/editoria.htm).
2. In that column (Appendix "A") you had mentioned
that you would like to hold; 'an open dialogue to discuss Khalistan in a public debate.' The diaspora Sikhs have promptly and
enthusiastically responded in their print media to your suggestion. (Please see
Khalistan Calling newsletter dated
July 24, 2001. ( http://www.khalistan-affairs.org/main/k_calling/kc07242001.htm)
3. The Sikhs have already selected a central and convenient
venue for the debate in the heart of Washington DC - in the National Press
building - and have asked me to coordinate (and preside) over the 'Khalistan'
dialogue whenever it is held within the next three months. Sardar Sahib, I am
honored by the honor and have accepted it with humility. I am therefore,
writing to you Sir, to open communications so that we can agree on a mutually
convenient date and time for the 'Khalistan'
public debate, as we also plan to invite other distinguished South Asian
columnists and journalists like Messrs Ardeshir Cowasjee, Mushahid Hussain,
Shaheen Sehbai, Kuldip Nayar and Brahma Chellaney.
Yours sincerely
Ahmed Sheikh
Convenor
---------------------------------------------------------------------
* APPENDIX "A"
Tribune,
Chandigarh. India
July 14, 2001- Windows
http://www.tribuneindia.com/20010714/windows/above.htm
Saturday, July 14, 2001
T H I S ABOVE ALL
A penny for
Jagjit Chohan
Khushwant Singh
I OWE one penny to Jagjit Singh Chohan, the self-styled president of the
Council of Khalistan. It was awarded to him by a London court on a case of
libel he had filed against me for what I had written about him in a footnote in
my volume II of the History of the Sikhs,
published by the Oxford University Press. He claimed that he was a revered
leader of the Sikhs and a man of peace and I had maligned his reputation. I
recall he claimed close to a million pounds in damages. My publishers produced
clips from BBC showing him announcing an award for anyone who killed Mrs Indira
Gandhi and then celebrating when she was assassinated. That blew up his image
as a man of peace. The jury held that although I had said nasty things about
him, all he deserved in compensation was one penny. In addition, he was saddled
with the costs of his suit amounting to about 60,000 pounds sterling.
Nevertheless, he claimed he had been vindicated. Meanwhile, I have kept aside a
penny to give him whenever he asks for it.
However, this was three
years ago and out of my mind, I welcome him back home so that we can discuss Khalistan in a public debate. I would also
welcome other supporters of Khalistan like
Zaffarwal, Ganga Singh Dhillon (Washington), Gurmit Singh Aulakh (Washington)
and Simranjeet Singh Mann to an open dialogue.
They hold that Khalistan is the ultimate solution to the Sikh problem. I
believe it will spell disaster for the Sikh community.
The only
rational way to start a debate on the subject is to ask protagonists of
Khalistan to draw a map of where Khalistan will be and its communal constitution, i.e.,
how many Sikhs, Hindus, Muslims and Christians will it have? Then they must
spell out the future of Sikhs living outside Punjab - Ganganagar (Rajasthan),
and Terai area (Uttranchal) and Delhi which has more Sikhs living there than in
Amritsar or Ludhiana. Altogether more than 20 per cent of the Sikh population
does not live in Punjab and are more prosperous than their Punjabi
co-religionists. And what about Sikhs in Defence and other services in which
their representation is much higher than the 2 per cent that they constitute of
India’s population? And, finally, wherever the Khalistan of their dreams
exists, it is bound to be a land-locked state entirely reliant on Pakistan and
India to market its agricultural produce, for it has hardly any industry worth
speaking of. If they have any answers, I will be glad to hear from them. It is
one thing to be angry with the government for "Operation Blue Star"
and the massive killings of Sikhs following Mrs Gandhi’s assassination - I
condemned them in Parliament and I have written on the subject - it is quite
another thing to pose a solution which will reduce the community to abject
poverty. Khalsaji, I appeal to you to ponder
over your future and not lend your ears to enemies of the Khalsa Panth.
KHALISTAN
ZINDABAD - LONG LIVE KHALISTAN
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