Khalistan Calling newsletter dated September 11, 2002.

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 September 11-17, 2002 : Vol. 18 : No. 37. Last week's Khalistan Calling is available at http://www.khalistan-affairs.org/Main/K_Calling/kc09042002.htm <) It was also published in the second week of September, 2002, 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. 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.

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Washington DC: September 11, 2002: Is there a message for the weak and confused Captain Arminder Singh regime, and the people of Sikh Punjab, in the farmer's revolt now in full swing in the South Indian state of Karnataka? There, thousands of farmers have stormed the Krishnarajasagar dam, near Mysore, and the Kabini reservoir in the nearby Chamarajan district, and have forced the authorities to close the crest gates to prevent Cauvery river water from flowing downstream to Tamil Nadu, despite the compromise formula floated by the ageing, but crafty, Indian prime minister Pundit Atal Bihari Vajpayee, on Sunday last?

According to the latest BBC reports (Tuesday, September 10, 2002) the week-long Karnataka protests against the arbitrary Indian Supreme Court's September 03 order to Karnataka - which was in contravention of the Indian constitution under which rivers water is a state subject - to release 1.25 tmc water with "immediate effect," have turned violant with farmers attacking a train last saturday which damaged a railway station. As a result traffic between Bangalore and Mysore has been disrupted because of road blocks set up by farmers despite presence of additional Karnataka Police which has been deployed to keep the peace.

Protests have continued in parts of the Cauvery River basin in South India despite the 'compromise' announced by Prime Minister Pundit Atal Behari Vajpayee, on Sunday, in his capacity as Chairman of the Cauvery River Authority (CRA), to reduce the (illegally) ordered 1.5 tmc flow-rate (by the Supreme Court) to 0.8 tmc or 9000 cusecs. Vajpayee announced (on Sunday) the 'distress water- sharing formula' at an emergency New Delhi meeting of the Cauvery River Authority (CRA). The prime minister’s distress water-sharing formula would supercede the September 03 Supreme Court order to Karnataka to release 1.25 tmc water with "immediate effect." The prime minister, who chairs the body, hoped that "this arrangement will reasonably meet the requirements of the basin states in the present critical situation and is fair and just to all parties concerned". Some fairness! Some justice! Some compromise! Some Supreme Court!

It may be recalled that the state of Karnataka sought the prime minister Vajpayee's intervention after the Supreme Court arbitary, and illegal, ruling that the upper riparian Karnataka state - in the midst of the current draught - must allow a greater flow of water to lower-riparian Tamil Nadu state. It may be recalled that the two regions signed an agreement wayback, in 1924 during British rule, which failed to bring an end to the dispute. Soon after partition, upper-riparian Kerala and lower-riparian Pondicherry also staked their claim to the Cauvery river's water. In 1976, a new agreement was signed between all four states. But the dispute continued following a failure to enforce the new treaty.

According to another Mysore datelined report in THE HINDU (September 10, 2002) thousands of farmers in Mandya district of Karnataka swarmed the Krishnarajasagar dam and laid a siege to it this morning, asserting that they had the right to use the Cauvery waters for irrigation. Heeding the call of the Mandya Jilla Raitha Hitarakshana Samiti led by the former MP, G. Made Gowda, the farmers began arriving early in the day. Their numbers swelled as there was a continuous stream of lorries and buses transporting people from Mandya, Malavalli, Maddur and other parts of the district. Later in the day, the farmer leaders passed a resolution rejecting the Cauvery River Authority directives to release 9,000 cusecs of water daily to Tamil Nadu. The Karnataka Government also came under fire for its "inability to protect the interest of the State's farmers''. A resolution was passed seeking a White Paper on the statistics and information submitted to the Supreme Court, which, a few days ago, ordered the release of 1.25 tmcft (thousand million cubic feet) of Cauvery water a day to Tamil Nadu. The farmers also passed a resolution urging the State Government to reject the CRA directive to release 9,000 cusecs of water to Tamil Nadu. If the Government complied with the orders, they would forcibly assert their rights and ensure that "not a drop of water flowed into Tamil Nadu''.

The illegal shananigans of the Indian Supreme Court and the crafty Indian Prime minister, Pundit Vajpayee, on the Cauvery river water situation should be a lesson to the Sikh Punjab, its Congress Party government, headed by Captain Amrinder Singh (the scion of the infamous Patiala 'royal' family, known for the past two hundred years, for its venal collaboration with who ever was in authority), Sikh intellectuals and patriots like Sirdars Simranjit Singh Mann, D.S. Gill, Ajmer Singh Lakhowal and Manjit Singh Kadian et. al. These compatriots and Sikh patriots should remember that neither non-riparian Hindu-majority Rajasthan state nor non-riparian Hindu-majority Haryana state (unlike lower-riparian Tamil Nadu, lower-riparian Pondicherry and upper-riparian Kerala) have any right what-so-ever under any law, national or international, on the Ravi/Beas/Sutlej river's water.

The waters of these three rivers (Ravi, Beas and Sutlej) are the elixir of life which Wahay Guru has gifted to the Punjab, and its wonderful people, so that the Sikh homeland's overground and under ground water resource is perenially kept refurbished unlike the situation existing today where the overground water is constantly syphoned (via the Beas river, the Ravi/Beas link canal in the Punjab, and Beas/Sutlej link canal in Himachal Pradesh) into non-riparian states of Rajasthan and Haryana for FREE. This three-decades-long theft has resulted in Punjab's under-ground water - which should be recharged all the time - sinking to unreachable depths causing a water famine (and power shortage) as was seen this year when the summer monsoons were delayed. For a backgrounder on the SYL dispute and river water issue please see Khalistan Calling dated September 04, 2002, headlined, "A salute to the Sikh patriots who protested on August 30 in New Delhi against the proposed SYL canal and the central government's 'water war' on Sikh Punjab," at: > http://www.khalistan-affairs.org/Main/K_Calling/kc09042002.htm <

We appeal to every citizen of Punjab to unite against this deep Made-in-Delhi water conspiracy - SYL (Sutlej-Yummna Link) canal - which is against us, our children, their children and their children.

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