Khalistan Calling newsletter dated October 29, 2003
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.* Please E-mail or FAX newsletter
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CANADIAN PRIME MINISTER CHRETIEN VISITS DARBAR SAHIB & INAUGURATES OFFICE
OF THE CANADIAN CONSUL GENERAL
IN CHANDIGARH PUNJAB
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Pakistan's Senate Foreign Relation's Committee Chairman
Senator Mushahid Hussain Syed calls for a direct
Amritsar-Nankana Sahib-Amritsar daily railway train service
for Sikh pilgrims
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.orgE-mail Address:
Washington DC: October 29, 2003
: The past four days have been great, nay truly historic, for the world's 24 million Sikhs - 21 million captive inside India behind the barbed wire double fence 'Berlin Wall' on the Indo/Pakistan border - and three million Sikhs living Free in the diaspora.The historic four days started
with a visit of the Sikh-friendly Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien to the Darbar Sahib, (Golden Temple) Amritsar, on Saturday morning October 25, 2003. Later the same day he presided over the opening ceremony of a new office of the Canadian Consul General in Chandigarh, Punjab - the only diplomatic mission in that city as well as in the Punjab which has put the Sikh Homeland on the world's diplomatic map. The day, October 25, 2003, also marks the tenth anniversary of not only Mr. Chretien's Prime ministership but also the historic entry of Sikh Canadians into the House of Commons (Parliament) in Ottawa in 1993.In an equally important development, the influential Sikh-friendly Chairman of Pakistan's Senate Foreign Relation's Committee,
Senator Mushahid Hussain Syed, a former Pakistani Information minister, in an Opinion piece today (October 28, 2003) in Lahore's leading English language newspaper, THE NATION, headlined, "How Pakistan Should Respond?" to India's recent twelve point normalization of relation's phony Chanakiyan offer, has called for a daily special train service from Amritsar to Nankana Sahib and back for Sikh pilgrims. To read Mr. Mushahid Hussain Syed's excellent article in THE NATION please click at: > http://www.nation.com.pk/daily/Oct-2003/28/EDITOR/op1.asp < Wouldn't it be wonderful if the 21 million Sikhs, captive in India, can visit the holy city of Nankana Sahib, (located less than fifty miles from Atari on the Indo/Pakistan border) freely, and as often as they want, something every Sikh prays for, everyday, in every Gurdwara in the world? The only fly in the ointment is the bigotry of the crafty Hindutva-fundamentalist mafia in the BJP ruling coalition in Delhi which will try to sabotage the sincere and friendly proposal, by Pakistan's Senator Mushahid Hussain Syed, as the Indian rulers want to continue to confine the 21 million business-savvy Sikhs captive behind India's ignominious barbed wire 'Berlin Wall' on the Punjab/Pakistan border!Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien's spending one-day in the Punjab, out of his two-day working visit to India this week, is indicative of the growing political clout of Canada's prosperous, hardworking, peace-loving, rapidly increasing, 800, 000 strong Sikh community (over 2% of Canada's 32 million population) which has supported the ruling Liberal party faithfully and counts many Sikh members of the Canadian House of Commons (parliament) now.
The political and business clout and progress of the FREE 2% Candian Sikh minority is in marked contrast to another 2% captive Sikh minority in India (numbering 21 million) living in fear of persecution, prejudice and death in state-sponsored pogroms, like the ones the Sikhs endured in June and November 1984, in which the holiest Sikh shrines like the Akal Takht Sahib was destroyed and thousands of innocent Sikh men, women and children were put to death by the Indian army and police-led Hindu mobs let loose by a 'wink and a nod' from the highest in the land - Prime minister Indira Gandhi and her son Prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.On Saturday October 25, 2003, Liberal party Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien's private jet, carrying a delegation of 47 members of Canada's ruling Liberal Party, government officials (including prominent Sikh/Canadians like Mr Herb Dhaliwal, Minister of Natural Resources, Mr Gurbax Singh Malhi, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Labour, Mr Baljit Singh Chadda, member of the Privy Council of Canada and Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Canadian parliament, Mr Gurmant Grewal) and a large contingent of Canadian journalists, landed at Rajasansi International airport in Amritsar, at 9.05 a.m. With the entire country, both Sikh and Hindu, celebrating the Diwali festival thousands of enthusiastic Amritsar residents, sometimes five or 10 deep held back by security guards, lined the dust-filled sidewalks to watch Chretien's motorcade pass and showed their sincere welcome by clapping and waving to the important Sikh-friendly visitor from Canada.
On arrival at the Darbar Sahib (Golden temple) Prime Minister Jean Chretien (who had been driven straight from Amritsar's Rajasansi International airport in a bullet-proof ambassador car) was warmly received at the 'Golden Temple' by former Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and Mr Manjit Singh Calcutta, honorary secretary of the SGPC, along with senior members of the SAD and SGPC and tens of thousands of Sikh worshippers. Earlier, Mr Partap Singh Bajwa and Mr Sardool Singh, both Punjab Cabinet Ministers, accompanied Mr Chretein to the Darbar Sahib after receiving him at the airport. Mr Gurcharan Singh Tohra, SGPC chief, could not be present due to his hospitalisation but Capt Amarinder Singh, Punjab Chief Minister, was conspicuous by his absence on this occasion. Mr Parkash Singh Badal presented a gold-plated replica of the Golden Temple studded with jewels, a kirpan (sword), a silver plaque, a pashmina shawl and a set of books on Sikh religion to the Canadian Prime minister. Mr Badal also honoured Mr Herb Dhaliwal, Mr Malhi and Mr Gurmant Singh Grewal, members of Canadian Parliament.
Mr Chretein, who is well-versed with the Sikh religious traditions offered a gift of a ‘rumala’ (a beautiful hand embroidered piece of cloth he brought specially from Canada) for covering the holy Guru Granth Sahib in the Darbar Sahib. He also offered ‘parsad’ and cash as a humble devotee. He was presented a siropa (robe of honour) by the Head Granthi, Giani Puran Singh. Mr Chretien created a history of sorts as he was the first Prime Minister of a sovereign country to pay respects at the Darbar Sahib (Golden Temple) and like Queen Elizabeth and her husband, Duke of Edinburgh, (who had visited the Darbar Sahib on October 14, 1997) declined the invitation to visit the Durgiana Hindu Temple the fake architecural copy of the Darbar Sahib India's rulers have built in Amritsar to diminish the grandeur and awe of the Darbar Sahib and to suggest that Sikhs are part of the polytheistic Hindu religion which the monotheistic Sikhs are NOT.
Prime Minister Jean Chretein also inaugurated the Guru Arjun Dev Niwas, in the Darbar Sahib complex, constructed at a cost of Rs 60 lakhs, with contributions from the Chadda family of Canada, which will provide free accomodation for visitors to the Darbar Sahib complex. Addressing the gathering after offering prayers, Mr Chretien said he brought with him warm greetings from his countrymen and the large number of Punjabis settled in Canada. He said the Sikhs, who constituted 2 per cent of Canada's 32 million population had contributed a lot to the development of Canada. The Sikhs play a decisive role in the elections in many constituencies there he said. The visiting Prime Minister described his visit as the fulfillment of a promise made to his Sikh Canadians constituents when he became Prime minister of Canada a decade ago.
After a two hours stay at the Darbar Sahib, where he shook hands with thousands of Sikh pilgrims out of the hundreds of thousands of pilgrims who were present, Prime Minister Jean Chretien flew to Chandigarh where the Canadian government has maintained a trade and business office since 1997. As some readers may recall, the Indian government for many years would not allow the opening of a Canadian Consulate General in the Punjab under one excuse or another. India's Brahmin rulers, under pressure from the Canadian government, have finally relented and Canadian Prime Minister Chretien inaugurated the Canadian Consulate General in Sector 17 of Chandigarh. The office will be operational from April, 2004. Mr, Chretien has appointed a Kenya-born Canadian Sikh, Sirdar Bhupinder Singh Liddar as the first Consul General of Canada in Chandigrah. Now, according to observors, people from the Punjab will no longer have to go to New Delhi for a Canadian visa where they were invariably hasseled by everybody. Speaking on the occasion, an upbeat Jean Chretien said, 'The fact that Chandigarh Visa and Trade Inquiry Office was expanded to a Consulate General office says a lot about the growing relationship between Canada and India, which is the second largest source of immigrants to Canada. It is also Canada’s largest trading partner in South Asia," said Prime minister Chretien while inaugurating the Consulate General in Chandigarh.
The day’s significance for Punjab and Punjabis was not lost on those present. "By opening of the Diplomatic office, ties between Punjab and Canada will become much stronger. Now, the people of the state and region need not go to Delhi and wait outside the embassy for the night," quipped Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh. The Punjab Chief Minister, according to reports in the Indian media (Times of India October 27, 2003, Chandigarh-datelined story by Rahul Singh) ignored a stupid Central government directive which ordered that, "political affiliations should not come to the forefront during Canadian Prime Minister's 'working-visit' to the Punjab and that 'only bureauc-rats would take care of the visit without any political representation." Although the politicians of the State of Haryana and Punjab's Hindu Governor meekly obeyed the asinine Central directive, drafted by some faceless anti-Sikh Chanakiyan, Hindutva-fundamentalist, Neo-Nazi, Brahmin-caste bureauc-rat in the Indian Foreign Office but, Punjab Chief minister Captain Amrinder Singh, having found some proverbial Sikh pride, hidden in some remote corner of his soul, DID NOT.
Punjab Chief minister Captain Amrinder Singh a scion of the Royal House of Patiala refused to kowtow and obey the stupid directive from Delhi and showed some spine a la his grandfather, Maharajah Bhupinder Singh, in the 1930's, who felt slighted at the British Rolls Royce company's refusal to accept an order from him for a new Rolls Royce car. In a typical Jat reaction the old Maharajah put some of his old Rolls Royce cars to haul garbage dung and filth in Patiala city to the chagrin of the all powerful Rolls Royce-loving Viceroy and the Colonial British ruling establishment who quickly prevailed upon the Rolls Royce company to comply with the old Maharajah's wishes.
The Punjab Chief minister, Captain Amrinder Singh, defiantly received the Canadian Prime Minister Jeane Chretien at the Chandigarh airport and attended the Canadian Consulate's inauguration ceremonies despite the Machiavellian, nay Chanakiyan, instructions from the Central government. According to Rahul Singh, of Times of India, Captain Amrinder Singh is reported to have told journalists, that, "This is Punjab and Centre has no right to impose its position on us. I am free to travel anywhere in the state". Well said!
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/kc10292003.htm <.The above newsletter has been published in the leading Punjabi-
English newspaper of the Sikh diaspora, Surrey Canada-based CHARHDI KALA, - Issue of October 29 to Nov. 04, 2003 :: Vol. 19 : No. 43. Last week's Khalistan Calling is available on the Khalistan Affairs Centre website at: (> http://www.khalistan-affairs.org/Main/K_Calling/kc10222003.htm <) The Khalistan Calling newsletter was also published in the fourth week of October 2003, 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.Thank you for browsing
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