Khalistan Calling newsletter dated October 23, 2002

can be viewed on the South Asia Tribune site at: > http://www.satribune.com/index.htm > by clicking on the 'SIKH CORNER"

It can also be seen at: > http://www.khalistan-affairs.org/Main/K_Calling/kc10232002.htm <.

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 October 23-19, 2002 : Vol. 18 : No. 43. Last week's Khalistan Calling is available on the Khalistan Affairs Centre website at: ( > http://www.khalistan-affairs.org/Main/K_Calling/kc10162002.htm <) It was also published in the third week of October, 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: October 23, 2002: The Punjab Chief minister, Captain Amrinder 'Patiala' Singh Rangeela, has damaged Punjab's just stand on the SYL issue (Sutlej-Yumna Link Canal) by plunging a dagger into the back of the Punjabi Sikh farmers, (during the current wheat planting season in which period every drop counts) when he arbiterily ordered the daily release, from the Ropar headworks, of an extra 1, 000 cusecs of river water, free of charge, to non-riparian Anti/Sikh Rajasthan state just because his sister's husband, Natwar Singh asked him to.

The not-too-smart and seemingly ignorant Punjab Chief minister, Captain Amrinder 'Patiala' Sinh Rangeela, did not realize - he must have had a few 'Patiala pegs' under his belt - that his foolish order, on the urging of his crafty brother-in-law and Congress party leader, Natwar Singh, for the supply of an extra 1, 000 cusec water to Rajasthan daily is a serious development with grave long-term legal implications for Sikh Punjab's case on its rights/needs over river waters which issue will come up for discussion before the Brahmin-dominated 'Kangaroo Court', the Indian Supreme Court, early next year in January 2003.

We are sure that Captain Amrinder 'Patiala' Sinh, not known for his vision or intellect, does not even know that the canal, named after that wretched Indira Gandhi, has now reached the Rajasthani border town of Barmer opposite the town of Gadra located in the Sindh province of Pakistan, after traversing about 800 kilometers through the hot sandy Rajasthan desert. The thirst of the Indra Gandhi canal will not be quenched with 1, 000 extra cusecs of water - as more than half the water just evaporates - and a request for an extra five thousand cusecs of water daily is perhaps already percolating in the fertile mind of the morally repugnant, Swastika-worshipping, 'Fundamentalist Brahmins' who run India, its Supreme Court, the Bhakra Nangal dam and dominate the ruling elite.

As many readers may be aware that non-riparian Rajasthan is a Hindu-majority state bordering Pakistan and Sikh Punjab, where Sikhs - because they are Sikhs - are not allowed to buy agricultural land and those Sikh pioneers who unfortunately settled there, around Ganganagar district, nearly a century ago on the invitation of the then Maharaja of Bikanir, are fleeced, persecuted and treated as second class citizens by bigoted Hindutva Rajasthani "Babus" (officials) who have made the life of the Rajasthani Sikhs miserable!

Seven months ago, on the occasion of the World Water Day, on March 27, 2002, this column was headlined, "Punjab Chief Minister urged to join Sirdar Simranjit Singh Mann to resist Delhi's water/SYL challenge," and in the text it appealed in all sincerity to the Chief minister of Punjab, Captain Amrinder Singh, with the hope that the missive would steel his spine and arouse some Sikhi in him on the SYL and other issues that effect the future of the Sikh people. (> http://www.khalistan-affairs.org/Main/K_Calling/kc03272002.htm <) The appeal in the March 27, 2002, Khalistan Calling, reads as follows:- "Does not the Punjab Chief minister realize that river water is a matter of life and death for Sikh Punjab's children, their children and their children as in many parts of Punjab the underground water has fallen out of reach and the Beas and the Ravi rivers are being tapped and syphoned with the Ravi/Beas and Beas/Sutlej link canals for the benfit of non-riparian Hindu-majority Rajasthan and Haryana? If the Punjab Chief minister, Captain Amrinder Singh, is a Sikh and a martial Punjabi, as he trumpets with his title of "Captain" (which he prefers to use over the more respectable 'Sirdar'), he should pick up the gauntlet like a man - like Sirdar Simranjit Singh Mann for example - and start a state-wide agitation on the SYL canal issue, in which every Punjabi including the 3 million strong Sikh diaspora should, and will, join before it is too late. Does he not realise that the recent unprecedented, provocative, nay illegal, anti/Punjab 'Order' of the Brahmin-dominated Indian Supreme Court on the SYL issue (Sutlej-Yumuna-Link canal) which has ordered the Punjab government to complete the defunct SYL canal within the year by Jan. 15, 2003, is a legal ambush. See story in the Jan. 16, 2002 issue of the TRIBUNE, Chandigarh, headlined,"Supreme Court directs Punjab to complete SYL canal", at: > http://www.tribuneindia.com/2002/20020116/main4.htm <) The Indian Supreme Court order is meant to demoralise and test the grit of the people of Punjab and measure the Sikh reaction. The Supreme court's illegal order - in India even the Supreme Court does illegal things - just hangs there like the sword of Democlese over the Sikh Homeland." It seems our above, March 27, 2002, appeal to Captain Amrinder 'Patiala' Sinh fell on deaf ears as otherwise he would not have ordered day before yesterday the release of an extra 1, 000 cusecs of water free of charge to Rajasthan!

It is a pity that currently the Sikh Homeland of Punjab is badly caught in unhealthy competitive politics. At this point in time, the sole concern of the government, intellectuals, opinion-makers and the opposition parties should have been development of the state and protecting the river water resource for future generations and helping the Sikh farmer majority, which have been hit with a host of problems during Captain Amrinder Sinh rangila's reign like for example; the dumb decision to withdraw free power to agriculturists and Dalits; increase in sales tax on fertilisers/pesticides & farm machinery; paltry relief for farmers effected by this summer's man-made water famine/draught in the Punjab; total lethargy in taking steps to clean the extensive minefields buried by the Indian army in the border belt; no signs of any increase in the government-controlled selling price of Rs. 560 per quintal of paddy in Sikh-majority Punjab, (the procurement price is fixed higher in Hindu-majority Haryana) when the cost to the Sikh farmer of producing that quintal of paddy is over Rs 649; no visible steps have been taken to protect the people of Punjab from the AIDS epidemic being imported into the Sikh homeland by Hindu labourers from the Cow-belt of U.P. and Bihar; no steps have been taken in the Punjab to check the increase in drugs and alchohal use etc., etc.

Mis-governed Punjab is at the crossroads. It is the time for all political factions to rise above their petty thoughts and think positively for the betterment of the enterprising people of the Sikh homeland of Punjab and support the Kissan Unions (like BKU-E) which farmer orgnizations, along with the IHRO (International Human Rights Organization), were complimented by this column on September 04, 2002, (> http://www.khalistan-affairs.org/Main/K_Calling/kc09042002.htm <) with the headline, "A salute to the Sikh patriots of the BKU & IHRO who protested in New Delhi on August 30, 2002" for their courage, grit and patriotism. For a backgrounder we recommend, to the Sikh political leadership, Sikh intellectuals and Sikh opinion-makers an excellent Opinion piece, headlined, "The Truth Behind the SYL Issue", by one Shahbaz Singh, published last week, on Oct. 16, 2002, in the TRIBUNE newspaper of Chandigarh, Punjab. The superb article can be viewed on the Tribune site at: > http://www.tribuneindia.com/2002/20021016/edit.htm#6 <

We urge the Punjab Chief minister to show some moral courage and patriotism to not only withdraw his instruction for the extra 1, 000 cusecs of water to Rajasthan but apologise from the people of Sikh Punjab for allowing his brother-in-law, the crafty Congress party honcho, Natwar Singh, to conn him. More than that, Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amrinder Singh, if he is really a Sikh, instead of charging the Punjab farmers for electricity should threaten a total cutoff of FREE Punjab water unless Rajasthan government negotiates a price with the Punjab government for a commodity - river water - it has been stealing for 40 years via numerous canals as that non-riparian Hindu-majority and anti/Sikh state has no say on the Ravi/Beas/Sutlej river water issue under international or any other law. Sikh Punjab which is broke needs the billions of ruppees that the atate of Rajasthan owes the people of Punjab for the river water it has consumed over the past fifty five years!

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