Is The Fascist BJP Governmetn Planning "Ethnic Cleansing" Of Sikhs In New Uttaranchal State?
Washington, D.C., Wednesday, July 08, 1998 - It is obvious from the double-talk of Madan Lal Khurana, the Central Parliament Affairs minister, reported in the Indian media today, that the fundamentalist BJP government has plans for "ethnic-cleansing" of the Sikhs living in Udham Singh Nagar district of U.P. (Uttar Pradesh). The district, settled and developed in the past fifty years by hundreds of thousands of Sikh migrants, is being allotted to the new Uttaranchal state, (which is being carved out of the hilly areas of U.P.) where Sikhs settlers, it is already obvious, will be dispossessed of their lands under land-ceiling Laws which the new Hindu majority state will enact.Indian press reports, (which reported a courtesy call on the Indian Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee, by the Punjab Chief Minister, Prakash Singh Badal, in Delhi yesterday) say that Mr. Madan Lal Khurana, a so called Punjab Puttar (son of Punjab) said that as the Uttaranchal state must be setup before 2000 therefore there was no time to open the issue of Udham Singh Nagar district for debate. Some lame excuse!
It may be recalled that exactly a year ago, on July 2, 1997, Mr. Badal sent Punjab Finance Minister, Capt. Kanwaljit Singh, accompanied by the Punjab minister for Local Bodies Mr. Madan Mohan Mittal, to Udham Singh Nagar District, adjacent to the Kumaon Hill foothills, for an on-the-spot survey following a number of incidents of seizure of Sikh-owned land by Revenue department officials during the Mayawati regime in the UP. On their return the two team talked with media (July 12, 1997) and said that the Punjab government would take up the issue with the then Gujral-led central government to ensure that Udham Singh Nagar district, a plains area, being below 2000 feet height, was not included in the opposed hilly Uttaranchal state.
On May 11, 1998, the day India detonated a nuclear device in Punjab's backyard at Pokharan, Shiromani Gurudwara Prabhandhak Committees (SGPC) president Gurcharan Singh Tohra, told THE TRIBUNE, Chandigarh, (May 12, 1998) that; "he had taken up the issue with the Prime Minister and Home Minster L.K. Advani. He believed the Union government would not discriminate against Punjabis settled in Udham Singh Nagar district of Uttar Pradesh by merging the district with the proposed Uttaranchal state. "
Will Mr. Tohra, known for his photographic memory, seek refuge behind a memory lapse, (as he did regarding his visit to Nirankari Bhavan in Patiala), a la Mr. Badal, and forget what he told the TRIBUNE on May 11, 1998, which statement has been quoted above? The question is will Mr. Tohra take a lesson in courage form Mr. Simranjeet Singh Mann who led a MARCH ON DELHI, on Monday July 6, 1998 to protest against the Hindu fundamentalist government's Nuclear policy which could result in making the Sikh homeland of East Punjab into a nuclear battlefield between India and Pakistan ? Will Mr. Tohra forget the hundreds of thousands of Sikh settlers of Udham Singh Nagar district who with their blood, toil and tears have made the Terai jungle bloom and who will soon be, (as soon as the district becomes part of the new Uttaranchal state) under threat of dispossession of their lands under some legal hocus-pocus of a land ceiling Act? It is a hope that Mr. Tohra will muster the Sikh settlers of Udham Singh Nagar and march on Delhi a la Simranjeet Singh Mann!
All Sikhs, including Tohra/Badal & Company, should note that while Indian newspapers showed lack of integrity (and lost a lot of moral ground for their country, India) by ignoring the anti-nuclear MARCH ON DELHI by thousands of Sikh men, women and children (organized by Sardar Simranjeet Singh Mann and his party) on Monday July 6, 1998, the AP (Associated Press) and AFP (Agence France Presse) stories were flashed to every country of the world and the event received a lot of coverage in the press as well as electronic media.
The two foreign agencies named, above however, missed the story that scores of buses heading towards Delhi, from Indian occupied Punjab, carrying Sikh anti/nuclear protesters, were turned back on Sunday July 5, 1998, by the Haryana and Delhi Police, a la 1982. In that year the Indira Gandhi led Congress government succeeded by similar attempts to exclude the Sikhs from an ASIAD1982 sports meet in Delhi. A lot of credit therefore goes, to the organizers of the July 6 MARCH ON DELHI protest that despite the fascist tactics of the current fundamentalist rulers, thousands of Sikh men, women and children still managed to show to the world that the Sikhs will not tolerate Indian nuclear weapons on the sacred soil of Punjab, Khalistan. These colonial tactics of the Hindu fundamentalist will not deter the 3 million strong FREE diaspora Sikhs, the 18 million captive Sikhs in Indian occupied Punjab and the quarter million Sikh settlers in the Terai from mustering world opinion against the nuclear madness which has possessed the power-drunk fascist BJP rulers who temporarily occupy the Delhi Takht!