"Declare Sikh East Punjab A Nuclear And Missle Free Zone. Mr. Badal"
Washington, D.C., Wednesday, June 03, 1998 - The New York Times editorial on May 31,98 highlights an excellent opinion by an Indophile journalist, Steven R Weisman; "Nuclear Fear and Narcissism Shake South Asia", stating that; "Now that the Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has answered India's test blasts with his own, India needs to face a fundamental question. Why did Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayeee give up the advantage of nuclear ambiguity in favor of an action that has clearly worsened his country's security ?" .Weisman (in a way confirming the Washington Post report, by Kenneth J Cooper, that fear has replaced glee in India after the Pakistani nuclear tests) goes on to state that Indians first rejoiced after the country's tests but now that Pakistan has answered, the Indians are having second thoughts "because their security is more precarious than ever. Short of nuclear threats, Pakistan has the ready ability to keep stirring trouble in Muslim dominated border state of Kashmir. But India surely bears most of he blame for its predicament". Weisman goes on to say that; " The world had presumed, since 1974, that it had the bomb and Pakistan was warily watching it develop short and medium range missiles to deliver it . But by so conspicuously showing off its nuclear might, India not only forced Pakistan hand, it also threw both Pakistan and China on the defensive and if anything , cemented an alliance between them. The United States which had made progress in improving relations with India, after siding with Pakistan throughout the cold war, is now distrustful of India."
The New York Times Steven R Weisman, a seasoned journalist, who has penned the Editorial Observer column of May 31,98 after blaming India for its current predicament, predicts in his article that India's ; "nuclear provocation will lesson international sympathy for India on Kashmir. India's once hopeful demand to sit (permanently) on the UN Security Council is probably dead. As for economic security, the debate in India's Parliament last week revealed growing anxiety over the losses in aid and overseas investment . In return for little gain, India's actions have hurt its poorest citizens. The shots of nuclear adrenaline to the Indian body politic will be short-lived, replaced by the anxiety and deprivation. India has got the attention it wanted, but it may yet look back fondly on the days of neglect". He concludes his opinion piece by writing that; "One can only hope that for the same political response that drove them to act, India and Pakistan will learn the wisdom of restraint."
We endorse Mr. Weisman's prayer for restraint by South Asia's rulers in their Nuclear Disillusions -as the Sikh homeland of Punjab, Khalistan, is in middle of India and Pakistan and is at risk in any conflict, conventional or nuclear -but Mr. Weisman for some reason has not asked certain pertinent questions of the morally repugnant, megalomaniac Hindu Fundamentalist, BJP rulers in Delhi who started it all on Monday, May11, 98 in a fit of egotism and chauvinism. It will be appropriate if some of the questions are cataloged here.
The questions that stand out are:- Who is going to "restrain" India's shaky currency, the Rupee, from falling further which effects the savings, and prosperity , of every Indian citizen? The rupee has already dived over 500% (yes 500%) to an all time low of RS. 41.85 to a US dollar yesterday, as compared to about Rs.8 to a dollar on June 6,1984 when the first cousins of the current Hindu Fundamentalists BJP rulers (the Congress party Brahmins in power under Indira Gandhi at that time) ordered an Indian Army attack on 37 Sikh holy shrines, including the holiest, the Akal Takht Sahib in the Darbar Sahib complex(of the Golden Temple) in Amritsar, naming it as "Operation Blue Star" in which thousands of innocent Sikh pilgrims, men, women and children were slaughtered.
Who is going to convince the skittish foreign investors, after the Pokharan explosions, to put their dollars/marks/pounds/yens/dinars/dirhams/riyals in any development project in the Punjab, Gujrat or Bombay, where the investment could turn to ash, in a flash, in preference to peaceful Ireland or idyllic Philippines or vibrant Hungary or booming Tunisia or prosperous Chile? Who is going to convince Pakistan's fraternal allies, wealthy Saudi Arabia and other oil-rich Persian Gulf Muslim states, like the U.A.E., who have now (post-Pokharan) promised to provide free oil to Islamabad (and who, incidentally, have no tradition of Supreme courts, Writ Petitions and other occidental judicial mumbo jumbo) from throwing out all Hindu Indians from their kingdoms and choking off billions in trade and remittances that benefit India? Who is going to convince Senate Foreign Relations Committee to give up their openly declared opposition to any legislation which would lift the US sanctions, imposed under the 1994 Glenn amendment, against India following the Pokharan blasts?
Now that the nuclear and missile swords have been unsheathed in the South Asian subcontinent thanks to BJP minister Vajpayee, and his RSS gang of Khaki knicker-clad thugs, who, (and how?) is anyone going to convince the Pakistanis not to target Amritsar, Jullunder, Ludhiana or Bhatinda, et. al., in Sikh Punjab, with their nuclear HAFT missiles in retaliation to the Indian Army's placement of nuclear tipped Prithvi missiles near these East Punjab cities, years ago, which threaten Lahore, Faisalabad, Multan and Islamabad? Perhaps the Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal will have the steel in his spine to stand up for the beleaguered Sikh nation, captive in the Indian map since 15 August 1947, and act like a Chief Minster and do the obvious!
Maybe Badal, would once again show political savvy (a la his refusal to endorse the Pokharan nuclear tests) and take up the gauntlet on behalf of his 18 million Sikh compatriots in East Punjab who are now threatened by India's and Pakistan's nuclear missiles by; a)having his BJP ally, Prime Minister Vajpayee, order the removal of all Prithvi missiles from Sikh East Punjab for deployment elsewhere; and b) declare Sikh East Punjab a missile and nuclear free zone?
HOW ABOUT IT MR. BADAL, CAN'T YOU EVEN DO THIS MUCH FOR OUR FUTURE GENERATIONS?