"Fallout From The Indian Nuclear Tests In Occupied Punjab's Backyard"
Washington, D.C., Tuesday, June 09, 1998 - Dr. Henry Kissinger, a former US secretary and currently President of a New York-based international consulting firm, aired in the prestigious Washington Post today, June 9, 1998, in the OPED piece as; "India and Pakistan:After the Explosions" . This article is in marked contrast to the reaction of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman, Senator Jesse Helms. Senator Helms made his views known, loud and clear, on May 13, 1998, during the Senate South Asia subcommittee's meeting presided over by Senate Brownback.The good Dr. Kissinger has based his (always) logical arguments for nuclear accomodation, live and let-live, on the premise that the Prime Minsiters of India and Pakistan, (unlike N. Korea, Iran and Iraq) and, a la President Clinton, are; "equally reasonable in pursuing their own nuclear objectives". Some resonableness! Some nuclear objectives! Some nuclear powers!
Dr. Henry Kissinger goes on to predict that; "nuclear war between India and China is no more probable than is nuclear war between any two of the existing nuclear powers. Neither is likely to risk nuclear war for the issues between them." And that; "The same considerations should apply as well between India and Pakistan" . The same considerations DO NOT and WILL NOT, apply in South Asia! We Sikhs who are familiar with over five hundred years of psychohistory of the Hindus and Muslims of South Asia know that! The Indians and the Pakistanis know that too as should the United States.
This weeks KHALISTAN CALLING, therefore, is an Open Letter to Dr. Henry Kissinger which suggests that he should give a little more thought to the specter of nuclear war in backyard South Asia where the rulers have a medieval mindset, ignorance rules the roost, life is cheap and democracy is a Kleptocracy. We Sikhs believe that Senator Jesse Helm’s spontaneous remarks of May 13, 1998, offer the best chance of putting the South Asian nuclear genni back in the bottle and that the US MUST, do its utmost to roll back the nuclear programs of not only India & Pakistan, but Israel as well . This will make both South and Southwest Asia, where ancient disputes fester the human spirit, as nuclear free zone. This would also give a chance to have peace in these regions. Below is the letter.
Dear Dr. Kissinger: The Sikh Nation (18 million Sikhs captive in India, and 3 million breathing free in the Diaspora, whose homeland of Indian occupied Punjab has been held captive in the Indian map since 15th August, 1947) could play the role of a buffer state,or might end up as a battlefield , between India and Pakistan as we sit smack in the middle. We Sikhs feel that the POKHRAN nuclear tests on May 11 & 13, 1998 were ordered by India’s hegemonic Swastika worshipping Hindu fundamentalist BJP triarchy on the basis of very poor intelligence about Pakistan’s nuclear program. They thought Pakistan was bluffing. A temporary fit of chauvinism among the senile triumvirate of 70 year old Brahmin, who run the BJP government in Delhi, also played a major part in the folly.
These blunders should not be discussed, we feel, nor a 21st century global role be assigned (as you have done Sir in your OPED piece today) to that squalidly over populated country, India(which boasts a population of over 950 million of which nearly 800 million are unwashed , 665 million do not have latrines, 460 million are illiterate, 250 million are child slaves, 10 million are lepers, 90 million are blind and 35 million widows are condemned to live as prostitutes) before the state of human development,(the basis of ALL development -nuclear or any other) in the major countries of the subcontinent is measured.
It is important therefore, Sir that facts about the "progress" South Asia's nascent nuclear powers , have made since they were granted their independence, in 1947, by an exhausted Imperial Britain after World War II, more than fifty years ago, be laid on the table for all to see. Appended below, therefore is a comparative chart of human development, which should allow influential opinion makers, like yourself and Senator Jesse Helms to gauge whether a South Asian Armageddon is in the making or that Wilsonian Universalisim has to give way to a geo-political analysis. The S. Asian nuclear tests remind us , you mention in your Washington Post article, that; "despite the mantra of globalization there are geo-political realities which overwhelm fashionable reverties about Universality".
Here Sir, given below are some facts and figures of the human development realities that will sadden and overwhelm any observer, riddle the nuclear ambitions of the leaders of India and Pakistan and chart the path these great United States should, and MUST follow.