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 January
01-07, 2002 : Vol. 18 ; No. 03). (http://www.khalistan-affairs.org/) It was also published in
the third week of January, 2002, in the Vancouver-based PUNJAB 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. It can be viewed on the Khalistan
Affairs Centre web site: (http://www.khalistan-affairs.org/main/k_calling/kc01162002.htm) 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.
Khalistan
Calling newsletter dated January 16, 2002.
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newsletter to a friend, opinion maker & / or a newspaper.
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INDIAN LEADERS NEED A NUCLEAR TUTORIAL
Indian Army Chief General Padmanabhan
makes a fool of himself
by issuing bogus nuclear threats like
his boss Defence minister George Fernandes
-------
World's renowned non-proliferation
activist calls
Indian leaders 'delusional with large
egos and little minds'
------
East Coast Sikh-Americans hold huge
anti-war protest in New York
BY
Dr. Amarjit Singh
956-National Press Building, Washington DC 20045
USA
Tel: 202-637-9210 ::
Fax: 202-637-9211
INTERNET SITE
INFORMATION:-
Web Site: http://www.khalistan-affairs.org/
E-mail Address:
Washington DC: Jan. 16, 2002: A spate of stupid remarks at a New Delhi
press conference last Friday (see http://www.indian-express.com/ie20020112/top1.html)
by the Indian Army Chief, Gen. S. Pad-mar-abhan, about an
Indo/Pakistan nuclear war were so asinine, shocking and ignorant that one of
the world's leading non-proliferations, Prof. John Hallam, has circulated an
E-mail over the weekend in which he says contemptuously that; "Indian
leadership has become so delusional that perhaps in a nation with one billion
people, the death of millions (read Punjabi Sikhs) has somehow become
acceptable to men with large egos and little minds." How very true!
We expressed similar sentiments
two weeks ago when we ridiculed General Pad-mar-abhan's boss, defence
minister George Fernandes, for showing ignorance about matters nuclear during a
December 30 Hindustan Times interview when he pompously declared
that,"We could take a (nuclear) strike and survive. Pakistan won't:
Fernandes". Please http://www.khalistan-affairs.org/main/k_calling/kc01032002.htm)
Prof. John Hallam, a renowned non-proliferation
activist writes in his January 13, 2002, E-mail addressed to the members of his
abolition group that; "I think that the Indian leadership has become so
delusional that they are actually convinced that they will 'win' a war with Pakistan,
even if a nuclear exchange takes place. India has spent billions of dollars to
mobilize its entire armed forces, more than a million troops forward positioned
on the Pakistan border, including air and naval forces (India's one aircraft
carrier is placed to support air strikes against Pakistan). India is about to
begin major war games with a 'nuclear backdrop', so that their troops will be
'ready' to fight in a battle where nuclear weapons are used. (NATO war games,
which used this scenario, always found that any troops which were not highly
dispersed were obliterated... and also the tactical nuclear exchanges always
escalated to general nuclear war). Border areas in both nations have been
evacuated with many tens of thousands of desperately poor and frightened people
fleeing in panic..."
Hallam goes on to write that,
"Pakistan has responded with mobilization of its armed forces, positioning
them to counter Indian forces, likewise positioning its air and missile forces.
Indian conventional forces basically outnumber the Pakistani forces by a ratio
of 2:1. Pakistan views its nuclear arsenal as a last line of defence against
overwhelming Indian conventional superiority (NATO once had the same strategy
against the conventional superiority of the Warsaw Pact forces) If a major
Indian offensive against Pakistan takes place, it is hard to imagine that in
the fog of war, nuclear weapons would not be used. This is especially true if
the command and control systems of these nations delegate launch authority to
lower level military leadership." Perhaps this is indeed the case in
Pakistan where it is rumored that its eight Corps Commanders may have control
of short-range tactical nuclear weapons!
Hallam in the concluding
paragraph of his E-mail writes that, "I suspect that both nations
(specially Pakistan) have taken the deadly step of mounting nuclear war heads
on at least some of their forward positioned ballistic missiles. These weapons
are capable of hitting the major cities of both nations. The Bulletin of the
Atomic Scientists recently estimated Pakistan's nuclear arsenal at between 24
and 48 weapons; India is believed to have at least 60 to a 100 nuclear weapons.
Hallam concludes his E-Mail with a lead in from the Jan. 12th NY Times article,
'Indian General Talks Bluntly of War and a Nuclear Threat', by CELIA W.
DUGGER: http://www.nytimes.com/2002/01/12/international/asia/12INDI.html". End of John Hallam's E-mail.
Mr. John Hallam's E-mail also
reproduced an excellent article, (datelined January 11-New Delhi) which is
appropriately headlined, "GANDHI WEEPS" in which the author
introduces the subject by writing that, " India's army chief declared
today that the military was fully prepared for a large-scale conventional war
with Pakistan and was also ready to deliver a devastating nuclear strike should
Pakistan use its nuclear arsenal first." In answer to another question, he
echoed what the Indian defence minister had said in a December 30 Hindustan
Times interview, "We are ready for a second strike, yes, take it from
me we have enough."
The author of the GANDHI WEEPS
article wrote, "Consider a few other things: American troops are now based
in Pakistan military bases. In a rational mind, this might be considered a
limiting factor to a nuclear attack. But listen to the words of the Indian army
chief when asked about this little impediment. Some defence analysts here have
contended that the Indians and Pakistanis will not go to war because of the
substantial number of American troops deployed at air bases in Pakistan. The
general acknowledged that the situation might be inhibiting, as well as giving
the Americans a reason to discourage fighting, on the other hand the general
said, 'when two wild bulls decide to fight in a jungle', they carry on
regardless."
The writer of GANDHI WEEPS
goes on to say that, "Also, consider that China has recently (since
December 13th) supplied Pakistan with several squadrons of its most modern jet
fighters, to offset India's overwhelming air superiority... The 1961 war
between India and China was the reason why India developed nuclear weapons.
India still claims that China holds Indian territory taken in that dispute.
What would China do in the event of a nuclear exchange between India and
Pakistan, with India in ruins, its army blasted and dispersed upon the border
with Pakistan? What would the US do if its troops now positioned in Pakistan
military bases were killed by an Indian attack, nuclear or otherwise? The nuclear
weapons India and Pakistan possess would be categorized as tactical nuclear
weapons if they were in the US arsenal. They are similar to the weapons the US
exploded in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, in the tens of Kilotons of explosive power.
So we are looking at the potential for something like 100 Hiroshima’s --
but probably much worse in many ways because of the incredibly dense population
involved as likely targets, cities such as New Delhi, Bombay, and Calcutta.
Because the fireball of a tactical nuke does not make it to the stratosphere
... I think it is unlikely that a Nuclear Winter scenario could result from
this devastation. the nightmare of proliferation has come true. The failure of
the NWS (Nuclear Weapon's States) to renounce their arsenals and abolish
nuclear weapons has led to this tragic situation."
The GANDHI WEEPS article
concludes with a sincere appeal. It reads, "It is imperative that the
troop build-up (in S. Asia) be reversed, that the military forces be moved back
from the borders, that the air and naval forces be moved back from the front
line positioning, before some incident sets these forces in armed
confrontation. Only a tiny spark, an assassination similar to that of the
Archduke Ferdinand, which began World War 1, is now required to begin a war
that almost surely will lead to the death of countless innocents in SE Asia.
The leadership of every nation on earth must quickly try to prevent this human
catastrophe from taking place."
We Sikhs, whose homeland of
Punjab, with its holy shrines will be the battlefield in any Indo/Pakistan war
- because it is located right in the middle of the two warring countries -
endorse the above appeal for peace and a stand-down made by the wise author of GANDHI
WEEPS. We urge the delusional Brahmin-caste dominated fundamentalist BJP
jingoist regime, which currently misrules India, to wake up and read last
week's Khalistan Calling headlined, "India, Pakistan and the Bomb -
a tutorial", sign the CTBT and roll back India's nuclear programme.. See http://www.khalistan-affairs.org/main/k_calling/kc01092002.htm Hopefully the 'unread' Indian 'nuclear warriors'
like Defence minister George Fernandes and Army Chief General S. Pad-mar-abhan
will hold in leash their intelligence agencies currently planning another phony
incident, a la the December 13 parliament attack, and stand down their armed
forces from the border. See http://www.khalistan-affairs.org/main/k_calling/kc12242001.htm
We Sikhs believe that Delhi cannot win a nuclear showdown with Pakistan as
geography and the Monsoon winds are stacked against India and the General in
command in Pakistan, unlike the Indian leadership, knows his nukes and
missiles. More than that we Sikhs (who
have been captive in the Indian map since 1947 when the British Colonials quit
South Asia in haste) have no desire whatsoever to play a 'cannon-fodder' role
in the delusions and jingoism of the minority Swastika-worshipping
fundamentalist Brahmin caste which dominates the ruling elite of the Indian Castocracy.
The huge Sikh protest today
outside the Indian Consulate in New York (to be followed by protests in San
Francisco, Sacramento, Vancouver, Toronto, Ottawa, London, Sydney, Frankfurt,
Auckland, New Delhi and other cities) is a visible and loud demonstration of
the Sikh anger (and survival intent) against the nuclear and other policies of
the current morally repugnant Hindu-fundamentalist war-mongering Indian
leadership dubbed by someone as the 'Mad Hindu Bombers' in Delhi.
KHALISTAN ZINDABAD : LONG LIVE KHALISTAN
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