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
24-30, 2001 : Vol. 17; No. 4). It was also published in the third week
of January in the Vancouver-based PUNJAB GUARDIAN, Toronto-based
SANJH SAVERA and other Punjabi weekly and monthly publications which cater
to the three million strong Sikh diaspora in Europe, Africa, Asia and
Australia. The 3 million Overseas Sikhs, unlike their 19 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 karayga 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 23, 2001.
* Please E-mail newsletter to a friend, opinion maker & /
or a newspaper.
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Indian Foreign minister Jaswant Singh's
disastrous Saudi Arabian visit
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Saudis administer diplomatic snub after
snub to Indian visitors
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:
January 23, 2001:
According to diplomatic observors here, the
test-firing of the 2,200 kilometer range Agni-11 missile two days before
the start of Indian foreign minister Jaswant Singh's January 19-21 official
visit to Saudi Arabia has offended the Arab world in general - the Saudis in
particular - and might put future oil deliveries from that region to India at
risk which will increase the poor man's burden at the Indian petrol pump.
Indian imports of petroleum,
oil and lubricants (POL) from Saudi Arabia alone are worth more than two
billion dollars a year and one and a half million Indian expatriates are
gainfully employed, just in Saudi Arabia alone, and they remit four billion
dollars annually to Delhi. There are millions of other Indians employed in the
Gulf states as well.
The Saudi 'temper' can be
measured from the fact that Saudi foreign minister Prince Faisal, in a classic
diplomatic snub, cut the Indian foreign minister Jaswant Singh down to size by
taking off for Tunisia on Saturday January 20 after granting the Indian
minister a ninty minute audience - see report in the Times of India dated
January 21, 2001 headlined; "Saudi Foreign minister arrives in
Tunisia". We wonder how Jaswant Singh spent his time in Riyadh while his
host was away in Tunisia?
According to yesterday's
(January 22, 2001) Times of India, the Saudis also administered another
diplomatic rebuke, a finishing stroke (a coup de grace the French call
it) of 'moral contempt' to the Indian foreign minister, Jaswant Singh's
disastrous, (once-postponed) Saudi Arabian visit by publicly rebuking the male
members of the official Indian media party moving about in the capital city of
Riyadh suggesting they; "keep their women (journalists) in check".
"Moral contempt", wrote the great German philosopher, Friedriche
Nietzsche (1844-1900); is a far greater indignity and insult than any kind of
crime".
The above incident headlined;
"Indian journalists chastised by Saudi moral police" was reported in
yesterday's Times of India thus:- " Two women (journalists) in the
first-ever Indian media team visiting, (Riyadh) Saudi Arabia suffered a public
chasticement from the dreaded muttawwa (religious police) for not
covering their heads. Although both the women journalists wore the abaya, or
the black robe that women cover themselves with from head to toe, they had not
covered their heads. Both the women (journalists) were sternly told to go
inside a shop and buy a scarf (dopatta) while their male escort was
censured for not keeping his women in check."
The above embarrassing
incident, and other developments, according to well-informed diplomatic
observors here, have turned Indian foreign minster Jaswant Singh's much
trumpeted January 19-21 visit to Riyadh into a disaster. Readers may recall
that Jaswant singh's 3-day official visit was the subject of numerous articles
in an orchestrated campaign in the Indian media last year to show how important
and fruitful the visit to Saudi Arabia was going to be. For example the Times
of India in a front page story six weeks ago (issue of 11 December, 2000)
headlined; "Jaswant to visit Saudi Arabia in January" predicted that;
" The visit is expected to catalyze bilateral political and economic ties,
as it will be the first ever by a senior Indian minister to Saudi Arabia in six
years. The only Indian leaders to have visited Saudi Arabia in the past were
Prime minister Indira Gandhi in 1982, former finance minister Manmohan Singh in
1994 and former minister of state for external affairs Salim Sherwani in
1998."
The December 11 Times of India
article went on to say that; "apart from official talks with his Saudi
counterpart Prince Saud Al-Faisal, Jaswant Singh was also expected to call on
King Fahd bin Abdul Aziz and Crown Prince Abdullah. India and Saudi Arabia will
sign two agreements during the visit."
The Saudis, it is obvious, are
not impressed, a la Atal Bihari Vajpayee & Co., by Jaswant Singh's
British-accented English or his 'royal' blood line going back to Mogul Emperor
Akbar's harem, and they administered another diplomatic snub by postponing the
signing of a proposed agreement with India on
combating crime - which, according to Aunohita Mojumdar's dispatch in the Times
of India of January 21, 2001, was supposed to take into account terrorism, drug
trafficking and smuggling of arms. The Times of India (January 21, 2001) quoted
officials as saying that; "the agreement still required the completion of
some formalities on the Saudi side." In a clear cut message to India to
lay off Pakistan, Riyadh administered the proverbial coup de gras to Jaswant
Singh's daydreams with its decision to join the Pakistan Navy's ongoing
manouvers off Karachi effective tomorrow (January 24, 2001) and has sent a
flotilla of seven state of the art Royal Saudi Navy ships.
With the Sikh homeland of Punjab, Khalistan, sitting smack in the middle of India and Pakistan we Sikhs have no desire to become a nuclear battlefield which development could destroy our holy shrines along with ninteen million compatriots captive in Sikh Punjab. Therefore, any Agni-11 missile testing (or any nuclear explosion, 'peaceful' or otherwise, in our backyard in Pokharan) is of concern to us. We Sikhs are pleased that Saudi Arabia has taken a firm stand after the Agni-11 test and has shown its displeasue to Indian foreign minister Jaswant Singh. We hope that Saudi Arabia cuts the inflated ambitions of India's morally repugnant Swastika-worshipping Brahmin rulers down to size by using the 'oil weapon'.
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