State Dept video"Terrorism: A War without Borders"

[mschawla]

Thank you very much for supporting the petition drive to President Bush. With your help we hope to appeal vigorously the White House to withdrw the State Dept. video. Lot of people asked us if this topic was discussed on the TV program. May be you can put this information on your resources that : Yes we did TV programs on "State Department's Goofup" and also on "The French Law", where American viewpoint was also presented the American panelists. One can view both of these programs on our web site www.passionfortruthtv.com and clicking link to Passion For Truth TV. For any problem one can contact us at mschawla@hotmail.com. Thanks.

[mschawla]

I just read about recent World Sikh Council’s Chairman Kuldeep Singh Open Letter of February 12, 2004 to U.S. Senator John Kerry expressing appreciation for his apology and asking for a meeting to continue dialog expressing shock on his comment of January 31, 2004 linking Sikhs with terrorism. But then he appreciated his response of February 6, 2004, and called it as positive and said that response reflects his thoughtfulness and statesmanship. The question is "Are the Sikhs in USA satisfied with Kerry's remarks of February 6, 2004?”

In the next paragraph Chairman Kuldeep Singh said that Sikhs were having a peaceful struggle for redeeming their distinct national status, but were subjected to India's state terrorism and anti-Sikh media blitz. Thousands of Sikhs -- men, women, and children -- were massacred during this official reign of terror in the 1980's and 1990's. Repeated appeals for transparency, accountability, and restitution were ignored and relegated to "a cry in the wilderness." This was amply documented in many fact-finding reports by human rights organizations and independent observers, both in India and abroad. He then expressed his desire to meet with him soon, at a place and time convenient to him, for further dialogue on this matter.

I have no question about this letter except that we should have expressed our dissatisfaction with his response of February 6,2004 clearly and then requested a meeting with him. As I understand that World Sikh Council - America Region, based in Columbus, Ohio, claiming a representative body of Sikh institutions in America, 28 gurdwaras and 8 organizations (including SMART and Sikh Coalition), working under the patr

onage of Akal Takht. What I am saying is:

(1) Sikhs do make history, but do not write history. Others than Sikhs are writing the history of 1984.

(2) For the last 20 years we have suffered because of the timidity of our Sikh leaders of not being bold enough to challenge the history being written by others. They have been calling Sikhs as terrorists and have been successful in convincing the whole world including USA that Sikhs were terrorists in 1984 instead of a Sikh holocaust in 1984. The proof is clear that US State department made a video “Terrorism: A War without Borders” in which it called Sikhs, in 1984 Golden Temple attack segment, as terrorists.

(3) During the last 20 years we Sikhs and our leadership should have declared 1984 happenings as a third (3 rd) Sikh holocaust (Ghallughara) to be written in history. If we had declared it quickly the western countries would not have taken the word of then Government.

(4) An eminent and most reliable person, like Justice (Retd.) Ranjit Singh Narula, Chief Judge, in Punjab & Haryana High Court, used the correct word, Ghalughara, for the tragic events of 1984 in his article in ” The Sikh Review” magazine.

(5) I wrote an article on declaring 1984 as 3 rd Holocaust of Sikhs and it was also published in “The Sikh Review’ magazine Of August 2002.

(6) I have been requesting SGPC to declare 1984 as 3-rd holocaust (Ghallughara) in SGPC’s list of “EVENTS THAT SHAPED THE SIKH HISTORY”. In spite of repeated requests to SGPC there is no response from our highest Sikh body.

(7) If World Sikh Council – American Region claims to have a patronage of Akal Takhat, it should first force our own Akal Takhat and SGPC to declare 1984 as a third holocaust of Sikhs. Only then we will have any leg to persuade others and USA government to correct its past mistakes.

(8) Finally I request everybody, reading this, must write to Akal Takhat and SGPC to declare immediately 1984 as a year of Sikh Third Holocast (Ghallughara).