Current Events
India Launches Campaign to Discredit Sikh-American Congressional Caucus
PREETI KAUR
Washington, DC, USA
In a tizzy over the success of Sikh-Americans in the launch of a Sikh Congressional Caucus last week, the Indian government has launched a campaign of propaganda with the goal -- yet again -- of discrediting anything done by the Sikhs of the diaspora who, mercifully, remain safely beyond the reach of India’s oppressive and undemocratic laws.
India’s misinformation machine this time around is directed towards the Obama administration and against the US lawmakers who joined the group, and attempts to tarnish them by painting their efforts to help Sikh-Americans fight local prejudices as supporting the separatist cause of Khalistan in Punjab.
Indian officials based in its embassy and consular offices have expressed “surprise and dismay“ and have initiated an orchestrated line of attack to prevent the US lawmakers from working with their Sikh-American constituents.
The media in India, ever ready to be the mouth-piece of the government and turn a blind eye to the mischief that forever keeps the country in doldrums, has been carrying stories regurgitating the government propaganda.
30 US lawmakers have signed up for the Sikh Caucus, which is believed to be along the lines of a string of similar caucuses already in full operation in Washington, D.C.
The pro-India lobby group in the US, for example, works closely with another group known as AIPAC (the American Israel Public Affairs Committee). There are a number of similar ethnic and religion-based caucuses on the Hill.
But what has been causing constipation amongst the bureaucrats in New Delhi is that the signatories include veteran lawmakers such as Frank Pallone, a New Jersey democrat who has long been described a supporter of India and a member of the “pro-India Caucus“.
Indian officials are now worried that Pallone and many others are learning the truth about what is happening in India and no longer feel it is in the best interests of the US to blindly support India’s shenanigans both at home and abroad.
There is a general awareness now in Washington that Sikh grievances are legitimate and need the attention of the country’s lawmakers.
The fact that Indian officials are now cautioning their US counterparts by surreptitiously making murky and mischievous connections between the Khalistani movement and the recent Boston bombing by Chechen separatist sympathisers, for example, is enough to forewarn us that Indian ‘intelligence’ operatives are once again hyperactive in the US (and Canada, UK, etc) and will be working on entrapping, goading, encouraging, initiating and facilitating anything which will bring Sikh-Americans into disrepute.
The Indian diplomats are also pushing the asinine idea that Sikh interests can be best lobbied by the India caucus.
Of course! Just like the Jewish interests were best lobbied by German bureaucrats during the Second World War!
To get a glimpse into the shameless world of Indian propaganda, please CLICK here to read web of deceit being created by the Indian machinery. Not only the entire apparatus of the Indian bureaucracy and the country’s compliant media has been recruited in this mischief, but a string of PR agencies in the US, Canada and the UK have been given fresh retainers to start a campaign against Sikhs living in the diaspora.
It is time for us to be super-vigilant. Indian mischief is once again afoot.
May 6, 2013
Conversation about this article
1: Piara Singh (Mumbai, India), May 06, 2013, 7:01 AM.
Pakistanis live in perennial misery, considering it was born through murder and pillage. Israelis live in constant terror, considering their country was c-sectioned from a raped land. So does India live in endless misery, doomed to forever scheme and connive, given their birth and existence in ignominy. Like mice tearing around in a box of newspapers, our crooked Indians never amount to anything, though they appear forever busy and industrious ... in their badmaashees.
2: Dr Birinder Singh Ahluwalia (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), May 06, 2013, 8:53 AM.
Why can't we all get along? Punjab's Indus Valley Civilization is the oldest known to man ... and its people have contributed so much to the world. So have the Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Buddhist religions, each making this world a better place. The prosperity of modern life is testament to what we are capable of. Sikhs have contributed immensely towards the very existence of India and the betterment of all the countries the call home. Surely, there's got be a way of pooling all our abilities to make this world a better place ... instead of purveying misery, as described in this troubling report.
3: Manpreet Singh (Hyderabad, India), May 06, 2013, 10:31 AM.
Dear All: The article in the Times of India is yet another cheap attempt by a third-rate journalist, as are many others appearing all over the country and abroad, by people who have no interest in truth or integrity. The volume has risen ... particularly because of Sajjan Kumar's acquittal and the pending issues of Bhullar and Rajoana.
4: A J Singh (San Francisco, California, USA), May 06, 2013, 11:38 AM.
No need to be worried about the foolish Indian propaganda - we should treat such stories with the contempt that they deserve and highlight stories such as these: http://www.sikhnn.com/headlines/2502/backstory-sikh-caucus
5: Randeep (London, United Kingdom), May 06, 2013, 2:05 PM.
It's good to see this type of awareness being brought into the public domain. Please continue to highlight the facts.
6: G C Singh (USA), May 06, 2013, 3:37 PM.
The Times of India seems to be repeating its 1984 pattern of behaviour by publishing this article by its Washington DC correspondent Chidanand Rajghatta, and a series of articles last month written by Bharti Jain who, while ignoring and omitting all facts of Prof. Bhullar's detention and totally unjustified verdict to hang him, repeatedly called him a Khalistani terrorist who is "feigning" mental illness and who deserves the gallows. The Times Of India's then editor-in-chief Giri Lal Jain wrote a front page editorial demanding the "de-turbanization of Sikhs" and along with Hindustan Times's editor NC Menon was on the forefront of the Indian propaganda machine which spewed unadulterated venom, lies and disinformation against Sikhs leading up to the attack on Darbar Sahib and the subsequent genocide of the Sikhs.
7: Sunny Grewal (Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada), May 06, 2013, 4:46 PM.
Just finished reading the news report linked in this article. There is absolutely no explanation as to why the Sikh Caucus is being described as pro-Khalistani. It just seems to work off the assumption that the individuals in question are separatists. So I would say it's a pretty standard piece of journalism in regard to the Indian media. Would also like to warn readers to stay away from the comments section unless you have a strong sense of humour!
8: R.S Minhas (Millburn, New Jersey, USA), May 06, 2013, 5:10 PM.
The Indian state behaves like an out-of-control, controlling bully. In 1984, they rolled army tanks into a religious place full of civilians, knowing full well that use of tanks would be excessive force. Now that the Chinese army is having a picnic party and barbecue 19 km inside Indian territory, the Indian response is that of singing peace songs!
9: Kulwant Singh (U.S.A.), May 07, 2013, 4:50 AM.
This is repeated again and again, if there are those within our community who have not learned it before: The Indian government does not want to see Sikhs advance politically in other countries. They fear us because they know that we will cause international pressure to rain down on them until they are made to answer for their crimes against humanity. I hope one day Indians will wake up and see their government for what it truly is: a self-serving dynasty of corruption.
10: Gurdev Singh (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), May 07, 2013, 5:06 PM.
Here we go again, these Indians running around in circles, crying that the sky is falling!
11: H. Kaur (Canada), May 07, 2013, 10:15 PM.
I don't know if anyone else noticed it or if I was just being paranoid, but during that shooting tragedy at the Wisconsin Gurdwara, I felt there was a huge effort by non-Sikh Indians to define the Sikh identity in their own, distorted view. There was a guy in the vicinity of the gurdwara soon after the shooting hogging the news cameras, going on and on about the 'special relation Sikhs have with Hindus' and someone told me later that the Gurdwara was, as a result, called a 'Hindu-Sikh temple' on CNN ... until it was corrected later at the behest of some callers. Then in the press, there were guidelines by some Asian media group which was, among other things, defining Sikhism as an offshoot of Hinduism. I thought it was quite sick. People should be able to define themselves and have the right to a separate identity. It is bad enough that there are such attempts in India to confuse and muddy reality, starting with the Constitution of India itself, but we should insist on being free of interference here in the diaspora by desi mischief-makers. Of course India will have a problem with the Sikh-American Congressional Caucus: it has a problem with anything or anyone that ends with Sikhs being seen as a separate people or as people who deserve rights and freedoms on their own standing, or being recognized as having been treated badly in India. Some point out that Sikhs do well there. If they do, it is inspite of India, not because of any magnanimity. Also, how well can they keep on doing with 70% of the youth of Punjab now addicted to drugs, something I read on BBC recently. To me, such a high percentage seems the natural outcome after the terror and trauma there that left so many murdered and there have been stories of the army and police systematically exposing the youth to drugs. It is a way to kill a people and this high rate of addiction has started to draw international attention.
12: H. Kaur (Canada), May 07, 2013, 10:45 PM.
Dr. Ahluwalia, I want to comment on your question of why we can't all just get along. I wish we could all just get along, but I also wish Sikhs in particular also had more ability to see that they have enemies that are enemies due to no fault of their own. This whole planet, including its wealth, is organized on the basis of inequality. Most of the prosperity of the modern era is not shared. Most on this planet have no access to electricity, modern transportation, computers, etc. Many can't go to school, many don't even have access to clean water. Yet there are enough resources for everyone (which would also bring the population of the world down, for the wealthier and more educated do not have too many kids). Western nations who plundered and chose their victims on the basis of race, benefit from the prosperity. You think they will ever let the downtrodden rise up if they have their way, with institutions like the IMF bleeding the third world nations dry with interest? Then there are all the governments there who do not work for their people but just to profit themselves established in many a nation by the powers that be. Then there is of course hatred based on differences, all the genocides on this earth are sickening. India, no matter what it might have contributed in the past, is a most disgusting nation. People are murdered for being of different faiths, for being of certain "castes" and merely for being women. More women have been killed in India than the people killed by the Nazis in WWII. India actually gave the world the Nazi philosophy too. How fitting that the judge who let that killer Sajjan Kumar off has the last name Aryan ... takes a Nazi to help another Nazi. I think eventually humanity is going to wipe itself out due to its greed and hatred of the other. Or, hopefully, the species will evolve into something better. But as we stand now, there is no hope. We, besides having the capacity to hate just like anyone else, also suffer from the syndrome of being in denial that the Brahmins of India are humanity's enemies. By knowing who our enemies are, we can protect ourselves. We don't have to be offensive to them, I do not adovacate hate, just that we know who wishes us harm so that we are able to protect ourselves at the personal level and the larger, general level. We should not have opted to stay with India when we had the choice not to. Now we are a tiny minority in a land where our votes do not matter, in a land that does not tolerate those who are different or believe in rights and never has or it would not have the caste system or have demonized and dehumanized women to the extent it has. It is a land that can be described as a post-Nazi-land where the values of Nazism are allowed to flourish and become the ruling order.
13: Devinder Pal Singh (New Delhi, India), May 07, 2013, 11:20 PM.
Time and again the media in India publishes articles to present distorted information about Sikhs, fueled by a malicious intent. Oftentimes they remain far away from the truth and flourish on already published stuff which of course has been manipulated by they themselves. The best thing would be to care two hoots for these pseudo trumpeters who only serve hidden and vested interests. However, caution should be exercised against those among us who serve them to serve their own ends.
14: Manpreet Singh (Hyderabad, India), May 11, 2013, 12:59 AM.
Here's another example of how low, immoral and mercenary our journalists can get in this corrupt country, this time by another sub-standard plier of the trade: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/World/US/I-joined-caucus-to-defend-Sikhs-Ami-Bera/articleshow/19996466.cms