Genocide has to be compensated by separation: Sikh politician
[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 December 2013, 22:30 GMT]
“Tamils can’t live [in a united Sri Lanka] after the perpetration of the crime of genocide. I think the wounds are too deep historically there to be reconciliation. After a State has committed genocide, there can’t be any reconciliation,” says Simranjit Singh Mann, the president of Shiromani Akali Dal Amritsar party, who advocates the formation of Khalistan as an independent and sovereign State for Sikhs, in an exchange of views with May 17 Movement in Tamil Nadu. “Pirapaharan and his movement was too powerful for the Sri Lankan government,” he said, adding that “it was under the collaboration of UPA-led Congress government that the Sri Lanka government was able to achieve and crush the movement for freedom by committing a genocide on the Tamil people in Sri Lanka.”
“Tamils can’t live [in a united Sri Lanka] after the perpetration of the crime of genocide. I think the wounds are too deep historically there to be reconciliation. After a State has committed genocide, there can’t be any reconciliation,” says Simranjit Singh Mann, the president of Shiromani Akali Dal Amritsar party, who advocates the formation of Khalistan as an independent and sovereign State for Sikhs, in an exchange of views with May 17 Movement in Tamil Nadu. “Pirapaharan and his movement was too powerful for the Sri Lankan government,” he said, adding that “it was under the collaboration of UPA-led Congress government that the Sri Lanka government was able to achieve and crush the movement for freedom by committing a genocide on the Tamil people in Sri Lanka.”
Simranjit Singh Mann
A major tactic deployed by the
Indian State was to make sure that Tamil Nadu didn’t rise up to exert
pressure on the Indian Government. This was achieved through wooing
collaborators from Tamil Nadu with positions and money, he said.
“The Tamil people would have listened in revolt and in favour of what was happening to the Tamils in Sri Lanka [in 2009]. But, for the fact that these Tamil leaders had been ‘bought over’, this didn’t happen,” the Sikh leader told Tamil activists from Tamil Nadu.
“Government of India rules Tamils of Tamil Nadu and the Sikhs of Punjab through collaborators, in keeping the Tamils and the Sikhs subdued and not letting in the nationalist feelings be turned into votes,” Mr Simranjit Singh said drawing parallels between the genocide against Sikh people and the genocide against Eezham Tamils.
“I came across Mr Vaiko while I was in parliament from 1999 to 2004. But, other than that, the Tamils have not taken up the cause of the Tamil people in [Indian] parliament,” Mr Simrajit Singh said.
“My experience of the Tamil people is that when the Central Government of Mr Sastri [in 1964-66] wanted to impose Hindi all over India and abolish English [as lingua franca], it was the Tamil people who rose up against it. They committed mass suicides. The pressure went up that the Hindi-speaking Northern Indian people had to give up their designs to poise Hindi on all of India,” he said.
The Sikh politician was advocating for the use of electoral politics as a means to demonstrate the democratic will of the people [of Tamil Nadu].
“The Tamil Nadu State and the Tamil people in India will have to help Tamils in Sri Lanka to achieve their independence,” he said.
“Democracy gives legitimacy. If we had elected representatives from Punjab and the other territories, we can pass a resolution and that would be accepted by the world,” he said.
“But, if you try any other methods of gaining independence, the world opinion will go against you. You would be crushed not only by the State from which you want to separate, but the forces, which are operated in the world,” he said.
“Once, the American foreign policy was so great and Woodrow Wilson wanted the right of self-determination and he created Nations after First World War on the principle of nationalities. But today, America doesn’t believe in human rights, it doesn’t believe in the right of self-determination, in the right of people being the masters of their own destiny as sovereign states.
“At the moment, or even during the British period, the Hindus got their independence through Congress and the Muslims got Pakistan through the Muslim League. They did fight the elections and that was the only determining factor on expressing what you want. If the history of our sub-continent to be followed, it was the determination of the people through the elections that made their voice legitimate and acceptable to the rest of the world,” he said.
On a question on whether a policy change was possible in the Indian establishment on the question of Tamil Eelam, he said: “The theocratic State of India is very scared of helping independence movements, because it is so fragile with the Nagas, with the Kashmiris, with the Mizos, with the Tamils and with the Sikhs. If you see the periphery of India, the theocratic State over here rules all these states with the help of the Army and draconian laws, which give impunity to the Army and the police forces to commit crimes on the people. So, I don’t think that the Indian ruling class, the theocrats, they will ever help the Eezham people to separate.”
“I don’t think the attitude of the UN is helpful to freedom movements though on its charter it allows for right to self-determination and the obliteration of the death penalty and things like that. But in practice, it is going along with the rulers who commit these crimes, whether they be anywhere. The UN at this moment of time is going along with the repressive governments.
“Since the elections are near, your organizations should put up candidates who are Tamil nationalists, who want separation, sovereignty and independence. Then only can the crime of genocide perpetrated in Sri Lanka would be recognized. Like the Armenian people and the Armenian genocide, it took years and years for it to be registered in the American Congress and the Senate etc.
“So, if we want Sikh genocide to be registered in international forums, we need to have independent people in parliaments and in the legislatures to speak on this.
“Tamil and Sikh people who are represented at these so-called democratic bodies [in India] do not take up these issues.
“We want Khalistan to be an independent and sovereign Sikh State, which would be a buffer between Islamic Pakistan, Communist China and theocratic Hindu Indian State. Khalistan would ensure peace internally in South Asia, because the theocratic Hindu India, communist China and Islamic Pakistan, are deadly enemies [against each other] and a nuclear war can break out.
“What would be the battlefield for the nuclear war? It is the Sikh territories of Rajastan, Punjab, Hariyana, Chandigarh, Jammu Kashmir and Himachal.
“If a buffer State is created, the Sikhs would also be safe and the Hindus and Muslims who live here would be safe. Apart from that it would create peace in South Asia. For a plebiscite for the right of self-determination, we are in favour of an independent and sovereign state.
Further excerpts from the exchange of views follow:
“The brutality and the perpetration of genocide of the Tamil people has been so severe by the Sri Lankan government that there cannot be any reconciliation after this crime has been committed – just like it was impossible for the Jews to live inside Germany after what they went through in the era of the holocaust during the second world war and Armenia which couldn’t stay with Turkey or any other country – they have to be separated after this. The Sri Lankans have committed enormous crimes on Tamil people living there. The Tamil Nadu State and the Tamil people in India will have to help them to achieve this.
[…]
“The 13th Amendment doesn’t go as far as total independence and sovereignty. It talks about internal settlement […] I don’t agree with that. The Tamil people of Sri Lanka have to be independent. They must be the masters of their destiny after what they have gone through.”
[…]
If there are elections [under 13 Amendment], the people who are elected and who would be put as administrators or chief ministers or whatever you call that, they would become the collaborators of Sri Lanka.
[…]
“We have always been keen about the struggle of Tamil people under Pirapharan and the mobilization for freedom and separation. Our party has followed these events very closely. If you see our website, we have tabulated each and everything from time to time what has been happening in Sri Lanka and to the Tamils.
“It was under the collaboration of India under UPA-led Congress government that the Sri Lanka government was able to achieve and crush the movement for freedom by committing a genocide on the Tamil people in Sri Lanka.
“And the reason was that the Congress Party believed, rightly or wrongly, it was the Tamil people, who had assassinated their leader Rajiv Gandhi. And, they had been working in many ways to have Pirapaharan and some other people extradited from Sri Lanka. Those in the Sri Lankan government wanted to ‘help’ India. But, the fact was that Pirapaharan and his movement was too powerful for the Sri Lankan government and its Army to capture him alive and hand him over to the Indians.
“So, in a plot and conspiracy with the Sri Lankan government, they first bought over the Tamil [Nadu] political leaders like Mr Karunanithy and Mr Chidamparam. Then, by bribing these Tamil leaders, they kept the people of Tamil Nadu from not helping the State movement for the Tamil people in Sri Lanka.
“For instance, Mr Karunanidhi and the Central Government had his daughter in an important post. Mr Raja was given a ministerial post in which they made a lot of money. Mr Chidambaram had also made a lot of money. That is how they suppressed [Tamil Nadu].
“My position is that the Tamil people would have listened in revolt in favour of what was happening to the Tamils in Sri Lanka. But, for the fact that these Tamil leaders had been ‘bought over’, this didn’t happen.”
“The Tamils constitute a separate Nation. They are a separate race. They have their separate Hindu religion. But, they are oppressed by the Brahmins, who have been priests for generations – by the Brahmanical system in India. Tamils have a separate language, separate history, they have a separate school of drama, music, art, and in the history, they have ruled their land and they have been great colonizers in South East Asia.
“And I do believe that the Tamil people should, like the Sikhs, be separated and should have their own sovereign State, like what we Sikhs are fighting for.
“So, we studied the Tamil movement very closely and have been to Tamil Nadu and have given speeches. We have spoken very freely that the Government of India rules Tamil Nadu and the Punjab and the Sikhs through collaborators, who collaborate with the Government of India in keeping the Tamils and the Sikhs subdued and not letting the nationalist feelings be turned into votes.
“Since the elections are near, your organizations, should put up candidates who are Tamil nationalists, who want separation, sovereignty and independence. Then only can the crime of genocide perpetrated in Sri Lanka would be recognized. Like the Armenian people and the Armenian genocide, it took years and years for it to be registered in the American Congress and the Senate etc.,
“So, if we want Sikh genocide to be registered in international forums, we need to have independent people in parliaments and in the legislatures to speak on this.
“Tamil and Sikh people who are represented at these so-called democratic bodies do not take up these issues.
“The Tamil people would have listened in revolt and in favour of what was happening to the Tamils in Sri Lanka [in 2009]. But, for the fact that these Tamil leaders had been ‘bought over’, this didn’t happen,” the Sikh leader told Tamil activists from Tamil Nadu.
“Government of India rules Tamils of Tamil Nadu and the Sikhs of Punjab through collaborators, in keeping the Tamils and the Sikhs subdued and not letting in the nationalist feelings be turned into votes,” Mr Simranjit Singh said drawing parallels between the genocide against Sikh people and the genocide against Eezham Tamils.
“I came across Mr Vaiko while I was in parliament from 1999 to 2004. But, other than that, the Tamils have not taken up the cause of the Tamil people in [Indian] parliament,” Mr Simrajit Singh said.
“My experience of the Tamil people is that when the Central Government of Mr Sastri [in 1964-66] wanted to impose Hindi all over India and abolish English [as lingua franca], it was the Tamil people who rose up against it. They committed mass suicides. The pressure went up that the Hindi-speaking Northern Indian people had to give up their designs to poise Hindi on all of India,” he said.
The Sikh politician was advocating for the use of electoral politics as a means to demonstrate the democratic will of the people [of Tamil Nadu].
“The Tamil Nadu State and the Tamil people in India will have to help Tamils in Sri Lanka to achieve their independence,” he said.
“Democracy gives legitimacy. If we had elected representatives from Punjab and the other territories, we can pass a resolution and that would be accepted by the world,” he said.
“But, if you try any other methods of gaining independence, the world opinion will go against you. You would be crushed not only by the State from which you want to separate, but the forces, which are operated in the world,” he said.
“Once, the American foreign policy was so great and Woodrow Wilson wanted the right of self-determination and he created Nations after First World War on the principle of nationalities. But today, America doesn’t believe in human rights, it doesn’t believe in the right of self-determination, in the right of people being the masters of their own destiny as sovereign states.
“At the moment, or even during the British period, the Hindus got their independence through Congress and the Muslims got Pakistan through the Muslim League. They did fight the elections and that was the only determining factor on expressing what you want. If the history of our sub-continent to be followed, it was the determination of the people through the elections that made their voice legitimate and acceptable to the rest of the world,” he said.
On a question on whether a policy change was possible in the Indian establishment on the question of Tamil Eelam, he said: “The theocratic State of India is very scared of helping independence movements, because it is so fragile with the Nagas, with the Kashmiris, with the Mizos, with the Tamils and with the Sikhs. If you see the periphery of India, the theocratic State over here rules all these states with the help of the Army and draconian laws, which give impunity to the Army and the police forces to commit crimes on the people. So, I don’t think that the Indian ruling class, the theocrats, they will ever help the Eezham people to separate.”
“I don’t think the attitude of the UN is helpful to freedom movements though on its charter it allows for right to self-determination and the obliteration of the death penalty and things like that. But in practice, it is going along with the rulers who commit these crimes, whether they be anywhere. The UN at this moment of time is going along with the repressive governments.
“Since the elections are near, your organizations should put up candidates who are Tamil nationalists, who want separation, sovereignty and independence. Then only can the crime of genocide perpetrated in Sri Lanka would be recognized. Like the Armenian people and the Armenian genocide, it took years and years for it to be registered in the American Congress and the Senate etc.
“So, if we want Sikh genocide to be registered in international forums, we need to have independent people in parliaments and in the legislatures to speak on this.
“Tamil and Sikh people who are represented at these so-called democratic bodies [in India] do not take up these issues.
“We want Khalistan to be an independent and sovereign Sikh State, which would be a buffer between Islamic Pakistan, Communist China and theocratic Hindu Indian State. Khalistan would ensure peace internally in South Asia, because the theocratic Hindu India, communist China and Islamic Pakistan, are deadly enemies [against each other] and a nuclear war can break out.
“What would be the battlefield for the nuclear war? It is the Sikh territories of Rajastan, Punjab, Hariyana, Chandigarh, Jammu Kashmir and Himachal.
“If a buffer State is created, the Sikhs would also be safe and the Hindus and Muslims who live here would be safe. Apart from that it would create peace in South Asia. For a plebiscite for the right of self-determination, we are in favour of an independent and sovereign state.
Further excerpts from the exchange of views follow:
“The brutality and the perpetration of genocide of the Tamil people has been so severe by the Sri Lankan government that there cannot be any reconciliation after this crime has been committed – just like it was impossible for the Jews to live inside Germany after what they went through in the era of the holocaust during the second world war and Armenia which couldn’t stay with Turkey or any other country – they have to be separated after this. The Sri Lankans have committed enormous crimes on Tamil people living there. The Tamil Nadu State and the Tamil people in India will have to help them to achieve this.
[…]
“The 13th Amendment doesn’t go as far as total independence and sovereignty. It talks about internal settlement […] I don’t agree with that. The Tamil people of Sri Lanka have to be independent. They must be the masters of their destiny after what they have gone through.”
[…]
If there are elections [under 13 Amendment], the people who are elected and who would be put as administrators or chief ministers or whatever you call that, they would become the collaborators of Sri Lanka.
[…]
“We have always been keen about the struggle of Tamil people under Pirapharan and the mobilization for freedom and separation. Our party has followed these events very closely. If you see our website, we have tabulated each and everything from time to time what has been happening in Sri Lanka and to the Tamils.
“It was under the collaboration of India under UPA-led Congress government that the Sri Lanka government was able to achieve and crush the movement for freedom by committing a genocide on the Tamil people in Sri Lanka.
“And the reason was that the Congress Party believed, rightly or wrongly, it was the Tamil people, who had assassinated their leader Rajiv Gandhi. And, they had been working in many ways to have Pirapaharan and some other people extradited from Sri Lanka. Those in the Sri Lankan government wanted to ‘help’ India. But, the fact was that Pirapaharan and his movement was too powerful for the Sri Lankan government and its Army to capture him alive and hand him over to the Indians.
“So, in a plot and conspiracy with the Sri Lankan government, they first bought over the Tamil [Nadu] political leaders like Mr Karunanithy and Mr Chidamparam. Then, by bribing these Tamil leaders, they kept the people of Tamil Nadu from not helping the State movement for the Tamil people in Sri Lanka.
“For instance, Mr Karunanidhi and the Central Government had his daughter in an important post. Mr Raja was given a ministerial post in which they made a lot of money. Mr Chidambaram had also made a lot of money. That is how they suppressed [Tamil Nadu].
“My position is that the Tamil people would have listened in revolt in favour of what was happening to the Tamils in Sri Lanka. But, for the fact that these Tamil leaders had been ‘bought over’, this didn’t happen.”
“The Tamils constitute a separate Nation. They are a separate race. They have their separate Hindu religion. But, they are oppressed by the Brahmins, who have been priests for generations – by the Brahmanical system in India. Tamils have a separate language, separate history, they have a separate school of drama, music, art, and in the history, they have ruled their land and they have been great colonizers in South East Asia.
“And I do believe that the Tamil people should, like the Sikhs, be separated and should have their own sovereign State, like what we Sikhs are fighting for.
“So, we studied the Tamil movement very closely and have been to Tamil Nadu and have given speeches. We have spoken very freely that the Government of India rules Tamil Nadu and the Punjab and the Sikhs through collaborators, who collaborate with the Government of India in keeping the Tamils and the Sikhs subdued and not letting the nationalist feelings be turned into votes.
“Since the elections are near, your organizations, should put up candidates who are Tamil nationalists, who want separation, sovereignty and independence. Then only can the crime of genocide perpetrated in Sri Lanka would be recognized. Like the Armenian people and the Armenian genocide, it took years and years for it to be registered in the American Congress and the Senate etc.,
“So, if we want Sikh genocide to be registered in international forums, we need to have independent people in parliaments and in the legislatures to speak on this.
“Tamil and Sikh people who are represented at these so-called democratic bodies do not take up these issues.
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