Washington, DC (KP) – The following are extensions of remarks by US Congressman Edolphus Towns of New York’s 10th Congressional District on July 25, 2006 in the US House of Representatives regarding the ongoing operession of minorities in the so-called democracy of India.
Mr. Towns : Mr. Speaker, the London Institute of South Asia recently published an edition of its Journal. It included many excellent articles on the plight of minorities in India . There were articles about the Sikhs , Dalits, Muslims, and others. A writer named Tim Phares wrote a very comprehensive article on the subject that I would like to share with my colleagues. He took note of the plight of the Sikhs , the Dalits, the Muslims, the Christians, and other minorities in India. He noted that Christians have become “the targets of choice.” He noted that the Indian constitution bans the caste system but it remains in place, a vehicle of oppression of minorities. He reported that India’s constitution denies people their fundamental right of self-determination. That is the essence of democracy, Mr. Speaker. I don’t know how a country can call itself democratic when it denies people such a fundamental democratic right.
The article takes note of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS), formed in support of the fascist movement, publishing a booklet on how to frame Christians and other minorities in fake criminal cases. It comments on anti-conversion laws. It details some of the violence that has come about due to such laws. Shouldn’t a person’s religion be a fundamental freedom, Mr. Speaker?
The article notes the studies that have been done on the massacre in Chithisinghpora in which at least 35 Sikhs were murdered. It notes that they have come to the common conclusion that the Indian government’s forces carried out this massacre. It notes the government’s involvement in the Gujarat massacres. The article does an excellent job of detailing incident after. incident of repression against minorities in India.
Mr. Speaker, we must do what we can to support freedom throughout the world. It is time to stop our aid and trade with India until it stops being the repressive regime that it is and starts being the democracy that it says it is. We should declare our support for a free and fair plebiscite in Khalistan, Kashmir, Nagalim, and everywhere people are seeking their freedom in South Asia.
Repression in India : http://www.panthic.org/news/129/ARTICLE/2628/2006-07-16.html
Reference : Page: E1522, SPEECH OF HON. EDOLPHUS TOWNS OF NEW YORK IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, TUESDAY, JULY 25, 2006
Edolphus “Ed” Towns is currently serving his twelfth term in the U.S House of Representatives. He represents the tenth Congressional District of Brooklyn, New York, encompassing the neighborhoods of East New York, Canarsie, Brownsville, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Cypress Hills, Clinton Hill, Mill Basin, Midwood, downtown Brooklyn, Boreum Hill, as well as parts of Fort Greene and Williamsburg.
India Exposed 