CAHANDIGARH: Harsimrat Kaur Badal Member Parliament from Bathinda while speaking in Parliament today conveyed the anguish over the heinous racial attack on innocent Sikhs who were offering prayers in Oak Creek on the 5th of August in Wisconsin. This heinous crime led to the killing of six innocent devotees and injuring many others who had gathered there offer prayers.
Badal said that being a small, yet enterprising community, the Sikhs have always contributed towards nation building, growth and prosperity of whichever nation that they have settled in. They have contributed richly to the growth of the United States in every sphere, be it agriculture, be it entrepreneurship, be it academics, and even to their Armed Forces. In fact, in World Wars I and II, almost 80,000 Sikhs laid down their lives for the countries that they were fighting from. This has been the spirit of the Sikhs.
She said, what is very saddening is that ever since the 9/11 attacks in 2001 in New York – the last ten years have seen – thousands of Sikhs being murdered, assaulted and abused physically and verbally. They had to bear the brunt of being targeted because of their attire and their resemblance to a terrorist with which they have no link.
While expressing shock over, this whole episode, she said that a small community of sikhs has faced this hate crimes in huge numbers. If we look at the record of just the last ten years, over 1,000 crimes have come to light, which means every year almost 100 crimes in which the Sikhs have been targeted, which means almost every third day a Sikh has been targeted. As a result, their liberties to live in peace, to work in peace, to pray in peace, are being threatened just because of their resemblance to a terrorist or to a certain community.
She said that it maybe that people from Osama Bin Laden’s community do not wear those turbans, but we Sikhs communities are a proud community and we are proud to wear the turbans. She said that what could be better is that our own Prime Minister lead a delegation of all Sikh parliamentarians to the United States and to meet with the American Sikhs and request the President Mr. Barack Obama and his Members of Parliament to raise this awareness in their constituencies so that people do not have to lose their lives.
She lashed UPA government and said that she would like to ask the Government when they will stop requesting and start demanding that the US Government takes concrete steps to create this awareness amongst the minds of the ignorant people. She also requested the Government to make arrangements to bring back the bodies of those poor victims to their beloved families over here. She said that Congress Members of Parliament from Punjab did not take the issue of their own community seriously and they always play puppets in the hands of Gandhi family.
Mrs. Badal said that she wants to know how much longer it will take for innocent and peace-loving Sikhs to give up their lives and die and live in terror before the Government wakes up to take some corrective measures to stop these senseless killings.
She further said that since 1984 all we have received are `apologies’ and `condolences’. Be it the massacre of the 10,000 Sikhs by our Government here or from the Australians who are killing the Punjabi students in Australia or the Italian Government who targets the Sikhs at the airport or even the French Government who does not even apologize about the fact that Sikh children are denied Government School education.
