Sikh Genocide 1984

Nov 10, Connecticuit......
Statement of State Senator Katherine Osten the Occasion of Declaring Nov 01 as Sikh Genocide Remembrance Day by the State of Connecticut.
I remember when we first started talking about the Genocide which happened in 1984 and quite frankly I was appalled.

But I did my research to make sure that..... and I would like to call up my college Kevin Ryne who is also here today... ..because I think it is something that is doomed to happen over and over if we don't recognize it and thats something that I think is important for people to know.

I was talking a little bit earlier today and I received a letter. Its basically a form letter. They (India) crossed out the "going to" and put my name and its not a letter of great import from my perspective from India. And it said....as I have...I will just read the one paragraph that I think sort of shows the denial of what has happened. It says:

"As I have explained before, the anti Sikh violence had its roots in years of terrorism perpetuated by Sikh terrorists and cannot be subject to selective analysis. The purpose of the people who persuaded you to support this State Resolution is to weaken the India Union through divisive policies and this you will agree that we cannot allow to succeed".

And I do agree that we should never allow divisive politics to be the order of the day. BUT as in any case where genocide has happened , the perpetrators of that genocide say "it wasn't me" and they often blame the victims saying that "it was what they (victims) did that brought this about".

I would liken this to the Holocaust when the people said that "the Holocaust did not happen" and people today would still say "the Holocaust did not happen", "those people did not really die", "the death came was not real". BUT they (the Holocaust) were real and this (Nov 1984 Sikh Genocide) was real.

And I would expect that the Government of India would recognize that and stand up and say "We made a mistake". Its also true that the United States occasionally makes mistakes. And we also have to recognize when we do so, because in order to move forward you have to recognize what you did that was wrong, even if you were not the one who perpetuated it. But this is still being perpetuated and we need to stop it. And I am very proud to be here today.