 |
|
|
One of the most influential and respected African American US lawmakers has written to President Bill Clinton dissociating himself from a letter sent to the president by a bipartisan group of 20 legislators urging him to declare India a terrorist state.
Rep. Donald M Payne, New Jersey Democrat and a former chairman of the powerful Congressional Black Caucus, said in his missive to Clinton that India is one of the strongest democracies in the world and in no way should be considered a terrorist state.
"On June 15th, and September 12th, 2000, my name was inadvertently added to letters addressed to you requesting that India be declared a terrorist nation," for alleged complicity in the killing of 35 Sikhs in Chittisinghpora in Kashmir, Payne wrote in his letter. The Chittisinghpora incident coincided with the start of Clinton's visit to India in March.
In the letters in March and September, 20 lawmakers on the urging of the separatist Council of Khalistan and the Pakistan Political Action Committee accused India's counterinsurgency forces, under the command of intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), of carrying out the massacre.
When the pro-India lobby and India's friends on Congress found Payne's name alongside the names of the usual coterie of India-bashers in the letter to Clinton, it caused them much heartache, more so because Payne was also a member of the Congressional Caucus on India and Indian Americans.
Consequently, they approached Payne and asked him how, someone they had always thought of as a friend of India, could have signed off on such a virulently anti-India letter and implored him to retract, which the lawmaker has done in a letter to Clinton.
Payne, besides informing Clinton that his name had been inadvertently included in the letters urging the US to designate India a terrorist state, said, "I would also like to clarify my position as it relates to US-Indian relations. India has one of the strongest democracies in the world and in no way should it be considered a terrorist nation."
He acknowledged that "I am always concerned about human rights, not only in India, but anywhere in the world." But, he noted, "India has a long tradition of protecting and promoting human rights and this is supported by strong public opinion and the press. Whenever crimes have been committed against any community on ethnic or religious grounds, strong actions by the Indian government have been taken."
"Let me reintegrate," he emphasized, "that I in no way feel that India is a terrorist nation nor do I believe that the Government of India or the people of India should be held responsible for the problems that affect the national security on Southeast Asia."
Payne wrote that "as the two largest democracies in the world, the United States and India share the vital role of promoting the values of freedom and democracy in South Asia and throughout the world."
(IANS)
Back to HVK Home Page
|
|
|