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Kamalnath invite
incurs Sikh ire
WSN Network
CHICAGO: Protesting
Sikhs outside the prestigious Northwestern University's Kellogg
School of Management again raised the question of international
impunity of leaders accused of crimes against humanity.
Though the premiere American university may not have envisaged the
protest when they invited a 1984 perpetrator as its keynote speaker,
Sikh organizations and individuals are already measuring up to the
tasks ahead.
Kamal Nath is a Federal Minister for Commerce and Industry and has
been accused of leading the 1984 attack on Sikhs near Gurdwara Rakab
Ganj that killed several Sikhs. He was invited to speak by the
University.
The University officials are reported to have either maintained a
stoic silence on the issue or have said that anybody is welcome to
speak at the University. However this is just an excuse. Recently,
the University had rescinded an offer of an honorary degree to
presidential candidate, Barack Obama's, controversial pastor,
Jeremiah Wright.
The Sikh Religious Society of Chicago organized a protest with about
50 people outside Kellogg's event hall, and distributed fliers on
Nath's role in the anti-Sikh pogroms which has been documented by
lawyer-activist H. S. Phoolka in his recent book, When A Tree Shook
Delhi and by the 10 commissions set up by the government of India.
One of the steps that can be taken is to move ahead in time and urge
for denial of visa as was done in the case of Gujarat Chief Minister
Narendra Modi in 2005 and in some cases, deportation/repatriation of
a leader as was done in the case of former Secretary General of the
United Natons, Kurt Waldheim, when he was asked to leave the US upon
discovery of the fact that he was a former Nazi personnel.
21
May,
2008
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