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To: presidio9

In 1984 Gandhi crushed a secessionist movement of Sikh militants. But in doing so one of the holiest Sikh temples was damaged. In November of that year she was assassinated by two of her own Sikh bodyguards.

Do we want this type as police?


10 posted on 08/05/2004 12:48:43 PM PDT by HuntsvilleTxVeteran (Liberals are like catfish ( all mouth and no brains )(bottom feeders))
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To: HuntsvilleTxVeteran
Do we want this type as police?

Yes. Sikhs have never been anything other than loyal Americans.

20 posted on 08/05/2004 1:07:13 PM PDT by Modernman ("I have nothing to declare except my genius." -Oscar Wilde)
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To: HuntsvilleTxVeteran
Yeah Sihks occasionally reltaliate. But it's usually short term and against the actual transgressor.

Unlike some groups (Muslims and Irish spring to mind) they don't nurse pointless grudges for centuries.

41 posted on 08/05/2004 2:48:20 PM PDT by Oztrich Boy ("Despise not the jester. Often he is the only one speaking the truth")
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To: HuntsvilleTxVeteran

What religion do you belong to? Cause whatever it is, I can point to worse stuff by your coreligionists. If you're an atheist, I can point to stuff for that too, starting with Joe Stalin.


60 posted on 08/05/2004 4:51:52 PM PDT by A.J.Armitage (http://calvinist-libertarians.blogspot.com/)
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To: HuntsvilleTxVeteran
Do we want this type as police?

by 1973, Delhi and north India were rocked by demonstrations angry at high inflation, the poor state of the economy, rampant corruption, and the poor standards of living. In June 1975, the High Court of Allahabad found her guilty of using illegal practices during the last election campaign, and ordered her to vacate her seat. There were demands for her resignation.

Mrs. Gandhi's response was to declare a state of emergency, under which her political foes were imprisoned, constitutional rights abrogated, and the press placed under strict censorship. Meanwhile, the eldest of her two sons, Sanjay Gandhi, started to run the country as though it were his personal fiefdom, and earned the fierce hatred of many whom his policies had victimized. He ordered the removal of slum dwellings, and in an attempt to curb India's growing population, initiated a highly resented program of forced sterilization. In early 1977, confident that she had debilitated her opposition, Mrs. Gandhi called for fresh elections, and found herself trounced by a newly formed coalition of several political parties. Her Congress party lost badly at the polls. Many declared that she was a spent force; but, three years later, she was to return as Prime Minister of India. The same year, however, her son Sanjay was killed in an airplane crash.

In the second, post-Emergency, period of her Prime Ministership, Indira Gandhi was preoccupied by efforts to resolve the political problems in the state of Punjab. In her attempt to crush the secessionist movement of Sikh militants, led by Jarnail Singh Bindranwale, she ordered an assault upon the holiest Sikh shrine in Amritsar, called the "Golden Temple". It is here that Bindranwale and his armed supporters had holed up, and it is from the Golden Temple that they waged their campaign of terrorism not merely against the Government, but against moderate Sikhs and Hindus. "Operation Bluestar", waged in June 1984, led to the death of Bindranwale, and the Golden Temple was stripped clean of Sikh terrorists; however, the Golden Temple was damaged, and Mrs. Gandhi earned the undying hatred of Sikhs who bitterly resented the desacralization of their sacred space. In November of the same year, Mrs. Gandhi was assassinated, at her residence, by two of her own Sikh bodyguards, who claimed to be avenging the insult heaped upon the Sikh nation.

Mrs. Gandhi acquired a formidable international reputation as a "statesman", and there is no doubt that she was extraordinarily skilled in politics. She was prone, like many other politicians, to thrive on slogans, and one -- Garibi Hatao, "Remove Poverty" -- became the rallying cry for one of her election campaigns. She had an authoritarian streak, and though a cultured woman, rarely tolerated dissent; and she did, in many respects, irreparable harm to Indian democracy. Apart from her infamous imposition of the internal emergency, the use of the army to resolve internal disputes greatly increased in her time; and she encouraged a culture of sycophancy and nepotism


62 posted on 08/05/2004 5:10:02 PM PDT by Askel5 († Cooperatio voluntaria ad suicidium est legi morali contraria. †)
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