Indentureship Indian Heritage Month May 05

Dear Editor, I am disappointed in the Indian government granting the Indira Gandhi Peace Award to Sir Sridath Ramphal.

Mr. Ramphal is not a statesman or architect of peace. The Indian government should consider the opinion of the people of Guyana who consider Ramphal a traitor (particularly to Indians) for his role in rigging elections and denying Indians the right to vote from 1965 to 1992 and starving many to death.

The committee members who chose Ramphal for this prestigious prize have lost their capacity to think progressively by concluding that Ramphal deserves this award. Here is a man who was the chief architect of election rigging and who was a stooge of Forbes Burnham's anti-Indian policies.

Surely, the committee must be aware of the horrible carnage and rape meted out to Indians between 1965 and 1992 as well as the pillaging of their properties and the vindictive violence inflicted on Indians by the Burnham government, of which Ramphal was the illegal Attorney General.

Ramphal is a pariah among Guyanese; he cannot attend a function among Indo-Guyanese. The committee should not have been fooled by the knighthood bestowed upon him by Her Majesty and the title "Sir". Ramphal participated in the suppression of this own people and I hope one day he will be held accountable in a court of law for violating the human rights of so many innocent people.

Ramphal is yet to tender an apology for hurting so many or for the crimes committed by his master. Every time the name Ramphal comes up, Guyanese think of the poor Indian women who were raped, the children who were starved to death, the Indian families who were brutalized and terrorized.

How can India, the world's largest democracy, entertained this scoundrel, an oppressor of Indian people and honor him with a peace award? That is a disservice to Guyanese who were denied peace because of Ramphal.

How can this scoundrel look himself in the mirror and say he is deserving of the Indira Gandhi Peace Prize? Has he no shame?

How can Indians around the globe take India seriously that it wants to embrace them when India horns a figure like Ramphal? It is indeed a dark day in our history as a people when a man who has totally betrayed his people can be rewarded by the Government of India. He should have been treated as the pariah that he is among Indians in Guyana. Yours Truly, Vishnu Bisram