Blindsided last week when a premiere American university invited a 1984 perpetrator as its keynote speaker, Sikh organizations are looking into ways to “expose” Indian officials accused of abuses in the 1984 anti-Sikh pogroms when they try to attend speaking engagements in the United States.

Kamal Nath, accused of leading the 1984 attack on Gurdwara Rakab Ganj that killed several Sikhs, was a keynote speaker at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management’s annual Indian business conference on May 10.

The university, located in Evanston, Ill., just outside Chicago, stood by its policy of allowing students to choose their speakers.

“Students can invite whomever they wish,” said Chuck Loebbaka, director of media relations at Northwestern. Nath, he said, “The university does not sensor its speakers.”

Thousands of speakers come every year to speak, Loebbaka said. And the university does not do background checks.

But Northwestern has uninvited people before. Earlier this month, it rescinded an offer of an honorary degree to presidential candidate, Barack Obama’s, controversial pastor, Jeremiah Wright.

Several Sikh American organizations spoke out against the Kellogg’s Nath invitation.

“While justice for the events of 1984, especially when powerful Indian leaders are involved, is all but impossible to obtain, there is no reason that Sikhs in the West should allow accused perpetrators to come to the United States without comment,” said the New York-based Sikh Coalition in a news release Friday afternoon. “That Northwestern University will host this person is deplorable.”

“Sikhs around the U.S. are outraged that Nath will have a place of honor at one of the country’s foremost business schools,” said Ensaaf, a California-based organization that follows disappearances cases from the counterinsurgency campaign in Punjab from 1984 to 1995, in an email.

“Northwestern University must refuse to give a platform to Kamal Nath, and send a clear message to the world that it does not value title, prestige, and commerce over human rights,” said Jaskaran Kaur, co-director of Ensaaf.

The only group not voicing their opinion was the student organizers of the event, which did not return requests for interviews. A few days after the event, the 14th India Business Conference executive committee’s Web page that included their names, photos and contact information was taken off Kellogg’s Web site.

It is difficult to track these 1984 perpetrators in areas where Sikh organizations do not have a presence, added Jasmine Marwaha, an Ensaaf associate. She suggested an awareness campaign on the Internet.

“What needs to happen is that we need to create a list to watch for these individuals” that could be easily found in a Google search, she said. “Nath is a cabinet minister, people get blinded by the title.” And most people are not familiar with Nath. He is not as well known as Sajjan Kumar or Hari Krishan Lal Bhagat.

Although the annual event was being planned for a long time, Sikh activist did not find out about Nath’s invitation until the day before. The university said it began receiving complaints on Friday, May 9.

With short notice, the Sikh Religious Society of Chicago organized a protest with about 50 people outside Kellogg’s event hall, said Rajinder Singh Mago, one of the protesters. They handed out fliers on Nath’s role in the anti-Sikh pogroms.

“Our goal was not to silence this individual, Kamal Nath,” said Parminder Singh Mann, another protester, by email. “(It was) to create awareness among Northwestern University faculty, students, the average passersby that an individual who was involved in not just a petty crime…was speaking at an American university.”

It was on Nov. 1, 1984, the day after the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards, that some Congress Party leaders began leading mobs that killed several thousand Sikhs in Delhi.

At least two eyewitnesses have reported to inquiry commissions that Nath was “controlling the crowd” at the Gurdwara Rakab Ganj. The Nanavati Commission called Nath’s explanation “vague.” But Nath, nor anybody, was convicted by any of the 10 commissions during the last 23 years.

“The Sikh community wanted to show that we remember our fellow brothers and sisters who were treated as if they were not human,” Parminder Singh said.

He also added that a conference attendee who came out and talked to the picketers told them that a Sikh professor and a couple of other Sikhs (including himself) walked out of the room when Nath came to speak. "I was in Delhi during these events...," the attendee said.

Mohanbir Singh Sawhney, technology professor at Kellogg, was one of three moderators at the conference. And Sarbvir Singh, head of Capital18, the venture capital and private equity arm of the Network18 Group, one of India’s media conglomerates, was among the conference panelists. Neither could be reached for comment.

Manmeet Singh, producer of The Widow Colony, a film about the widows of the 1984 pogroms, suggested that Sikhs create a campaign to deny visas to accused 1984-perpetrators. He pointed to the State Department’s refusal to grant a visa to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi in 2005 when he was invited to speak at a hotel convention in Florida.

Modi was denied a diplomatic visa and had his existing tourist/business visa revoked under the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act that bars people who violate religious freedoms from getting a visa. Modi is accused of leading an anti-Muslim pogrom in 2002 that killed about 2,000 people.

A State Department spokeswoman said that only the consular’s office in India has the authority to deny a visa.

“All of us are fortunate enough to freely voice our opinions,” said Nicole Thompson. “(But) the decision to grant a visa is made prudently by people in the consular’s office and is based on a series of facts on the individual applying.”

Sikhnn.com