I urge each member of this committee to see this excellent film which has been shown at many international conferences in the United States, Mexico, and the United Kingdom, to get a firsthand view of the situation in Indian.

What has been the response of the Indian Government to the activities of members of Indians for Democracy?

First of all, they attempted subtle forms of intimidation such as photographing and filming the demonstrations from inside the Embassy and consulate premises. Later they started dropping hints of more drastic action against those who speak out against ruthless repression back home.

In a meeting with five members of Indians for Democracy on August 18, 1975, India's Ambassador to the United States, Mr. T. N. Kaul, refused to rule out the possibility of passport impoundments against citizens of India who exercised their fundamental right of free speech. He expressed his ignorance about the activities of our group despite the fact that we had organized a demonstration near his residence only 3 days earlier. After this meeting the intimidation from Embassy officials became less and less subtle.

Mr. K. Pratap who was formerly first secretary, political affairs in Washington, D.C., told a meeting addressed by Mr. Anandkumar that those who oppose Mrs. Gandhi's policies will be blacklisted and will be excluded from consideration for Government jobs.

Other members of the Embassy have interrogated members of Indian community on their citizenship status, asking them to surrender their Indian passports if they have already taken U.S. citizenship. They have purposely leaked out the word that there are members of Indian Intelligence Agency known as RAW-research and analysis wing-who regularly file reports on activites of Indians opposed to Mrs. Gandhi's policies.

One of the officials warned Mr. Anandkumar that if he did not stop speaking out, his scholarship will be withdrawn. True to this threat, Mr. Anandkumar's scholarship was canceled without any valid academic reasons in the middle of his studies.

And then finally, four members of Indians for Democracy received a registered letter informing them that their passports had been impounded. No specific reasons were given for this unwarranted action. Mr. P. H. Desai, the consular official who signed the letters, refused to elaborate on who specifically issued the orders other than to say that the orders came from the External Affairs Ministry in New Delhi.

Fifteen additional such letters were supposed to be issued but were apparently stopped due to hundreds of telegrams of protests sent by Indians as well as Americans to Mrs. Gandhi.

Ambassador Kaul, when asked by members of India League of America, a national organization of which I am a lifetime member and patron and Mr. Hiremath is a founder, past president and chairman, said that our passports were impounded for telling lies about what is happening in India. He has on other occasions called us "traitors" on many occasions.

Mr. Kaul conveniently forgets that during the 1971 Bangladesh crisis I was founder of emergency relief fund which raised $1 million for helping the refugees and presented Mrs. Gandhi with a check for $100,000 when she came to Washington in November 1971.

Mr. S. R. Hiremath is presently the chairman of Indian Development Service which has held numerous seminars with the cooperation of India Investment Center and the Embassy of India all over the United States to encourage Indians to return home and start small scale industries. He and I are also founding members of a rural selfhelp India Development Society which has supported several worthwhile projects in India over the years. And whenever any notable Indians, whether businessmen, educators, or philanthropists came to this country, Embassy officials recommended they meet with us.

What has been the impact of these various antidemocratic and reprehensible actions of Mrs. Gandhi's regime on the Indian community?

The most serious action is, of course, the impoundment of the passports. All of us are first generation immigrants or still on student visas in this country. We have close family ties in India.

This shameless action of a ruthless dictator means that we cannot visit our families back home, if we plan to return to the United States where we have also developed close friendships and other professional ties. We may, of course, be subject to arrest or torture.

When we first raised our voice in protest against the policies of Mrs. Gandhi, many of us knew the risks we were taking, but compared to the plight of political prisoners in India our plight is still a minor slap on the wrist. As long as people are arrested without trial, tortured and fundamental rights suspended, we will continue with redoubled zeal our opposition.

Friends, both Indians and Americans, have asked us if we are not afraid of reprisals against our "innocent" family members back home. I say innocent in quotes for only those family members who are apolitical and are not actively opposing the present regime.

In the immediate future we do not expect any reprisals against members of our families in India but as and when our activities here become more effective such a possibility cannot be ruled out.

But will we stop under such a threat or blackmail? No. As long as the rights of all citizens are in jeopardy, can anyone's family be safe? Today, India has become like Soviet Russia under Stalin, where people disappear off the streets, people are afraid of the knock on the door, afraid to speak out.

Some friends here have gone so far as to suggest that we might even become targets of CIA spying in United States a la Iranian students. I, personally, do not think that will happen. But I am disturbed at the unofficial State Department glee on the rightiest probusiness policies of Mrs. Gandhi's government as reported by the New Yorker and the New Republic magazine.

One must raise the question: Why is it only necessary to impose sanctions against a regime when a white minority subjugates a black majority?

Repression of brown people by brown people can be just as terrible as the racial subjugation in countries of South Africa.

As a result of the passport impoundments those members of the Indian community who previously freely attended the meetings organized by Indians for Democracy to discuss the crisis in India, will they feel the same freedom to attend our meetings? Will they feel equally free to participate in the discussion or will the 200,000 Indians in

America have to operate underground like our counterparts in India if we wish to oppose the emergency?

In America, the world's oldest democracy, the long arm of a ruthless dictator has already reached to cast its ugly shadow. Will the people of America in their Bicentennial Year allow this action of Mrs. Gandhi to go unchallenged?

The matter of fundamental human rights in India ought to concern every freedom loving individual. India represents every sixth person in this world. Can democracy survive in the world when overnight the number of people living under a democratic system dwindled by 50 percent?

Mr. Chairman. I have one more observation to make and that is the impression that Americans have gotten about events in India by reading the American press. Most of my friends think that Mrs. Gandhi is very popular and was elected by two-thirds of the people. Let me correct this by saying that even at the height of her popularity in 1971 no more than 44 percent of Indian citizens voted for the Congress Party. Most people think that maybe her actions were necessary to help the weaker section of the society. Let me point out to you that nothing could be further from the truth. Mrs. Gandhi lost her popularity. She cannot face the electorate in a free and fair election. Although she pays lip service to the 20-point program mostly taken from the Charter of People's Demand presented by 500,000 citizens to the Parliament on March 6, 1975, omitting the demands for reform of electoral system and removal of political corruption. None of the ministers in her cabinet evoke any respect and her son, Sanjay, is widely known as an utterly unscrupulous opportunist.

With the exception of the price of foodstuffs, practically all items. of necessity are more costly. The bumper harvest of the last 2 years was not due to the fact that the rain gods got scared of the emergency and sent timely monsoons.

And if anyone has any doubts about Mrs. Gandhi's intentions, he should just read what her advocate, Mr. Niren De told the Supreme Court of India. He said that under the emergency rules government not only had the power to deprive citizens of their liberties but also of his life no matter however innocent.

Another myth is that there is no significant opposition to Mrs. Gandhi in India. Yes; it may be true that by the standards of other countries there is no violent opposition in India. If in India we had daily shootouts like in Beirut or South Africa, the news media will be reporting it daily on the evening news. Our country has a long history of nonviolence that goes back 2,500 years to the time of Mahavir and Buddha.

In the last year, over 200,000 people have voluntarily courted arrest in a peaceful Satyagraha campaign. During the struggle for independence under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi-no relation to Mrs. Gandhi-from 1916 to 1942 in a 26-year period, a total number of 400,000 persons courted arrest. Today, twice this number would have willingly gone to jail if there was freedom of press.

In the month of May 1976, Mrs. Gandhi's government announced it arrested 7,000 persons for circulating underground literature. There are 200 underground papers published in every language of the country. There is substantial opposition which is smoldering beneath the

surface. Free people of India have been ashamed and humiliated by a corrupt regime and they will surely rise up. They deserve your support.

Thank you.

[The prepared statement of Mr. Poddar follows:]

PREPARED STATEMENT OF MR. SHRIKUMAR PODDAR

Mr. Chairman, it is my privilege to testify before your committee on the treatment of Indian Citizens residing in the U.S.A. by the government of Mrs. Indira Gandhi.

My name is Shrikumar Poddar. I am one of the founding members of Indians for Democracy, an organization of Indian Citizens opposed to the declaration of the State of national emergency. My passport was impounded along with three of my other colleagues, Mr. S. R. Hiremath of Chicago, Dr. Ram Gehani and Mr. Sharan Nandi both of Washington, D.C.

I have lived in the United States continuously since March 1959 first as a student and later as an immigrant. Professionally, I am Chairman of Educational Subscription Service and Publisher of Washington Watch, a political newsletter both of Lansing, Michigan.

Despite my long, continuous stay in the U.S. I have made regular and frequent trips to India and spent four months in India just prior to the declaration of the State of Emergency.

During my stay in India, I was able to meet a number of student leaders who had launched an anti-corruption movement which later became a mass movement under the leadership of Shri Jayaprakash Narayan, affectionately known as JP.

JP, is one of the most illustrious Gandhian's alive in the World today. I may remark that he had studied for seven years in the United States during the 1920's.

JP's leadership was not only responsible in broadening the base of the movement and making it a truly national movement supported by all opposition parties in India with the exception of the Communist Party of India-pro Moscow, but also in giving this movement a long term goal *** a very ambitious and visionary solution to the serious economic and political problems facing the people of India.

The aim of the movement was nothing less than Total Revolution transforming the entire society by peaceful means and securing the socio-economic rights of the people, particularly the weaker section of the society and eradicating of political corruption and the restoration of moral authority for the country's political leadership.

JP had been warning the country since December of 1972 on the erosion of Democratic practices and dangers of Fascism coming to India.

When I met him in February 1975 he expressed his fears that his warnings may come true and the movement may be forced to go underground. I asked him what we (Overseas Indians) could do to help. He refused offers of financial help, but said it is very important that the people of America and the Indians residing abroad get a correct picture of events in India.

In May of 1975 I went on a speaking tour of the United States meeting members of Indian Community in small groups and warning them of the dangers of dictatorship emerging in India. The idea of dictatorship emerging in India which was once World's largest Democracy was so alien to most of the Indians living here that they simply refused to deal with the question: What will you do. if dictatorship should emerge in India?

There are over 200,000 Indians residing in the United States. The majority of them are professionals, doctors, engineers, scientists. Most of them came here as students and remained here for a variety of reasons. The foremost reason for their staying in this country is lack of suitable job opportunities in India as well as the increasing corruption at all levels of the society.

However, many of them like myself have not given up hope of someday returning back to India and participating the building of the nation. This dream is one of the main reasons why I and thousands of other Indians still retain our Indian Citizenship.

(If India and United States were to recognize dual citizenship, I am sure many will opt for American citizenship also.)

The majority of the Indians in this country have strong reservations about the events in India since June 26th 1975. Several thousands have signed petitions addressed to the President of India asking for release of prisoners detained without trial, lifting of the state of nation emergency, and restoration of all fundamental rights, including freedom of the press.

There have been demonstrations in at least a dozen major cities in front of Indian Consulates, Embassy, Travel Offices of Indian Government.

There also have been several national conferences and one International Conference in London and half a dozen newspapers published by various Indian groups. Speaking tours of prominent Indians such as Hon. Subramanian Swamy a member of the Upper House of India's parliament and Mr. Anandkumar, an activist student leader of the JP movement who is at present a Ph. D. candidate at University of Chicago.

Indians for Democracy has also filed a complaint with United Nations Human Rights Commission on torture of political prisoners, documenting specific instances of torture.

One of the members of our group who was in India during the one year preceding the Emergency has produced an excellent film entitled "Waves of Revolution" a documentary of the People's Movement in Bihar which shows police brutality against unarmed and peaceful student demonstrators as well as against the 74 year old Gandhian leader JP. What was happening in Bihar during the year preceding the Emergency is now happening throughout India. I urge each member of this committee to see this excellent film which has been shown at many international conferences in the U.S., Mexico and the United Kingdom, to get a first hand view of the situation in India.

What has been the response of the Indian Government to the activities of members of Indians for Democracy?

First of all they attempted subtle forms of intimidation such as photographing and filming the demonstrations from inside the Embassy and consulate premises. Later they started dropping hints of more drastic action against those who speak out against ruthless repression back home.

In a meeting with five members of Indians for Democracy on August 18, 1975 India's Ambassador to the U.S., Mr. T. N. Kaul, refused to rule out the possibility of passport impoundments against citizens of India who exercised their fundamental right of free speech. He expressed his ignorance about the activities of our group despite the fact that we had organized a demonstration near his residence only three days earlier. After this meeting the intimidation from Embassy Officials became less and less subtle.

Mr. K. Pratap who was formerly first secretary, political affairs in Washington told a meeting addressed by Mr. Anandkumar that those who oppose Mrs. Gandhi's policies will be "blacklisted" and will be excluded from consideration for government jobs.

Other members of the Embassy have interrogated members of Indian Community on their citizenship status, asking them to surrender their Indian passports if they have already taken U.S. Citizenship.

They have purposely leaked out the word that there are members of Indian Intelligence Agency known as RAW (Research and Analysis Wing) who regularly file reports on activities of Indians opposed to Mrs. Gandhi's policies.

One of the officials warned Mr. Anandkumar that if he did not stop speaking out, his scholarship will be withdrawn. True to this threat, Mr. Anandkumar's scholarship was canceled without any valid academic reason in the middle of his studies.

And then finally, four members of Indians for Democracy received a registered letter informing them that their passports have been impounded. No specific reasons were given for this unwarranted action. Mr. P. H. Desai, the consular official who signed the letters, refused to elaborate on who specifically issued the orders other than to say that the orders came from the External Affairs Ministry in New Delhi.

Fifteen additional such letters were supposed to be issued but were apparently stopped due to hundreds of telegrams of protests sent by Indians as well as Americans to Mrs. Gandhi.

Ambassador Kaul, when asked by members of India League of America, a national organization of which I am a lifetime member and patron and Mr. Hiremath is a founder, past president and chairman, said that our passports were impounded for telling lies about what is happening in India. He has on other occasions called us "traitors".