US apologises for Gore's gaffe
The United States views Punjab as an integral part of India and ''does not and has never'' supported Sikh separatists, the US state department clarified in a communique to India.
External Affairs Minister I K Gujral said in the Rajya Sabha that the US clarification came in response to India's protest both in New Delhi and Washington against the letter of US Vice-President Al Gore to one Gurmit Singh Aulakh, president of the "Council of Khalistan".
The communique said ''the United States does not and has never supported the establishment of an independent state of Khalistan, which has been a goal of Sikh separatists... The United States continues to view Punjab as an integral part of India. The vice-president firmly supported this policy.''
Gujral said the US Ambassador Franz Wisner had also conveyed his government's regrets at the misunderstanding caused by Al Gore's letter to the Sikh group's leader.
Despite a warning from the US state department, the US vice-president's office mistakenly sent off a routine response to a letter from the "Council of Khalistan" which the group used to forward their cause.
India had protested that Gore's letter was highly objectionable and it betrayed lack of
knowledge or understanding of the political realities in Punjab, Gujral said.
Normalcy in Punjab, successful holding of elections to the state assembly and elections to parliament clearly demonstrated that ''Khalistan only exists in the figment of some misguided imagination,'' Gujral said.
He said the government would continue to advise the United States ''to desist from providing any encouragement,'' even inadvertently to such elements.
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