For decades, indeed for as long as India has been a nation, the powerful electronic media has served as a mouthpiece of the government. It is the chief custodian of 'truth' - or at least, the official version of events.

Following the first week of June 1984, every Sikh living abroad wondered about the catastrophe that gripped all of India. But the late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's government was working hard to produce and distribute a video for western countries (especially for Indian immigrants living abroad) whose logo read, "This video tape shows the actual truth about why and what happened in the GOLDEN TEMPLE Amritsar during that fatal first week of June."

A colleague of mine, working in the same office as me, came to me within just a few days of the attack on the Darbar Sahib (Golden Temple) in Amritsar, and 38 other Sikh Gurdwaras throughout Punjab, and presented me with a copy of the video tape. When I asked him where he got the tape, he replied that the Embassy of India in Washington, DC gave him this tape to be distributed to the Sikhs.

That means that the Government of India had planned much in advance of the attack to flood the news media in India (owned and controlled by the Government) and the rest of the world with the propaganda of labeling the Sikhs in the Darbar Sahib as terrorists to justify the killings of thousands of innocent men women and children.

Sikhs living abroad were shocked to know about the production of such a tape and its distribution within a few days of the attack on the Darbar Sahib. One could have marveled at the efficiency of the then Indian Government and its embassies for a quick production and distribution when contrasted with the usual inefficiency of the Indian establishment. However, some critical viewers realized that it was not the dramatic improvement in government efficiency but rather a clever attempt to extend the propaganda war that Mrs. Gandhi had initiated in the eighties.

The video production and the speed with which it was distributed to the international circle continue to stick in the Sikh psyche today. Later, during the same year, the genocide and its news coverage by the government controlled media confirmed the worst fears of Sikhs. In retrospect, one wonders what India would have looked like today had its government, instead of launching a very expensive propaganda war, simply investigated both of the 1984 tragedies and punished the guilty.

It became obvious to Sikh scholars that the Indian leadership was on a dangerous course of propagating falsehood. To stay in power, the Indian leaders blatantly committed horrific acts of murder towards its bravest people. They ignored Sikhs' contributions during the Indian independence struggle, and later for the defense of India against Pakistan and China.

For foreign reporters trying to grab these sensational tragedies of 1984, the Indian government was the most visible gatekeeper, making it impossible to approve journalist visas for foreign correspondents. Thus, during 1984, Indian leaders were free to broadcast made-up stories through the government controlled radio and TV stations. Consequently, all foreign news organizations were left with no choice but to take the twisted news of local government controlled media and rebroadcast it over their own networks abroad. It was much later that foreign newspapers began to discover some of the truth about 'India's Unknown Holocaust.'

Mrs. Indira Gandhi supported her campaign for the 1984 genocide through state controlled media. They say that when she saw Sikhs upholding the rule of law during her dictatorial rule following the Emergency declaration of the 1970's, she got it into her head that Sikhs constituted a threat to her dynastic rule. So she decided to engineer support for genocide of the Sikhs by propagating false stories through state controlled media.

One of Mrs. Gandhi's first acts in pursuit of the planned attack on the Darbar Sahib was to seek active support of both the print and the electronic media. Reportedly, the Information and Broadcasting Minister, H.K.L Bhagat, had called editors of Delhi newspapers individually one month before Mrs. Gandhi's attack on the Darbar Sahib, seeking their full support. The All India Radio and TV overplayed Sikh demonstrations and their threat to the unity of India without investigating the people behind the event.

Because India's electronic media is state controlled, the western world had no access to the actual truth even 20 years after those grave tragedies. The main aim of the 1984 attack on Sikhs was assumed to cow down the spirit of Sikhs and Sikhism by resorting to attacks on its life and property. So far they have been unsuccessful to cowing down the Sikh spirit. But they did succeed in maligning Sikhs by the use of media (newspapers, Radio and TV); and Sikh leadership failed to respond because they did not own or operate any newspaper, radio or TV.

If Sikhs had their own successful English language newspaper in India and/or a radio or TV network like ZTV or TVASIA outside India, they could have responded effectively to the Indian propaganda in India and abroad.

Even after 20 years Sikhs do not invest in or support any media outlet. Instead Sikhs are spending lots of money on Gurdwaras, on infighting in courts and on personal glorification by spending fortunes on University chairs, Sikh Art Exhibitions, etc.

My wife and I, on our own with our own resources, started a small weekly radio and TV program in the Washington, DC area in 1988 that are still running. But our small effort cannot be that effective as a nation wide or worldwide TV network could be. In addition to spending Sikh resources on building Gurdwara buildings etc. we should spend money on the most effective medium – television in India, UK and USA.

Manmohan Singh produces the TV Programs "Passion For Truth" and "Punjabi Community Hour" in Washington D.C. For more information, see www.passionfortruthtv.com