Ackerman speaks up for Hindus in Afghanistan

WASHINGTON, JUNE 6. The former Chairman of the Congressional India Caucus, Mr. Gary Ackerman, today asked all U.S. Congressmen to wear yellow arm band and the slogan ``I am a Hindu'' on the day the Taliban edict against the Hindus in Afghanistan comes into force.

In a spirited speech in the House International Committee that today took up for discussion the Taliban edict against the religious minorities in Afghanistan, Mr. Ackerman, himself a Jew, displayed a copy of the placard the German generals of the Nazi army ordered the Jews in Denmark to wear in 1943. The placard, written in Hebrew, said ``I am Jew.''

The then King of Denmark, he said, had sabotaged the German general's plan by asking all the people to wear the placard, making it difficult for the Nazi army to identify the Jews in their effort to take them to the concentration camps. Mr. Ackerman, a member of the House from New York, later told UNI that he would campaign for the issue among the Congressmen so that most of them wore the yellow arm band on that day. ``On that particular day, we will all become Hindus, so that the minuscule minority Hindus in Afghanistan will have a source of strength,'' he said. Some of the Congressmen attending the committee meeting were also seen distributing yellow bands among themselves.

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