centrate their activities. It shows the gulf between the natural feelings of the people and the activities of these two terrorist forces.

Scheduled Castes reject communal conflict In the cities, there is more tension then in the rural areas, and particularly in those areas where there is a substantial number of both.. communities. Thus Patiala (in which Hindu make up 60 per cent and Sikh 40 per cent) is a centre of Hindu-Sikh tension, as are Ludhiana, (63/35), Amritsar (65/35) and Jahndhar (75/25). The reason is that in cities where there is scope for communal organisation of both communities to be active, they draw justification for each other’s, actions.

However, talking solely in terms of Hindus and Sikh is misleading. Sikh and Hindu Scheduled Caste members, who make up more-than a quarter of the entire population, have avoided being identified with the conflict going on between Sikh and Hindu communal leaders., The Scheduled Castes are mainly agricultural labourers, artisans, safoi mazdoors, or in other occupations considered socially inferior. In Patiala, we met Balmikis from a slum. A youth told us: “In-. Patiala, there is a rivalry going on between Hindu and Sikh traders. They are both trying to communalise the situation for their business, interests. For us, the real oppression we face is not from the other community. 80 per cent of the youth are without jobs. They go for , odd jobs, on daily wages—eg, for service to marriage parties, and the like. Sometimes our relatives in the villages face such problems from the higher castes that someone from here has to go to help them. “The Hindu Suraksha Samiti has been approaching us for a  long time. At first some youth went with them, but not now. We want to keep ourselves away from them. Similarly, RSS tried to,, open a sbakha in the name of Ambedkar, but we did not allow therm. _ We consider our identity more as Scheduled Castes than as Sikh and Hindu. If a Hindu officer records the name of a person who calls himself a Mazbhi Sikh, the officer will write `Balmiki’. There are both Sikh and Hindus in this slum, but there has never been any tension’ between them. – “Whatever government comes, they never deal with the real problems of Balmikis. We do not like the disturbance of peace that has been going on. Most of us are daily wage earners. When there’ is a curfew for days on end, the daily wage earners are reduced to pauperism.”

Press fuels communal situation :

The Press could have played an important role in the Punjab situation by presenting the truth about each incident to the people, by denying excessive publicity to the purely provocative declarations of the communalists of each community, and by giving prominence to the efforts of genuinely secular forces to preserve unity among the common people.  Unfortunately, what we found was that the Press in Punjab has played a shameful role, comparable to its complicity in the pre-Partition period. Hindi newspapers, especially the Hind Samachar, are the mouthpieces of Hindu communalists, and editorialise constantly in favour of State repression. Punjabi papers give prominence to statements received from Sikh communalists. No paper gives prominence to the efforts of genuinely secular forces. In addition, the official media heighten tensions by reporting normal incidents as if they were communal. The short story writer Gurtnail Singh Madhad gave us three recent examples from Sangrur One Amarjit Singh was killed in a private dispute; The F.I.R lodged pointed out the murderer by name; yet the Television news claimed that “some unknown persons” killed him. A quarrel took place between two–student groups over a girl, and an F.I.R. was lodged in this case, too; but the next day the Television news claimed that “unknown persons” wanted to kill one person involved, and that “they dragged him out of the car he was riding in”; again, this was fabricated. On June 26, a local journalist was beaten in a private quarrel; an SOM who was present separated the two parties; but in the news at night, it was reported that four unknown persons came on moto r-cycles, beat the journalist, and drove away. The Press outside Punjab has also played a very shameful role. Whereas it trumpeted the Punjab Accord as a tremendous achievement and as virtually a gift by the Centre to Punjab, it raised hardly a murmur when all the major provisions were subverted or left un-implemented by the Centre. The impression created outside Punjab, therefore, is that “Sikhs keep making more and more unreasonable demands”. Similarly, whereas the Press gives great prominence to communal terrorist attacks on Hindus, it gives little attention to communal terrorist attacks on Sikhs, or to the State repression in Punjab. Most of all, it obliterates the resistance, whether spontaneous or conscious, shown by common villagers to the communal terrorists. The remarkable struggles, sacrifices and achievements of the democratic forces in Punjab in the present context are virtually blacked out of the medial All this conveys the impression outside Punjab that all Sikhs are terrorists, or support terrorists. Distorted picture of migration Similarly, the Press has given extensive coverage to out migration of Hindus from the villages of Amritsar and Gurdaspur. Here, too, they conveniently neglect to mention several facts. – First, in almost all cases other villagers tried to dissuade those who planned to migrate, and expressed strong sympathy with them. Secondly, migration of Hindus out of Punjv) is only one-tenth that of Sikhs from the rest of India to Punjab; so, while certainly Hindus in Punjab are being terrorised, the terror faced by Sikhs out-side Punjab is not worth mentioning for our Press. Thirdly, it is well-known in the border districts of Punjab that political parties with a force in Delhi have been offering Rs. 1,000 per month to Hindu families to come to Delhi. In Delhi, BJP and . Congress politicians have made the issue of a small number of migrants from Punjab into a big political drama, while keeping quiet about the fate of the as yet rehabilitated victims of the November 1984 massacre. The fact that Hindu families are being offered these sums was even confirmed to us by a Hindu shopkeeper in Fatehbad village, Amritsar. He pointed out that what many families do is to send the women and children to Delhi to get the Rs. 1,000, while the men continue their business or employment in the villages. All this is not to play down the terror faced by Hindus in Punjab, or the fact of Hindu migration (which, it is significant to note, takes place largely within Punjab itself). Rather, it shows how politicians and the media are on the constant lookout to play up communal issues and tensions.

Bankruptcy of political parties:

One interesting aspect of the present situation is that some’ political parties, such as the Akali Dal (Longowal) and the Congress-I-have no social or political activity to be carried on among the people at all. Their various declarations about “the healing touch”, “mass’ contact”, and “mobilising people against terrorism” are indeed laughable in the light of what the team saw. Not one poster, wall-writing, demonstration or any other similar programme of these parties could the team find as evidence of mass activity. Hindu communal organsations who claim to be fighting to defend Hindus, are moot cowardly. We asked Hindu Shiv Sena leaders including their head, Pawan Kumar

Sharma, whether they had ever visited the villages (which are Sikg dominated) where communal terrorists have struck. “I was in jail too frequently to do so”, explained Pawan Kumar. All the other HSS leaders were similarly vague. “Some activists go to villages”, they claimed. When we asked the Congress-I block president of an area in Gurdaspur what campaign the Congress-I had taken up against communal terrorism, he said bluntly, “We have been asking for President’s rule for five years and all-out repression.” A BJP politician in Gurdaspur told us that he himself had lost faith in the ability of political parties to do anything about the situation; the BJP stand, he said, was that there should be President’s Rule for a “long time”. A senior Congress leader in Punjab, who is personally secular, told us: “The role for political parties is to build up an organisation and movement, cell by cell. For this the political parties are not prepared…Those who want to fish in troubled waters sustain the situation… Whatever policies we (the Congress) have been pursuing are: divide, and get a few votes.” The Janata leader Mubarak Singh, also privately a genuinely secular person, could only offer as a solution the idea that extremists should be somehow convinced not to shed blood. (The Janata Party has its only base in Punjab in the constituency of its lone MLA, Sardar Kirpal Singh, who is also head of the Sikh communal body Chief Khalsa Diwan. This body performs baptism ceremonies for Amritdhari Sikhs. Contrary to the Janata Party’s stand of support to Barnala, Kirpal Singh has effectively sided with the Badal faction in the Assembly.) Out of the Akalis, it is said that Jiwan Singh Umranangal, vice-President of the Akali Dal (Longowal), has done most to mobilse people against the communal terrorists. He has lost his son in a Khalistani terrorist attack. We heard he was on a padayatra against the terrorists in the terrorist-affected areas. However, when we met him we found that he had suddenly cut short his padayatra. “I have told the people that up to -June 30 I will be reciting Guru Granth Sahib at my house. After that I will continue my padayatra,” he promised. (Umranangal says he had earlier directed Bbindranwale in May 1984 to correct himself by June 15; if not, Umranangal would immolate himself. But Operation Bluestar in the first week of June saved him from self-immolation.) We asked Umranangal for his solution to the problem. He claimed that Sikhs were promised by the 1929 Lahore session of the Indian National Congress that the Sikhs would have an area where they would be given predominant status. Umranangal clarified there was no question of separation from India, but “Punjab is at the head of not only India, but of the world. It is such a small area. But what is the special status for Sikhs in Punjab? There should be some way to give Sikhs a dominant position (4Sardare). My solution that Sikhs should nominate different Sikh candidates for the Chief, Ministership, Hindus should nominate different Hindu candidates for the Deputy Chief Ministership, and Scheduled Castes should nominate – candidates for number three in the hierarchy. All the communities-; should vote together on the basis of candidates thus selected. The, Chief Minister should always be Sikh; the Deputy Chief Minister will always be Hindu; and the third in the hierarchy always a Scheduled . Caste. This can be brought about through a Constitutional amendment.” In fact, Umranangal said, “This is the only way of finishing off communalism in Punjab” (l).

 Street thug with political backing :

 Even today, we can see that’ communalism and divisiveness among the people are being sustained by various political parties, especially Congress-I, the factions of Akali Dal, and the communal organisations under their patronage. We have mentioned earlier the disgraceful role of the Congress-I and Akali Dal in nurturing Khalistani terrorism. The team was also fortunate enough to meet the head of the Hindu Shiv Sena (earlier Hindu Suraksha Samiti), in Punjab, Pawan Kumar Sharma, who provided us a picture of corresponding Hindu fanaticism. It is the HSS which has been particularly active in organising lumpen Hindu mobs in the cities to retaliate against innocent Sikhs. The team was first met by Pawan Kumar’s ideologues. The most vocal were Devils! Sharma, retired manager of the State Bank , of Patiala, and now an executive member of the All-India Dharma Sabha and vice-President of the Arya Samaj, Patiala; P.P. Puri, retired , superintendent, L.I.C., and C.H. Puri, Professor of Physics, at a college in Ludhiana (which he was reluctant to name). Pawan Kumar himself, comparatively young, dressed in a shiny kurtachuridar, entered late. He surprised us. He was nothing but an ordinary street bully, with so little sophistication that the ideologues did their best to answer all the questions addressed to Pawan Kumar, and gave him little scope to speak. Quite blatantly, people like Pawan Kumar are merely puppets for the interests behind them.

When asked about how the Hindus of Punjab feel, Devilal Sharma explained that they were demoralised. Portraits of Sikh gurus were put up in public institution; recruitment of Hindus in the police is less than 10 percent (they did not have figures for how many Hindus apply); recruitment of Hindus into Government services is low (the HSS provided us a memorandum listing various important Government posts held by Sikhs, while conveniently not mentioning those held by Hindus); the number of gun licences issued to Sikhs is more than three times that to Hindus (they claimed not to have the figures for how many applications were submitted by members of each community); and Sikhs tend to address them as “Lala” or “Babu” whereas they address the Sikhs as “Sardarji”. In sum, most of what were offered by the HSS leaders as burning issues were either distortions or thoroughly trivial. They traced the causes of unemployment among Hindu youth not to the Government’s economic policies, but to the “anti-Hindu” basis of the Punjab administration.

 Deliberate provocation:

The Hindu Shiv Sena leaders further make statements that are designed only to provoke; and in fact Khalistani propaganda would be much weaker without the Shiv Sena leaders’ contribution. Devilal Sharma said magnanimously; “Despite all the militancy and secessionism shown by various Sikh organisations, the Hindus of Punjab still feel that Sikhs are part of Hindu society”. He procceeded to give various quotations from Guru Gobind Singh, elaborately contriving to explain that the Guru thought of Sikhs as a Hindu sect, and worshipped Hindu gods: “For example, the word Raghunath’ in the Guru’s writings obviously can only mean Bhagwan Ramchandraji.” Such statements only aid Khalistani propaganda that Hindus want to drown and dissolve the Sikh religion into Hinduism. Actually, it is not in religious, but in social, economic, and cultural life that Hindus and Sikhs are inextricably intertwined. The Hindu communalists leave these aspects and emphasise their concocted religious theories in order, in fact, to ‘provoke and to drive a wedge between the two communities. The same is true for the Hindu Shiv Sena’s argument that Hindi is the mother tongue of Hindus. Their claim is : “If Hindus don’t grudge Sikhs’ sayng they are not Hindus, why should Sikhs mind when Hindus say their mother tongue is Hindi ?” But no-where the team went in Punjab could it meet Punjabi Hindus whose mother tongue is Hindi.

The Hindu Shiv Sena has an answer for that. According to Devilal Sharma, “As a matter of fact, the language of all of North India—U.P., Rajasthan, Haryana, M.P., H.P., and Punjab—is one, with of course variations.” He quoted various phrases in Punjabi, Haryanvi and Hindi to show that the difference between them was not so great. By this logic, Malayalam could be a dialect of Tamil, Oriya a dialect of Bengali, and so on. Or, since Punjabi also has a long literary history and development, and has developed as part of a distinct culture, could we classify Hindi as a dialect of Punjabi? When Pawan Kumar himself spoke, he suggested that to solve the Punjab problem, either Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, and Haryana should be merged, or Punjab state should be eliminated, and should be divided into four zones distributed to the surrounding states. “Then,” he said, “there would be no water or boundary problems.” Surely, what better material could there be for Khalistani propaganda than such statements? – Later Devilal Sharma said, “When the situation is that the two of us cannot stay together and there is no solution, then it would be better to divide us. It was what had to be done in the case of Pakistan. When we cannot stay together, it’s better to have a Hindu Punjab and a Sikh Punjab.” So, the Hindu Shiv Sena leaders have some areas of agreement with the Khalistanis ! And, in fact, the political car, of Hindu fanatic leaders depends upon there being a Khalistani threat. interestingly, a CPI (ML) (Pulla Reddy group) rally against Khalistanis in Deena Nagar, Pathankot tehsil, in June, was vigorously opposed by Hindu Shiv Sena. Who created Pawan Kumar : Pawan Kumar Sharma replied straight forwardly to our question as to who started him on his career in politics (the word “politics” was substituted with “social work”, after the Physics professor raised an objection to our question). “Prem Gupta,” said Pawan Kumar, “then a Congress leader, started a social organisation of Hindus in 1981, called the Hindu Suraksha Samiti—now called the Hindu Shiv Sena. I started work in 1981 itself.” What more direct proof is required of Congress patronage to the Hindu communal forces? Deep Chand Gupta, another HSS leader, also had earlier contested muni-cipal elections on a Congress ticket. The career of Prem Gupta is a lesson in the electoral-communal opportunism that rules Punjab politics. Gupta began his career in the Congress, with Amrinder Singh’s patronage. It was with Amrinder Singh’s instigation that he funded and formed the Hindu Suraksha Samiti. Simultaneously, Amrinder Singh backed Sikh communalists on behalf of the Congress (his brother-in-law, Simranjit Singh Mann, was a DIG police in Punjab, and is reported to have amply supplied Bhindranwale’s men with guns). After Operation Bluestar, Amrinder Singh did some quick thinking, resigned his Congress membership and joined the Akali Dal. Prem Gupta followed his patron into the Akali Dal, and even became a minister in the Barnala cabinet. Then Amrinder Singh, along with Badal, led MLAs out of the Barnala cabinet into the rival Unified. Akali Dal, under the leadership of Simranjit Singh Mann. Men like Amrinder Singh or Prem Gupta are in this way thoroughly secular; and it is such thoroughly secular men who have nurtured and sustained communalism of all varieties in Punjab for their own ends. Even today, the Government, while making ringing declarations about fighting terrorists, is only waiting for an occasion to strike a deal with one or the other faction. From time to time, of course, some Khalistani groups face severe repression; but the next day the same group occupies a favoured position in the eyes of the Government. For example, the Nihangs of Tarna Dal were earlier closely allied with Congress. Baba Nihal Singh, in particular, was known to have had close ties with Zail Singh, Darbara Singh and Bhindranwale. He continued shifting his loyalties, and at one point tried to strike a compromise between Longowal and Bhindranwale. After Operation Bluestar, the Army raided his headquarters in gurudwara Hakimpur, near Mukandpur in Jalandhar district. They captured a large quantity of weapons such as stenguns, pistols, live cartridges and masks used by the terrorists. Durping the raid, Baba Nihal Singh and his disciples were insulted and publicly paraded in a humiliating fashion. Yet, very shortly thereafter, all cases against him were withdrawn, and he was taken as one of the pious pilgrims for the officially-sponsored reconstruction of the Akal Takht. He was even displayed on television. Santokh Singh Randhawa was chief of the Punjab Pradesh Congress-I Committee in Nlay 1985, when Gurinder Singh, a suspected terrorist under police interrogation, produced his name. “Let Randhawa come,” he said confidently, “he’ll get me out.” It was known that Gurinder Singh was Randhawa’s man. On an earlier occasion, Randhawa’s own son had got Gurinder released, despite serious charges against him. This time, however, Gurinder had become an embarrassment to Randhawa ; Randhawa denied all his links with him; and Gurinder died under torture in police custody. Secret Links : Recently Rajiv Gandhi has made ringing declarations’ to the effect that there will be no negotiations with the Khalistanis, until terrorism stops. This itself does not rule out negotiations under some sort of ceasefire. But, more significantly, it covers up the fact that negotiations between the Centre and the most murderous bands of Khalistanis have quietly been taking place. Office-bearers of the Unified Akali Dal and the jathedars of the Akal Takht welcomed the May 1 dismissal of the Barnala government and the imposition of President rule. On February 20 itself, Darshan Singh Ragi, head jat hedar of the Akal Takht and spokesman for certain Khalistani factions, offered to mediate to initiate talks between the Centre and various “militant” factions. Soon thereafter, Congress-I MP Sunil Dutt visited Ragi at the Golden Temple, followed by the visit of the Jain muni, Acharya Sushil Kumar, on May 6, 7, and 8, to the Golden Temple. Sushil Kumar openly boasted of his pull with the Congress-I and claimed that he was acting on behalf of the Central Government. The claim was borne out by incidents surrounding the talks. Sushil Kumar reportedly arrived in Amritsar in a Government plane. On May 6, Ribeiro also flew to Amritsar. The CRPF posted around the Golden Temple were withdrawn, for the first time since Operation Bluestar ; and were again withdrawn on May 7 and 8. Notorious communal terrorists for whom the police claim to have been hunting, such as Avtar Singh Brahma. visited the Golden Temple during this period for negotiations. They were not arrested by the police. The muni claims that he has documents showing that all five jathedars and Khalistani gangs—including the various AISSF factions and the Khalistani Commado Force—had given their approval for, and participated in, tape-recorded negotiations. On May 9, the muni flew to Delhi to inform the Prime Minister of the outcome of the talks. (Among those who acted as links for the Centre in this whole operation were those former Congress-I leaders—eg, Amrinder Singh—who had joined the Akalis, and then the Badal faction.) So the Centre keeps up links with terrorist factions, and even negotiations with them. It was reported by several persons we met in Punjab that, during the period when dealings are carried on with a certain gang, its members are not arrested, even as arrests and en-counter deaths of members of other factions continue. Later, as and when talks between the Centre and any particular faction break down, the two sides resume hostilities. This is what reportedly, happened recently. After the Haryana election results, it seems the Centre cooled off in its ardour for an immediate settlement, and the Prime Minister ruled out negotiations “till terrorism is crushed”. One section of the Khalistanis, represented in the AISSF by the Gurjit Singh faction, has accused Darshan Singh Ragi of having entered into a deal with the Centre, and has stepped up its killings. Meanwhile, the Manjit Singh faction of AISSF has issued statements to the effect that Sikhs are inseparable from India. The Badal faction of the Akali Dal has also issued statements condemning the latest round of bus massacre. In other words the Centre, the various political parties, and the terrorists have a fluid set of options, which they exercise according to their own interests. Under whatever ideology they disguise it, their real concern is only the exact arrangements and shares in power. It was precisely such interests that propelled Amrinder Singh from being a Congress-I M.P. to being an Akali leader and finally to becoming a leader of the Unified Akali Dal; that converted Prakash Singh Badal from being a so-called “moderate” Akali to bee ‘wing a mouthpiece for the Khalistani gangs; that converted Barnala from being the main draftsman of the 1973 Anandpur Sahib Resolution to becoming a spokesman for “national integration” and “Hindu-Sikh communal amity” ; and so on. In sum- (i) The political parties such as Congress, Akalis, BJP and Janata are devoid of any effort for a solution, let alone possessing a solution; (ii) not only in the past but even after communal terrorism assumed menacing dimensions, various political parties, particularly the Congress and Akalis, as well as the Centre, continue to sustain communal terrorism, communal divisions, and communal organisations in various ways.