This is not a parable. Recently, a group distinguished intellectuals, motivated b ordinary humanity, wrote to the President of India pleading for the release or several hundred Sikh youth detained without trial for as long as ten years. The silence i Rashtrapati Bhavan was deafening. In disgust, the memorandum was released {the Press coinciding with Human Right Day, Deo, 11, 1995. The effect was ever more silence.
Silence has its uses in statecraft, As the Indian poet, Vikram Seth has said: “Ten hostages are terrorism; A million, and It’ strategy” (The Golden Gate)
Prolonged detention of the Sikhs is part of strategy. Nazi Germany had another name for it: The Final Solution.
How many of us have noticed that the government tourism department has, for over a decade, withdrawn all pictures and posters of the Golden Temple? Airport lounges, railway station waiting rooms, secretariat corridors, coaches of Rajdhani Express, even anterooms of Indian embassies abroad are singularly bereft of pictures of Sikh historical places. The model of the Golden Temple at Amritsar’s rail terminal was smashed by Hindu zealots many years ago, This i apparently of the deep seated strategy to downplay The Sikh religion and culture, Those who attended the Vishwa Sikh Sammelan in ‘Amritsar were struck by the weird black Patka wearing commandos of the Punjab police crawling all over the holy city, not because India’s textile mills have stopped manufacturing cloth for turbans the ceremonial headgear!
In this grim strategy, the Press vernacular as well as English has become a willing tool of the government. Their method is simple: Do not project the Sikh in a positive light. Exaggerate every minor fracas. Underplay the Sikh identity. Depict the pat it Sikh on the idiot, box as the stereotype. Boost the UN Sikh practices. Highlight factional fights over gurdwaras. Deny kirpan wearing passenger’s seats in airlines and railways: The list seems endless.
‘Thanks to economic liberalization, NRI is an honored guest in India, a sort of prodigal son. Not so the Sikh NRI. He is earmarked by the Indian Embassies in the ‘West for special treatment. No wonder so many of them dropped out of the Amritsar conference. The other day an Indian businessman was denied visa by Saudi Arabia to visit Riyadh on the ground that he professes Sikh religion; Government cannot be bothered with such petty aberrations. Constitutional guarantees are, after all, so much paper.
‘The press in India, in most cases, owned by ultraconservative Hindu businessmen often suffers from an overbearing sense of self-righteousness where the Sikh minority is concerned: How date the Sikhs claim an independent religious identity? They must be taught a lesson. Simply brand them antinational No wonder these Newspapers are natural allies of govern ment and its gargantuan power machine. One good tum begets another. Unburdened by moral scruples, the newspapers lend all support to the government to undermine Sikh values.
We give, in this issue, a few instances of this insensitive attitude of the national Dallies, The Tribune, Chandigarh, ‘The Hindustan Times, New Delhi and The Statesman, Calcutta, The malady has, however, become chronic and endemic, in power had been depicted the Sikh taxi had blacked out the savagery of Oct, 1984 as a nonevent, let its cameras linger bale folly over the victims of transistor bombs which shadowy anti socials had planted in Delhi bazars. When The Telegraph published be ‘on May 5, 1986, photo of a ‘Sikh youth in police custody the caption proclaimed: “A terrorist being taken away,” ignoring the elementary rule that no one can be $0 labeled except when convicted by due process. We had written to the Editor, Mr. M.J. Akbar, who did us the courtesy of a reply:” accept your point; In fact, I had pointed out the error to our (The Telegraph) people. I hope you understand that there was no deliberate malice. More recently, The Times of India was Jess penitent. It published on April 12, 1995, a report that the house of union home minister, Mr. S.B. Chavan, in Nanded had been “attacked by five men, four of them Sikhs.
_ The ever vigilant Rear Admiral (Retd) Satyindra Singh lodged a protest with Press Council of India which drew the Times Editor’s attention to the council that the Press must avoid identifying the community of 8 person involved in crime. The newspaper took more than six months to publish a Luke warm apology on Dec. 6, 1995. This is typical of a newspaper that had been known for its anti-Sikh slant dating back to Girilal Jain’s vituperative writings that included his editorial “De-turning of Sikhs” in 982.
As a minority religion, Sikhs have been under fierce pressure from the media and their mentor, the government. Far from showing understanding end sympathy for their religious and cultural tradition, they have vowed to “to mainstream” the Sikhs a term that has become a euphemism for destroying their culture and lifestyle, in cynical disregard of the democratic principles of plurality and coexistence.
‘Sikhs have no doubt survived challenges down the centuries. However, the ongoing challenge is far more insidious. It calls for what Guru Gobind Singh termed Gyaneh ki badhni, the scythe (sword) of wisdom. Our choice is clear, let us stand up not succumb to the hostile machinations. Let us not abandon God and the Guru for the glittery tinsel of a modem state, Let us hold our head high in honor.
Five hundred years ago Gury Nanak ad_ monished the tyrannical rulers “Koorh phire pardhan, ve Lalo.” The German philosopher, Emmanuel Kent later predicted that eventually a just world order ‘would come about either through intellectual and moral insights or through the expenence of chaos .unless Indian polity, makes the right choice, its slide into chaos is but a matter of time Courtesy Sikh Review, March 1996, contributed by Amarjit Singh Buttar.
Article extracted from this publication >> April 17, 1996
