Skeletons have been rolling out of India’s cupboard. The Indian state’s fascist deeds over the past one decade in Punjab involved rape, and dishonor of women, torture and killings of youths and harassment and extortion of lakhs of Sikhs, Human rights organizations all over the world have been documenting selected cases. But the enormity of the Indian states crimes still remains largely hidden and unaccounted for. It was only when the entire system was being turned upside down that the country’s Supreme Court setup and took notice. Other organs of India’s so-called democracy the Parliament, the Press and the intelligentsia are still in slumber. If anything, these organs have been showering praises on the killer gangs of the Indian state and sing their leaders like K.P.S. Gill as great warriors who have saved the country. The Indian Supreme Court has been approached in a very limited number of cases by the victims for justice, In India persons of average means cannot go to the court, much Jess to the Supreme Court, where lawyers charge huge fees and delays are endemic. In a few cases, the Supreme Court has discovered to its horror that the police has been permitted to be prosecutor, judge and executioner at the same time. The police have been identifying persons and killing them merrily. It has been happening not only in Punjab but also in other states of the country. Thus a Sikh couple living in far off Tiljala, Calcutta was killed in cold blood by the Punjab police. The west Bengal’s C.P (M) led government felt humiliated and ordered.an enquiry. The Chief Minister was upset about the Punjab police’s encroachment into his territory. The Indian home ministry tried to whitewash the Punjab police crime. But somehow the central bureau of investigation (C.B.I.) did a professional job and pinpointed the culprits. The Supreme Court which was told of the case ordered the prosecution of a Superintendent of Punjab police and his five juniors. In a few other cases, too, the court has ordered the trial of the guilty policemen of Punjab responsible for killings of Sikhs. These directions still remain to be implemented. Not a single policeman in Punjab has been tried and punished so far. Yet the arrogant police force has not only been resisting the court’s orders but has been organizing protests against the court and voicing them publicly. In the course of one such protest last week, the cat was out of the bag. The police Chief K.P.S. Gill was at the center of a meeting attended by top brass of the force at Chandigarh, according to reports published in the Indian media. While Gill himself for political reasons was left behind others trooped to chief minister Beant Singh’s office to bring to his notice the courts interventions. They complained that certain Punjab officials were being “victimized” for the “executive’s actions.” The leader of the police team now was D.R. Bhatti, Inspector General of Police (Border Range). Bhatti is one of those who is associated with the Nirankari cult, He was identified for excesses on Sikhs by the late Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, even in the early 807s. Bhatti headed 16 district police chiefs. They told Beant Singh that what the Punjab police did was in pursuance of a policy “okayed at the highest level.”

This observation of Bhatti and company deserves attention. In plain words, all custody tortures and killings in Punjab and elsewhere of Sikhs under cover of fighting terrorism was in terms of a policy which had been approved by Prime Minister Narasimha Rao. The truth has finally come from a horse’s mouth. The Punjab police itself have testified that Rao personally is involved in the killings, something we of the WSN had been pleading for a Jong time. Here is an opportunity for the world public opinion to take notice and pursue the matter. Rao is simply a war criminal responsible for thousands of murders of Sikhs and other crimes. He deserves to be tried by an international jury and punished for all the crimes he has committed. The argument advanced by responsible quarters in the western countries that the Indian security forces (and not the Indian political authority) are responsible for the human rights violations and that they needed to be trained in human rights stands completely knocked off the ground. In the light of Punjab police version of the Indian state’s policy approved by the highest authority, it is incumbent on those responsible for formulating policy in the USA, President Clinton himself, to correct themselves and face the Indian reality: Assassination of Sikh political activists is done at the instance of India’s prime minister himself.

The President must know that he is dealing with a Criminal and not a politician belonging to a democratic country. Can Sikhs get justice from Rao and his India is a million dollar question.

Article extracted from this publication >> May 5, 1995