At a premier of “Schindler’s List” at Frankfurt (Germany), Director Producer Steven Spielberg cautioned that we cannot make good the present and the future “until we make peace with our past”. That is. if left to fester, the historic hurts and humiliation of a people can become a burden of history. A caveat well understood by Madan Lal Khuranna. Delhi’s new Chief Minister. Euphoric over his recent dramatic victory, Khuranna vowed to punish the perpetrators of the ’84 anti-Sikh riots. No matter how good his intentions, he has a fat chance of collaring the guilty. His is a government within a government, jocularly la- belled as “C-grade”, meaning “all frills and no power”. Real power rests with the Center. And, the Center remains monopolized by the Congress (1), wherein are sheltered some of the known thugs, loyalties have, therefore, spun apart into their constituent tribal lines. Thus, atonement for the sins of Nov ’84 is stuck in platitudes.
The bestiality of Nov ’84 continues to haunt the Sikh collectivity. The images of the savagery are as fresh today as they were a decade ago. They are a picture, rewound, and played a thousand times in the mind’s eye. A picture so gruesome and bloodcurdling as to be “D” rated, “D” as in demonolatry. A viewer may randomly select one excerpt or another to make a telling point; but, whichever the excerpt, it is a mere variation on the theme of Cain’s vengeance.
Picture this excerpt. In the thick of night, armed with staves, axes, and steel pipes, some carrying kerosene cans, some carrying fiery torches, and fueled by alcohol, a raging mob swarms through the narrow streets of Trilokpuri, one of Delhi’s bed- room communities. At the head of the crowd, run amuck, is a well known politician. He is a ranking member of the ruling Congress(1) His one hand clutches a sheaf of papers, at a later date revealed to be Trilokpuri’s voters list, which the villain intends to use to finger Sikh homes, target of their furore. As the rogue politician points to a portal, a small squad splits up from the mob to storm the marked house, the rest of the swarm moves forward onto the next damned portal and then the next, till all Sikh homes are brought to account.. From each Sikh household, in a bizarre division of tasks, the howling band drags the male members out into the dark, dingy lane, ran- sacks the house for loot and gang- rapes the women folk. Outside in the dimly lit lane, the elder Sikh male is beaten and wrestled to the ground, his turban partially undone, Someone places an old tyre around his neck, another fills it with kero- sene and sets it on fire. The torched man screams and tries to free him- self from the scroching necklace but the mob hit him on his arms, hands and legs with staves to keep him in yoke. Soon the flames engulf the man and helplessly he crumbles to the ground, writhing in pain, his screams fading into an eerie moans as life ebbs away. Soon the manly man lies as a heap of ash.
The man’s adolescent son is made to watch the staged immolation of his father. Suddenly, a young man, glassy eyed, in a karate-like move lunges forward to plunge a piece of iron-pipe through the boy’s torso. Blood cascades out of the gaping hole in the chest. Simultaneously another provocateur, swirls around like a mad dervish and torches the house. Flames leap into the sky their red-hot tongues in bold relief against the ever blackening sky. The heart wounding crying and wailing fills the hamlet. Pungent smell of burning flesh assails the nostrils. As the howls of the mob fades into the distance, they leave in their wake death and destruction. The butchery goes on, day after day, from one city-site to another township. Cries of-teach the Sikhs a lesson” rever berate everywhere. Soon most of the major cities of northern India were a saturnalia of blood. Neither the police nor the political leader ship even made the slightest pre- tense to shield the sufferers of the pogrom. It was as if the authorities wanted to let the thugs have their way. Some policemen even acted as forerunners sweeping clean Sikh homes of all weaponry to make them an easy prey.
Thus, unfolded Nov 84 This slaughter of innocent Sikhs was the price exacted for the slaying of Mrs Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards. As the world watched the mayhem, the spin doctors were busy concocting alibis to blot out the sins of the government. That the anti-Sikh rioting reflected “spontaneous” out- pouring of rage, triggered by the assassination, was the oft-repeated excuse. Reality defied that poor excuse. For example, the rioting corrupted in an instant following the announcement of the assassination: overnight bus-loads of instigators were trucked in and unloaded at strategic Sikh settlements; count- less of the rioters carried, by design, paraphernalia such as staves, iron pipes, kerosene cans and old tyres: and, the savagery went on for days unabated and unchecked.
All sorts of enquiries were launched, ostensibly, to ferret out those responsible for the carnage. Despite the naming of political big- wigs, by victims, bystanders and news-video, no one has been brought to book. Closed door hearings with limited terms of reference, an un- sympathetic police and an absence of non-Hindu jurists, all added up to make a mockery of the proceedings. The findings were a fate accompli, only the process had to be made to run its course. The law enforcement agencies fared no better. Their top officials were engaged in an exercise of self-sanitization. The rank and file the wagons to protect their own.
However, the police could not just sit idly by. They, too, had to give the appearance of searching for the facts. Their half-hearted attempts to collar one or two lower echelon figures failed or backfired. Thus, the make- believe court of enquiry and the -foot-dragging by the police incensed the Sikhs. As the farce went on, many Sikh boys lost heart. A few t hot-heads took the law into their Down hands and gunned down Lalit Makhen, a prominent trade unionist, who was seen as an accomplice in crime. This was the defining moment. From now on, guilty or -not, an impenetrable security blanket was thrown over all those implicated in the ’84 riots.
In an ironic turn of events, those who ought to be under legal scrutiny are instead shielded by police -protection. The mere acceptance of police protection is seen by some as an admission of guilt. But, to the accused the very fact that they are I protected by police attests to their innocence. The accused continue to live a privileged life. For example, Jagdish Tytler, H.K.L. Bhagat and D.D. Shastri hold, or have held, cabinet level posts at the Center. The only noteworthy police action involved the attempt to arrest Sajjan Kumar. But, on coming to know in advance the imminent arrest of their patron, his supporters ringed his house to form a protective cover to keep the police at bay. That was the end of that police action.
Matters were no different in the political arena. For example, fearing a Sikh backlash in the 1991 national elections, if he were to be the candidate from the Karol Bagh riding of Delhi, Dharam Das Shastri, another alleged culprit, was asked by Congress(1) party bosses to with- draw his nomination. In an inter- view to The Statesman”, a recalcitrant Shastri hinted that if forced to resign he will name names of those responsible, going so far as to say that his testimony can “push-“Rajiv Gandhi into “the mud- and “to banish him for 14 years’.
No one has followed up on the covert accusation Perhaps because to do so will rock the boat. That the circle of complicity extends far beyond the foot soldiers is in no doubt. Which explains why the veil of secrecy continues to be drawn over Nov ’84 rioting. The most striking and appalling feature of the communal clashes was the Hindu on Sikh violence, a first of its kind. But, the events of Nov ’84 are no Chinese puzzle. A closer look at the anatomy of the carnage reveals three distinct phases: planning execution and connotation. Skeptics will question the planning aspect, making it appear as far-fetched. But, to plan is to foresee. Only a fool will not have foreseen the coming assassination of Mrs Gandhi. Sikh history is replete with instances of reprisals upon those who have defiled their temples or hurt their spirit. Take for example the slaying of Sir Michael O’dwyer in 1940, in London, by a Sikh. Udham Singh Sir Michael was held responsible, as Lt-Governor of Punjab, for the 1919 massacre of Sikhs at Jallianwala Bagh. By ordering the attack on the Golden Temple, in June ’84, Mrs Gandhi had similarly sealed her fate. The only question was when and where the deed will be done. Plans were, therefore, drawn up to be activated the instant Mrs Gandhi were to be killed.
The plans were elaborately drawn. The intent was to wreak the maxi- mum havoc as borne out by the ferocity and the depth of the ’84 carnage. But, no riot will succeed in the face of stringent law enforcement. Keeping of law and order in India, however, depends on the communal equation. That is to say who is rioting against whom For example, within hours of the Feb ’93 Bombay bombings which were directed at Hindus, Prime Minister Narasimha Rao declared a state of emergency, was only right, whereas in January he sat by quietly watching the Shiv Sena go on a killing spree of innocent Muslims. That the Nov ’84 anti-Sikh riots e spread out so far and wide, and were allowed to go on for days, bears witness to a tacit approval from the authorities. It is interesting to note that the current Prime Minister Narasimha Rao served, in ’84, as Rajiv Gandhi’s Home Minister, with responsibility for domestic security. It is no wonder that a cloud of suspicion hangs over the inner circle of the Congress(1). The Congress (I). the party ruling India today as it did then in ’84, is equally determined to put the lid on the intrigue. Party veterans will admit to no wrongdoing. For them appearances are everything. For instance, Congress(1) took a dim view of the Jan ’94 decision by Buta Singh, a party nob, to do a 56-day penance in historic Gurudwaras, at the behest of the Sikh priests. Buta Singh was judged to have sinned, by the Sikh clergy, in going against their dictum to re- build the Akal Takht, Sikhism’s highest temporal seat, which had been turned into a ruin by the June 84 Indian Army action. Thus, there is no end to the on-going conspiracy of silence.
Only a wide spread clamor will unravel the conspiracy. Until now only a handful of well-intentioned activists are hammering away at the wall of silence. They realize the importance for an inter-ethnic bar- gain, that is, punish the guilty to win over the alienated Sikhs. What is disturbing is that the Sikhs them selves appear in a disarray. Though the Sikhs make up a substantial portion of Delhi’s population, and given the fact that the most of the victims were Delhite Sikhs, it is dismaying to note that they have not mounted a single mass protest or demonstration.
It is not that the Sikhs are amateurs when it comes to protests. For in- stance, recently an estimated 10,000 Sikhs marched to the US Embassy. in New Delhi, to protest US President Clinton’s remarks over “a peaceful solution (in Punjab) that protected Sikh rights”. In sharp contrast, another contingent of Sikh activists staged their own pro- Clinton rally. Even Beant Singh, Punjab’s Chief Minister, in a speech at Jalandhar castigated President Clinton for speaking out on India’s record of human rights in Punjab. Not to be outflanked on the miner of patriotism. Maninderjit Singh Bitta, President of Indian Youth Congress, staged his own demonstration at Wagah, near Amritsar,to condemn Pakistan for its human rights violations in “Indian Kashmir”
In absolute terms, no single act of cold bloodedness can overtop the inhumanity of Nov 84. Human rights violations in Punjab, Kashmir, Assam, Bihar and elsewhere have been voluminously documented by Amnesty International and Asia Watch. It is no surprise that human rights remain India’s Achilles heel. At the June ’93 World Conference on Human Rights, at Vienna, India came prepared to fight it out with
India’s Chief delegate at the conference was none other than a Sikh, Manmohan Singh. He is a brilliant economist, but no authority on civil rights. But then who else is better suited to white-wash allegations of human rights violations in Punjab than a Sikh and a government Minister to boot. Similarly, fully aware that violations of civil and human rights in Kashmir will be at the heart of the March ’94 conference of U.N. Human Rights Commission, at Geneva, India chose a Muslim, Salman Khursced, another government Minister, to mount the counteroffensive against her censors. י
So blatant a play of the communal card ought to exacerbate ethnic resentments. Instead such manipulations go uncensored for fear that any questioning of the motives of the government will be tantamount to disloyalty, especially considering that phrases like “an increasingly becoming part of the argot of the nation. Consequently, any at- tempts to redress communal grievances are passed over. And, by keeping mum over the ’84 carnage, the Sikhs appear to have assumed the posture of the proverbial monkeys who did not see hear speak any evil. The code of silence lets the criminals escape without penalty The more the crimes remain un voiced or unacknowledged by the Sikhs, lesser the chances for the guilty to be brought to justice. Such taciturnity is a boon to the Congress cabal. They know that time is on their side and that with each passing year the memory of ’84 fades a little further into the distant. By not put- ting a face to death and debasement, the slaying of thousands of Sikhs, and the wanton raping of their women, will be reduced to mere cold statistics. These innocent Sikh victims must not be made to have died unjustly, unrequited and unremembered.
Feigning of amnesia by influential Sikhs, and stonewalling by Congress bosses is an unholy alliance, By this piquant machination of circumstances Sikhs have become an accessory to the conspiracy. Which is well and good for the authorities who would rather let sleeping dogs lie. After all law and order, in India. is a child of ethno-political under- currents. For example, Sikh or Muslim terrorists or criminals are relentlessly pursued, apprehended, often tortured, tried convicted and hanged. A Hindu, on the other hand, has yet to pay a price for a similar communal killing. One is, there- fore, tempted to ask what good is a law if the minorities lack the right of enforcing it.
Such uneven handedness is a cause of great discomfort for the minorities, who are made to believe that their well-being depends on the goodwill of the ‘host’ community. The rights of a minority will, there- fore, not prevail when these collide with the interests of the majority. Thus, it appears less likely for Nov 84 camage to be solved to the satisfaction of the Sikhs. Despite such a flagrant disregard of their feelings, Sikhs continue to nurse the conspiracy of silence, reminding one of Fydor Dostoevsky’s lament: “is it not possible to eat me without insisting that I sing the praises of my devourer?”
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April 1994.
Article extracted from this publication >> April 15, 1994
