It is no small tragedy when eminent men bury their conscience and turn blatant sycophants. In the course of his interview with the Anglo-American Television unit preparing a feature called Rajiv’s India, Mr. Khushwant Singh exhausted all his vocabulary in showering superlatives on Rajiv Gandhi and elevated him to heights far above his grand-father, Jawahar Lal Nehru. In a matchless performance, he excelled even the professional courtly flatterers of the Mughal period, notwithstanding his claim that he “always warns Rajiv of the sycophants that surround anyone who has so much power.” Since there is no law against flattery or hypocrisy, Mr. Khushwant Singhs free to stoop to any level. But he should have been more discreet while talking to foreign media and should have refrained from making tutored and misleading observations relating to Sikhs living abroad.
Departing from his own perception of Punjab situation, he tried in the interview to shift all the blame on Sikhs living abroad for the beastly atrocities that Sikhs in India were made to suffer. He never paused to ponder that expatriate Sikhs came on the scene only after the diabolic destruction of the Akal Takht and communal massacre of innocent Sikhs in the anti-Sikh riots. They were jolted out of their blessed complacency by these tragic events. They raised their voice in International forums against the rape of human rights and the calculated extermination of their religion in the country with which they have emotional and religious ties.
Through their efforts, they have succeeded to a considerable degree in countering the propaganda blitz unleashed by the government of India. The outside world has begun to see through the game of Delhi rulers; Rajiv sensed it all during his foreign visit and felt compelled to strike a bargain with the Akalis in order to arrest the growing International concern for the miserable plight of Sikhsin India. He is now using Sikhs like Khushwant Singh to neutralize the impact of the expatriate Sikhs.
Mr. Khushwant Singhs wild accusation that Sikhs living abroad “patronize the most rabid elements in Indian society like Sikh terrorists” can only be explained as a pathological symptom of demented senility or perverted intellect or sold out conscience. Expatriates do not suffer from any guilt. On the contrary, it is Mr. Khushwant Singhs guilt of associating and praising murderers and rapists of innocent Sikhs that makes him behave like the spring-time blind man who finds green everywhere.” Writing in India To-day, December 31, 1985 issue, he clearly stated that “Rajiv allowed violence to go on” against Sikhs and “later exploited anti-Sikh feelings to win the elections”. But talking to the foreign media, he suddenly donned a different cloak and put his new hero on a kind of a semi-divine pedestal.
He did not consider it important to talk of state terrorism let lose in Punjab resulting in the mass elimination of Sikh youths in false police encounters. He did not deem it proper to talk of what Madhu Kishwar bewailed in the Illustrated Weekly or what former High Court Judge V.M. Tarkunde said of the Black laws or what Gobinda Mukhoty, Rajni Kothari and Manushi reported about the horrid details of anti-Sikh riots.
Honesty has never been Khush wants cake. He is too dross to transcend his material vision. He would do immense service to Sikhs and Sikhism, if only he were to stop acting as the mouthpiece of the anti-Sikh government of India.
Article extracted from this publication >> January 17, 1986
