The Indian Government recently announced elections in the state of Punjab. The state has been under “Presidents rule” (federal control) for almost 5 years. Constitutional changes have been made for extensions of this specifically for Punjab. Elections had been scheduled earlier for June but were postponed the day before they were to take place. We are concerned that the Indian Government agencies may put out misinformation as they have tended to do at such critical times as now. For example the Indian Government claims that the last elections were postponed because of violence created by the militants separates. While the violence was probably factor the ruling Congress party and the police in Punjab had more to do with the postponement. We base this conclusion on the following observations of events in the months leading up to the month of June 1991.

The source for most of the media reports on the killings of the candidates was the police. Occasionally it was another government agency. Rarely were the reports independently made or verified.

No Sikh militant has been actually apprehended identified tried and convicted for any of these killings despite the 300000armed men of the army police and Para military forces (more recently increased t0 500000 with the mobilization of 200000 addition a army troops). In a few cases there have been reports of anonymous calls by militant groups claiming responsibility but these calls/reports are never reliable.

Many of the killings were how: ever investigated by Human Rights groups. In several of the cases it was established through eyewitness accounts that the victims had been arrested/abducted by the police earlier.

In many of the cases the police carried out cremations of the victims with unusual haste. This is uncharacteristic of the slow and inefficient bureaucratic system in India (unless of course the police and the authorities were trying to hide something).

Government employed doctors are routinely forced at gun point to sign blank postmortem forms. These are later filled in by the police and subsequently used by them to refute allegations of torture by human rights groups.

In some cases where masses of people collected at the site of killing the police were prevented from removing the bodies. It is evident from pictures of these bodies that the victims had been subjected to severe torture. Burn marks gouging marks etc. were similar to those known to be inflicted on detainees in the police interrogation centers in Punjab (and in other states).

Several of the candidates killed were known to be sympathetic to the militants. In some cases they were relatives or in other cases they represented militant parties. Therefore it is unlikely that they would have been targeted by the militants.

Many of the Sikh leaders who were expected to win the election and form the next state government (e.g. Simranjit Singh Mann) had openly stated that they would initiate judicial inquiries and legal proceedings against police officials who were alleged 10 have tortured and carried out extra-judicial killings of Sikh boys in custody. The only party that could have “protected” the police from such prosecution was the Congress party but they had boycotted the elections and therefore could not have come into office.

Police officials in turn had sought help from the Central Government in passing legislation that would prevent such inquiries and prosecutions. Indeed the Indian Government subsequently passed laws that would prohibit prosecuting police officials for any of their actions but only for the period during which the state was under Presidents rule (i.e. being ruled by the central government).

A week or so before the election date when it appeared that the Janata Dal government of Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar was not willing to postpone the elections there were reports (from multiple sources) of the police burning files of many of the detainees in several of the Punjab police stations in a crude attempt to destroy evidence for subsequent inquiry/prosecution.

Until the day before the elections were due the Governor of the state General Malhotra appointed by the Janata Dal party of Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar) was confidently insisting that the elections would take place. All arrangements or polling had been made.

Elections were finally called off hours before voting was to star. The Congress party had just replaced the Janata Dal party at the center in New Delhi just hours before that.

The Congress party had earlier boycotted the holding of elections. Had the elections taken place the Congress party could not have contested any of the seats as it had not fielded any candidates.

The postponement was carried out hurriedly by the election commissioner under instructions from the new government of the Congress party. The Governor of Punjab resigned in protest.

If excessive violence had been the reason then why did the election commissioner wait until the last day to call off the elections?

In the case of many of the “visible killings” (train and bus massacres) eyewitnesses have reported seeing the killers wearing police uniforms. Police sources have of course passed this off a “militants dressed as police” but with all the other factors cited here the police information has to be suspect.

It may be remembered that when the V.P. Singh government was considering allowing Amnesty International on investigate killings in Punjab (and Kashmir) it was the cadres of the Congress Party that threatened to physically lock their entry.

With international pressure mounting the Indian Government was hoping to put up a facade of “democracy” in Punjab by calling elections again This time most of the Sikh political parties have boycotted them alleging that free and fair elections cannot be held in the state with the current mobilization of almost an half million armed forces (army police and paramilitary). We expect the Indian Government to try to cither “legitimize” the elections (by for example arresting Sikh political leaders banning boycott rallies underreporting the boycott exaggerating the participation etc.) or to try to postpone them yet again.

Excerpts from a recent Reuter wire service report sums up the current scenario in the state.

“Not one person will vote in the villages” said Harbans Singh a solemn-looking Sikh farmer in the village of Bagga. “The people know this government cannot bring peace to Punjab. There is no need to vote until we have our own nation.”

The polls will restore an 117member assembly after five years of direct rule from New Delhi and send 13 representatives to the 545seat national parliament. But the: plan ran afoul of most Sikh politicians who announced a boycott. They claim the polls will be rigged and New Delhi will soon sack any independent-minded state government.

Only one faction the Akali Dal (Kabul) is contesting now and this group will most probably form the government according to Raghunandan Lal Bhatia a Congress party candidate for the: Amritsar parliamentary seat. “We want them to win” Bhatia said at his heavily-guarded home in Amritsar.

Article extracted from this publication >> February 21, 1992