That the Sikhs do not want elections under the Indian constitution is beside the point. The elections in Punjab have been postponed yet again. Postponed? There is a limit to that. Punjab has been “governed” by Delhi directly for over four years or should we say the last 44 years. And as things stand it will continue to do so until the Sikhs can break their bondage. The point we are trying to make is that the hollowness of India’s tall claims to democracy have been demonstrated yet again.
What the Congress pretends not to notice is that its position is as precarious as that of the one which it has just toppled. It has its hands too full in buying support to deal with real issues,
The Election Commission was “determined” to hold elections in Punjab come what may until it was firmly established that the Congress-I would form the government. The Governor was all for them and in the aftermath of the latest decision, resigned. The reason now is that the “law and order situation would not allow the conduct of a free and fair election”. Hardly a week has passed since the worst ever massacre of 76 train passengers. At that time the election commission felt that the situation was under control.
The integrity of the Election commissioner TN Sheshan or the lack of it has determined how the “democratic” process works in India. Everyone knows that the Congress-I was dead set against holding the elections and that Sheshan is a Congress-I lackey. But then, this stooge, like that Chief Justice of India’s Supreme Court who sentenced an innocent Sikh, Kehar Singh, to the gallows in the Indira Gandhi case has few other options. Conscience is an unfamiliar and strange sounding word in the Indian context. There is no institution or branch of government which is free of the rot of corruption.
The Indian army Border Security Force, Central Reserve Police Force besides the Punjab Police was deployed in great strength in the beleaguered Sikh homeland. What more security could there have been to ensure a “peaceful” poll, the US army? It can be easily gauged from this decision that Brahminical tyrants of Delhi are content with the status quo. The BJP was opposed to the democratic process as were the so-called communists
Why are the Hindus of all shades unanimous on the Punjab issue?
Having come to realize that the Sikhs were serious in their struggle for independence, they want to suppress this bitter truth of their failure from the world and even themselves as long as possible. No intelligent man in Delhi can hope that all the Sikhs can be bought off as some have been recently or killed off. Delhi has to swallow the bitter pill of letting the Sikhs go, it is only how long it can put it off.
Article extracted from this publication >> June 28, 1991
