The latest assault on the Golden Temple is bound to prove an exercise in futility. The euphoria over the surrender of 45 odd defenders of the Golden Temple is fast dissolving into the retaliatory bloodbath that has overtaken the entire State. The frequent sacrilege of the holiest shrine by the government forces on one pretext or the other is drilling the hurt deeper into the Sikh psyche. The commutative effect of the growing indignation is now only inches short of exploding into the most violent communal riots that India has yet witnessed.

The retaliatory wave of violence has already claimed over 200lives in just four days. The angry men have struck with a vengeance throughout the length and breath of the Punjab. None of them either came from or sought shelter in the Golden Temple, thus disproving beyond doubt that they do not operate from the Temple nor use it as a sanctuary.

It is significant that not a single member of the security forces was killed in the siege. Even though causalities on the attacker’s side are invariably higher. It shows that militants fired in self-defense only to keep the invaders at bay. They did not fire to kill. The police on the other hand shot down unarmed pilgrims and even fired a volley of bullets at the journalists trapped inside the Complex injuring at least one of them.

Talking to The Indian Express reporter, during the siege, Surjit Singh Penta of Khalistan Liberation Force categorically stated, “It is they (security forces) who have been firing at us….. But we will not allow anyone to defile the Darbar Sahib”. He said that the only way to end the fighting was for the security forces to move back 300 yards and stop firing. Nothing could be more reasonable. But reason does not fit into Delhi’s vicious scheme of things.

What has the government gained by killing 36 and arresting 45 persons? By all accounts, nothing. Because no such operation can prevent the militants from again asserting their position in the Golden Temple, because the problem is not in the Golden Temple. It is outside. The problem is Hindu imperialism. The move to ban weapons in the Sikh temples is equally unfortunate and ill advised. It would be fiercely resisted by every Sikh as it would mean destroying the basic character of Sikhism. It would rightly be condemned as a sinister design to Hinduize Sikh shrines,

The Sikhs are disillusioned with the opposition leaders and the media magnates also as both blindly endorse the outrageous acts of the government. The Sikh leaders are criticized and condemned if they demand proof before declaring their fellow Sikhs guilty of the wild charges habitually made against them by the law enforcing agencies. But when Ribeiro recruits criminals and gets Sikh families wiped out, then, it is a different story. It does not merit more than a passing reference in an obscure corner of the newspaper. No eyebrows are raised if RAW smuggles Russian weapons from Kabul to plant them on the Sikh militants. The simple denial by the Minister is readily accepted, while the same Minister’s denial of kickbacks in Bofors scandal is ferociously rejected.

The fault, evidently, is not with the Sikhs. It is with the majority community’s intolerance of the minorities. It is with the Shiv Sena Chief’s boycott call against the Sikhs. It is with the murderous mobs that shout “India for Hindus” and brutally massacre Muslims, Sikhs, Christians and Dalits. It is with those fanatics who consider conceding the basic rights of any minority as a great concession and appeasement. It is with the rulers that breed these tendencies.

As a Brahmin, Rajiv Gandhi knows all this and by repeatedly attacking the Golden Temple he is not seeking a solution to the Punjab problem. He is partly catering to the Hindu sentiment and partly taking his personal revenge. He is keen to destroy the Golden Temple because it is a constant reminder of his mother’s folly and death. Will the Sikhs unite to meet this challenge or continue to destroy one another through mutual bickering? Time alone will tell.

Article extracted from this publication >> May 27, 1988