Writing on the recent conviction of 43 Hindu rioters by a Delhi court, India’s leading English daily, The Pioneer, has editorially noted.
‘The conviction of 43 persons accused of being party to the anti-Sikh riots of November 1984 is good news to the extent that it is the first such mass conviction related to the massacres. That, ‘unfortunately, is the most that can be said on the positive aspect of the issue, Quite apart from the aptness in this case of the adage that justice delayed is justice denied, the cold truth is that after the passage of close to 11 years, all there is to show for the Government’s claimed attempts to punish those responsible for the brutal killing of over 2,700 Sikhs in the Capital is a few dozen convictions. Not one of these is for murder or even attempted murder, what these persons have been found guilty of is rioting and violation of curfew orders, It is, therefore, not merely a case of justice being delayed.
Ironically, the delay was used by the de fence counsel as one of the grounds for a plea for leniency.
“The inability of the judicial system to deliver justice to the Sikhs, Which still justifiably rankles with the community, is unarguably the result of poorly constructed cases by the prosecution. There can be no other explanation for the fact that 2,700 coldblooded killings have not resulted in a single conviction for murder. None of these killings were carried out with any attempt at concealment, On the contrary each one of them was done in public with hundreds ‘of witnesses, who, in many cases, were police personnel. If anything, some of those who instigated and led the riots used them pot has a show of strength and as their proof of loyalty to the “ruling family.” The fact that the police did choose, for the most part, to look the other way for those three bloody days of November 1984 (as any resident of Delhi at the time would confirm), and thus became party to the crime, explains more than anything else why the prosecution has put up as pathetic a display as it has.
The slow pace at which the judicial process proceeds, of course, has not helped matters either. “The real responsibility for this shocking instance of justice, both delayed and denied on a massive scale, must, however, rest with the Government. There has been absolutely no evidence of the occasionally claimed urge to expedite the judicial process in this case. On the contrary, it is no secret that the presence of influential politicians from the ruling party in the list of the accused has contributed in no small measure to slowing down the proceedings. ‘The Outer Delhi Member of Parliament, Sajjan Kumar, for instance, was charge sheeted only late last year, a good 10 years after the riots took place. Under the circumstances, it is difficult to perceive the Sikhs (or, for that matter, anybody else) being convinced that the Government does mean business when it talks of meeting out punishment to the guilty. The relative peace in Punjab in the last few years is no reason for putting on the back bumer the job of reassuring the Sikhs that the judicial system stands by them, as it should by anybody else.”
The Pioneers a respected, independent newspaper. We appreciate its editorial reproduced above. The Indian government undoubtedly remains guilty of the denial of justice to the Sikh community. It needs to be added that the guilt is not on the “Government alone. The Indian state itself is guilty in its whole policy towards the Sikhs. Prosecution alone, representing the government, is not responsible for scuttling the process of justice.
The Parliament never took notice of the damage resulting in thousands of deaths in Delhi and elsewhere in the Indian cities. If this Parliament could enact TADA to persecute Sikhs and Muslims, it could as well have passed a special law to convict the guilty of 1984. Instead, it had among its ranks members like H.K.L. Bhagat and Sajjan Kumar who were actively involved in the Sikhs’ massacre. Not only that, Bhagwathi been an influential member of the Indian central government for many years after 1984. India’s mighty supreme court which boasts of converting post card complaints into writ petitions did not raise a little finger to give justice to the Sikhs. Several courts below actually connived at with the prosecution to let off the guilty so easily and quickly. The Indian media recently projected out of all proportions the demand of Rajiv Gandhi’s widow to expedite prosecution of the guilty in the murder of her husband but not many argued in favor of justice to Sikhs who have been deprived of justice even for a longer time.
There has been talk of criminalization of politics in India in the context of Naina Sahni’s murder case. But this criminalization is nothing now. The 1984 anti-Sikh riots are a classic case of criminalization of Indian polity, a wholesale massacre of a community at the hands of political lumpens belonging to the ruling party. Why, go far in fishing out nexus between crime and politics? The late Beant Singh amply represented both. Likewise, K.P.S. Gill represents criminalization of Indian police and the state as a whole. After all men like KP.S. Gill, not only relish political murders but are a stumbling block to a fair trial of the guilty. ‘whether it is a case of Delhi riots or the Tiljala murders by men of Punjab police. N.D. Tiwari’s recent statement that prime minister Rao is protecting Godman Chandra Swamy and his brand of criminalization applies with equal force the prime minister’s protection of the guilty in the Delhi riot cases as well as other crimes against Sikhs in Punjab and Muslims in Kashmiris.
Article extracted from this publication >> September 22, 1995
