Curiously, whenever Delhi rulers are caught in a politically awkward situation, the macabre drama of killing bus passengers comes to be enacted with an unfailing regularity. The facts of the past four years unmistakably point to this not entirely inscrutable pattern. When Congress (I) Ministry headed by Darbara Singh was on the verge of an ignominious collapse before the mounting pressure of the Dharam Yudh Morcha, bus passengers were killed and the blame was shifted on to the Sikhs with all the cacophonous hue and cry that the State controlled media could muster. Bus passengers were again killed when Delhi wanted to dismiss Darbara Singh and impose President’s rule as a prelude to the preplanned army attack on the Golden Temple.
Notwithstanding repeated demands for the institution of a judicial commission to probe into each case of violence, the Congress (I) rulers insist on blindly holding Sikhs responsible for every act of violence in Punjab. It is important to know as to who benefits from violence. Killing of bus passengers serves many purposes. It serves to tarnish Sikh image as well as provokes revengeful Hindu retaliation. It also makes the poverty-stricken people forget all about the economic failures of the government.
The electoral debacle in West Bengal and Kerala, the shocking Bofors and Swedish Arms deals scandals and the humiliating defeat in Haryana elections, all combined to generate a growing clamour for the resignation of Rajiv Gandhi and forced him to nervously rush to Moscow on the pretext of inaugurating an Indian festival — a formality normally performed by a junior minister. After a two-day breather there, he came back surcharged with sinister plans and within forty-eight hours of his arrival, 38 innocent bus passengers were gunned down in Punjab followed by 34 in Haryana barely 24 hours after the first tragedy. Hindus have been killed in Haryana for the first time, significantly, only after the formation of the non-Congress (I) ministry there. In a matter of minutes, the poverty-stricken multitudes forgot the scandals, forgot the electoral defeats and forgot their own economic privations. All they remembered and all they were made to remember was that Sikhs were the villains. Rajiv could not have watched the rampaging crowds thirsting for Sikh blood with anything other than a chuckle spread from ear to ear.
Whereas Hindus resort to mob violence on the slightest pretext, Sikhs have shown remarkable equanimity in the face of the gravest provocations. Sikhs were brutally butchered in the Golden Temple and were massacred in thousands in Delhi and other towns, yet not a single Hindu was subjected to vengeful mob violence even in Sikh majority areas. It is a factor that deserves closer scrutiny, because herein lies the clue to the identity of the killers of bus passengers. Whereas killing of the innocent is repugnant to the Sikh religion, sacrifice of the innocent to, Propitiate gods and goddesses is fundamental in Hindu religion.
Only a high powered judicial commission consisting of men with unquestioned integrity can separate the truth from the mire of fiction. But while selecting the incumbents for the commission, government puppets like Mishras and Thakurs need to be scrupulously excluded. The ideal course would be to appoint a three member commission comprising Justice S.M. Sikri, Justice T.M. Tarkunde and Justice Ajit Singh Bains to go into every case of violence since the massacre of 13 Sikhs by the Nirankaris on April 13, 1978. The proceedings of the Commission must be open to the public and all those indicted by various public and private investigative bodies should be asked to step down from their respective offices during the pendency of the proceedings. The rulings of the Commission should have the same validity and finality as that of the Supreme Court judgments. To create a congenial climate for the proper functioning of the Commission, all the draconian laws must be repealed, all illegally detained Sikhs must be released and police and army occupation of Punjab vacated. Freedom of press must be restored and the ban on the entry of foreign journalists lifted.
This is the minimum that a government professing its faith in democracy and secularism is routinely expected to do. Yet the rulers in Delhi will never accept this proposal because they know full well that such a course would lead them straight to the gallows and they would go down in history as killers of innocent bus passengers and promoters of fake encounters.
Article extracted from this publication >> July 17, 1987
