At a premier of Schindler’s at Frankfurt (Germany) Director Producer Steven Spielberg cautioned that we cannot make good the present and the future until we make peace with our past that is if left to fester the historic hurts and humiliation of a people can become a burden of history. A caveat well under stool by Madan Lal Khurana Delhi’s new Chief Minister
Euphoric over his recent dramatic victory Khurana vowed to punish the perpetrators of the anti-Sikh riots No matter how good his intentions he has a fat Chance of collaring the guilty. His is a government within a government jocularly labeled as C-grade meaning all frills and no power Real power resist with the Center. And the Center remains monopolized by the Congress (I) wherein are sheltered some of the known thugs loyalties have therefore spun apart into their constituent tribal lines. Thus atonement for the sins of Nov 84 is stuck in platitudes
The bestiality of Nov ’84 continues to haunt the Sikh collectivity ‘The images of the savagery are as fresh today as they were a decade ago. They are a picture rewound and played a thousand times in the mind’s eye. A picture so gruesome and bloodcurdling as to be D rated D as in demonolatry. A viewer may randomly select one excerpt or another to make a point but whichever the excerpt it is a mere variation on the theme of Cain vengeance
Picture this excerpt. In the thick o night armed with staves axes and steel pipes some carrying kerosene cans some carrying fiery torches and fueled by alcohol a raging mot swarms through the narrow street of Trilokpuri one of Delhi’s bed room communities. At the head of the crowd run amuck is a well-known politician He is a ranking member of the ruling Congress (I) His one hand clutches a sheaf of Papers at a later date revealed to be
Tilokpuris voters list which the villain intends to use to finger Sikh homes target of their furore. As the Tongue politician points to a portal small squad splits up from the mot to storm the marked house of the swarm moves forward onto the next damned portal and then the exit till all Sikh homes are brought to account.
From each Sikh household in a bizarre division of tasks the howling band drags the male members out into the dark dingy lane ransacks the house for loot and gang rapes the women folk. Outside in Tapes the women folk. Outside in the dimly lit lane the elder Sikh male is beaten and wrestled to the ground his turban partially undone. Someone places an old tyres around his neck another fills it with kerosene and sets it on fire The torched man screams and tries to free himself from the scorching necklace but the mob hit him on his arms hands and legs with staves to keep him in yoke Soon the flames engulf the ‘man and helplessly he crumbles to the ground writhing in pain his Screams fading into an ceric moans as life ebbs away. Soon the manly man lies as a heap of ash
The man’s adolescent son is made to watch the staged immolation of his father. Suddenly a young man glassy eyed in a karate tike mover lunges forward plunge a piece of torches the into the sky their red-hot tongues in bold relief against the ever blackening sky. The heart wounding crying wailing fills the hamlet of burning flesh assails the nostrils
As the howls of the mob fades into the distance they leave in their wake death and destruction the butchery.
Goes on day after day city-site to another joy of teach the Sikhs a lesson reverberate everywhere Soon most of the major cities of Northern India were a saturnalia of bond their the police nor the political leader ship even made the slightest pretense to shield the sufferers of the pogrom. It was as if the authorities wanted to let the thugs have their way. Some policemen even acted as forerunners sweeping clean Sikh homes of all weaponry to make them an easy prey ‘Thus unfolded Nov 84 this slaughter of innocent Sikhs was the price exacted for the slaying of Mrs Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards. As the world watched the mayhem the spin doctors were busy concocting alibis to blot out the sins of the government. That the anti-Sikh rioting reflected spontaneous outpouring of rage triggered by the assassination was the oft-repeated excuse Reality defied that poor excuse. For example the rioting erupted in an instant following the announcement of the assassination overnight bus-loads of instigators were trucked in and unloaded at Strategic Sikh settlements; countless of the rioters carried by design paraphernalia such as staves iron pipes kerosene cans and old tyres; and the savagery went on for days unabated and unchecked.
All sorts of enquiries were launched ostensibly to ferret out those responsible for the carnage. Despite the naming of political bigwigs by victims bystanders and news-video no one has been brought to book. Closed door hearings with limited terms of reference an unsympathetic police and an absence of non-Hindu jurists all added up to make a mockery of the proceedings. The findings were a fate accompli only the process had to be made to run its course the law enforcement agencies fared no better. Their top Officials were engaged in an exercise of self-sanitization the rank and file the wagons to protect their own.
However the police could not just sit idly by. They had to give the appearance of searching for the facts. Their half-hearted attempts to collar one or two lower echelon figures failed or backfired. Thus the make believe court of enquiry and the foot-dragging by the police incensed the Sikhs.
As the farce went on many Sikh boys lost heart A few hot-heads took the law into their own hands and gunned down Lalit Makhan a prominent trade union 1st that was seen as an accomplice in crime this was the defining moment. From now on guilty or not an impenetrable security was thrown overall those implicated in the ’84 riots.
In an ironic turn of events those who ought to be under legal scrutiny are instead shielded by police protection. The mere acceptance of police protection is seen by some as an admission of guilt. But to the accused the very fact that they are protected by police attests to their innocence. The accused continue to live a privileged life. For example Jagdish Tytler H.K.L Bhagat
D.D. Shastri hold or have held cabinet level posts at the Center. The only noteworthy police action involved the attempt to arrest Sajjan Kumar. But on coming to know in advance the imminent are Test of their patron his supporters tinged his house to form a protective Cover to keep the police at bay ‘That was the end of that police action
Matters were no different in the political arena. For example fearing a Sikh backlashes in the 1991 national elections if he were to be the candidate from the Karol Bagh riding of Delhi Dharam Das Shastri another alleged culprit was asked by Congress (I) party bosses to withdraw his nomination In an interview (~The Statesman are calcitrant Shastri hinted that if forced to resign he Will name names of those responsible going so far as to say that his testimony can push Rajiv Gandhi into the mud and to banish him for 14 years’
No one has followed up on the covert Accusation. Perhaps because to do SO Will the boat That the circle of Complicity extends far beyond the food soldiers is in no doubt Which explains why the veil continues to be drawn over Nov 84 rioting. The most striking and appalling feature of the communal clashes was the Hindu on Sikh violence a first of its kind But the events of Nov #4 are no Chinese puzzle. A closer look at the anatomy of the carnage reveals three distinct phases: planning execution and connotation. Skeptics will question the planning aspect making appear as far-fetched.
But to plan is to foresee. Only a fool will not have foreseen the coming assassination of Mrs Gandhi. Sikh history is replete with instances of reprisals upon those who have defiled their temples or hurt their spirit. Take for example the slaying of Sir Michael O’Dwyer in 1940 in London by a Sikh Udham Singh. Sir Michael was held responsible as Lt-Governor of Punjab for the 1919 massacre of Sikhs at Jallianwala Bagh. By ordering the attack on the Golden ‘Temple in June ’84 Mrs Gandhi had similarly scaled her fate. The only question was when and where the deed will be done. Plans were therefore drawn up to be activated the instant Mrs Gandhi were to be killed. The plans were elaborately drawn. The intent was to wreak the maximum havoc as borne out by the ferocity and the depth of the ’84 Camage. But no riot will succeed in the face of stringent law enforcement. Keeping of law and order in India however depends on the communal equation. That is to say who is rioting against whom. For example within hours of the Feb ‘93 Bombay bombings which were directed at Hindus Prime Minister Narasimha Rao declared a state of emergency was only right whereas in January he sat by quietly watching the Shiv Sena go on a Killing spree of innocent Muslims. ‘That the Nov ’84 anti-Sikh riot spread out so far and wide and were allowed to go on for days bear witness to a tacit approval from the authorities It is interesting to not that the current Prime Minister Narasimha Rao served in 84 a Rajiv Gandhi’s Home Minister with responsibility for domestic security It is no wonder that a cloud of suspicion hangs over the inner circle of the Congress (I). The Congress (1) the party ruling India today as it did then in *84 is equally determined to Put the lid on the intrigue. Party veterans will admit no wrong For instance Congress (I) look a dim view of the Jan ‘94 decision by Buta Singh a party nob to do a 56-day penance in historic Gurudwara at the behest of the Sikh priests. Buta Singh was judged ‘o have sinned by the Sikh clergy in going against their dictum to rebuild the Akal Takht Sikhism’s highest temporal seat which had been turned into a ruin by the June 84 Indian Army action.
Thus there is no end to the on-going conspiracy of silence Only a wide spread clamor will unravel the conspiracy. Until now only a handful of well-intentioned activists are hammering away at the wall of silence. They realize the importance for an inter-ethnic bar Bain that is punish the guilty to win ‘over the alienated Sikhs What is disturbing is that the Sikhs themselves appear in a disarray Though the Sikhs make up a substantial portion of Delhi’s population and given the fact that the most of the victims were Delite Sikhs it is dismaying to note that they have not mounted single mass Protest or demonstration it is not that the Sikhs are amateur: when it comes to protests. Foy in stance recently an estimate 1000¢ ‘Sikhs marched to the US Embassy in New Delhi to protest US Prey dent Clinton’s remarks over peaceful solution (in Punjab) protected Sikh rights In sharp contrast another contingent Of Sikh activists Staged their Clinton rally Even Beant Punjab’s Chief! Minister Ma speech at Jalandhar castigated President Clinton for speaking out record of human rights in Singh Not to be outflanked on the matter of the patriotism Manider singh Bitta president of India youth congress staged his own demonstration at Wagah near Amritsar to condemn Pakistan for its human rights violations in India Kashmir.
In absolute terms no signal act of cold bloodedness can over top the inhumanity of Nov ‘84. Human rights violations in Punjab Kashmir Assam Bihar and elsewhere have been voluminously documented and Asia Watch. It is to surprise that human rights remain India’s ‘Achilles heel.
At the June ’93 World Conference on Human Rights at Vienna India came prepared fight it out with India’ ‘s Chief delegate at the conference was none other than a Sikh Manmohan Singh. He is a brilliant economist but no authority on civil rights. But then who else is better suited to white-wash allegations of human rights violations in Punjab than a Sikh and a government Minister to boot. Similarly fully aware that violations of civil and human rights in Kashmir will be at the heart bof the March 94 conference of U.N Human Rights Commission at Geneva India chose a Muslim Salman Khurseed another government Minister to mount the court offensive against her censors. So blatant a play of the communal card ought to exacerbate ethnic resentments. Instead such manipulations go uncensored for fear that any questioning of the motives of the government will be tantamount to disloyalty especially considering that phrases like ant increasingly becoming part of the argot of the nation. Consequently any attempts to redress communal grievances are passed over. And by keeping mum over the ’84 Camage the
Sikhs appear to have assumed the Posture of the proverbial monkeys who did not see-hear-speak-any evil. The code of silence lets the criminals escape without penalty The more the crimes remain unit voiced or unacknowledged by the Sikhs lessen the chances for the Built to be brought to justice Such taciturnity is a boon to the Congress cabal. They know that time is on their side and that with each passing Feigning of amnesia by influential Sikhs and stonewalling by Congress bosses is an unholy alliance. By this piquant machination of substances Sikhs have become accessory to the Conspiracy. Which 18 well and good for the authorities who would rather let Sleeping dogs lie. After all law and order in India is a child of ethno-political under
lessly Pursued apprehended often tied convicted and hanged A Hindu on the other hand has yet to Pay a price for a similar Communal killing. One 18 therefore tempted to ask what good is a law if the minorities lack the right of enforcing it
Such uneven handed of great discomfort for the minorities who are made to believe that their well-being depends on the S00dwill of the community. The rights of a minority will these fore not prevail when these Collide With the interests of the majority Thus it appears less likely for Nov 84 Camage to be solved to the is faction of the Sikhs. Despite such a flagrant disregard of their facings Sikhs continue to nurse at of not possible to eat me without insisting that I sing the praises of my devourer?
; ALL RIGHTS RESERVED; April 1994
Article extracted from this publication >> April 15, 1994
