by Gurdarshan Singh Dhillon Reader in History, Punjab University, Chandigargh

The Amritsar resolution passed by the Akali Dal has been viewed with grave concern by the Government and the media. But is the Government doing anything to salve the sores? Is it ready to provide a square deal to Punjab: What has the, Government done to assuage the hurt feelings of the estranged Sikh community?

The Prime Minister is maintaining a guilty silence over the much talked about package in Punjab. The Government had time and again expressed its willingness to start a dialogue with militants. But, now that the militants are down in the dumps, the Government is, once again, dragging its feet and ignoring legitimate demands of the State. Yet its failure to solve political problems under the normal laws of the land is being hailed as a big achievement.

A fair assessment of the crisis that continues to grip Punjab can ‘be made only in its historical perspective. Nationalism, secularism and democracy were the chief planks of the Indian National Congress in prepetition days. It promised a federal structure for free India. PLEDGE Sikhs, who were acknowledged as the third political entity in the country, were taken in by the secular and democratic professions and by Nehru’s promise of “the glow of freedom.” More than two thirds of the total number of freedom fighters shot, hanged and exiled to the And a mans by the British were the Sikhs. Master Tara Singh, then president of the Shiromani Akali Dal, tore up the Pakistani flag in Lahore. But for his efforts the whole of Punjab would have gone to Pakistan. Mahatma Gandhi had declared that the partition of the country would take place over his head body, But he lacked the will to stand firm on his pledge. Jinnah tried to woo the Sikhs and offered them very lucrative terms. Yet the Sikhs decided to throw their lot with India when both Gandhi and Nehru undertook to protect their culture and identity. A reassessment of the Sikh problem became essential after Independence. In an editorial on June 45, 1948. The Statesman pleaded that the Indian Dominion should consider the Sikhs a special case, requiring special Statesmanship of a farsighted sort, ‘Special sympathy and special practical aid…It would be both intrinsically right and tactically expedient of the Indian leaders to give the needs and aspirations of this nowadays sorrow laden but virile and gifted people, their most sympathetic consideration. Statesmanship should be able to devise means of creating for the Sikhs a special position in the Indian remnant of their homeland, the Punjab, without any un faimess to others. The Hindu community and the Congress party, on whom they now mainly depend for understanding and aid, are numerically immense and dominant throughout all the rest of the Indian union. If a just and true solution of the Sikh problem is not found, the larger new Dominion may experience difficulties and even perils in a comer of its territory, where these would be particularly upsetting.” The words proved almost prophetic. The Congress gradually abandoned all those principles which had united all communities on a common platform. It began to usurp political rights of the minorities in the name of secularism and democracy. When States were reorganized on the basis of language, Punjab was passed over. ‘The Akalis had not asked for anything more than what was due to them on the principles of equity and equality. But both Nehru and Indira Gandhi opposed the demand for a Punjabi Suba. Nehru once told a correspondent of The Times, London, that he would rather face civil war on the issue of a Punjabi speaking State than concede it. CENTRAL GRIP ‘The Akali struggle was nonviolent. More than 200,000 people courted arrest. Ultimately, when the Suba was formed, it was nothing more than a crippled sub state, deprived of its capital and other vital limbs. Through the introduction of Sections 78 to 80 in the Punjab Reorganization Act, 1966, irrigation, hydel power and their development in Punjab have been kept in Central hands, even though these are exclusively State subjects. The Anandpur Sahib resolution was only an attempt to loosen the tight Central grip over development of the Punjab, Darshan Singh Pheruman fasted unto death in a vain effort to arouse the conscience of the authorities. All nonviolent protests fell on deaf ears. A. G, Noorani praised the Punjabi spirit of forbearance. “Can one imagine the scale of violence in Maharashtra and in Bombay in particular if its inclusion in the State was made dependent on its ceding some Gujarat speaking enclaves to Gujarat?” A political issue have been deliberately converted into a law and order problem because it provides the Government with a ready excuse to withhold justice. The cycle of violence and Vengeance was set in motion by the iniquitous steps taken by the Government. It started with police atrocities,

encounters and free use of paramilitary forces ‘to put down democratic and nonviolent movements. Even Jarnail Sng Bhindranwale’s worst critics mitted that he expressed grievances. By keeping the issues hanging indefinitely and then trying violent solutions, the Government is exposing the country to grave risks. LOYALTY

Those who demand loyalty to the State must ensure that the State is worthy of loyalty. Those people responsible for riots in Delhi in November 1984 remain at large, the Sikh militants carry rewards on their heads, There seems to be no rationale behind this ambivalence. The Government now claims to have wiped out militancy, but the causes of militancy have not been removed.

The situation Punjab is still marked by political trickery and corruption its multidimensional problem cannot be solved in the coldblooded spirit of a police Chief who only breathes fire, or a Chief Minister who heads a Government lacking in legitimacy. Neither can a Government at the Center that has no uniform domestic policy and is riddled with contradictions be expected to hold the country together. Unpleasant realities will not disappear if one ignores them or covers them up with rhetoric. The clam in Punjab is deceptive. Justice cannot be denied for long. Suppression of basic human rights may ultimately prove catastrophic, in the absence of a bold and sincere political initiative the State could be heading for yet another disaster.

Article extracted from this publication >>  October 7, 1994