The press reports that Indian Prime Minister Gandhi has announced a political initiative early March in response to domestic and international pressure regarding the Punjab crisis need to be looked into carefully. What are the main points of the initiative?
According to the wire services, Gandhi has offered to free most people detained in the 1984 army attack on the Golden Temple rescind legislation allowing detention and allow foreigners to travel most of the Punjab state (probably except the border districts of Gurdaspur, Amritsar and Ferozpore etc.).
On the face of it, the concessions appear to be a move in the right direction but fall short of what is needed to diffuse the explosive situation in Punjab. Similar initiatives were undertaken three times by Indira Gandhi and once by Rajiv Gandhi in the form of the Punjab Accord. These were scuttled expeditiously for short lived political gains and the Government propaganda placed the blame on the Sikhs for their failure. The result was universal skepticism, mistrust and worsening tragedy in Punjab. The question is can the Sikhs trust Gandhi in the light of the past experience of being short changed.
Presuming that Gandhi is serious this time, more needs to be done without further delay as part of the initiative. Priority action needs to be taken, for instance in arresting those responsible for the murder of thousands of innocent Sikhs in November 1984 riots, 1986 Bidar Shiy Sema riots against the Sikh students and 1989 Jammu Shiv Sena riots against the local Sikhs; ending of the interference in the Sikh religious affairs; lifting of press restrictions in Punjab and mostly importantly taking steps to ascertain the free will of the people of Punjab.
Apparently Gandhi has been immobilized politically both on the domestic and international fronts. Chief Ministers of Several of the Hindi belt states have rebelled against the center; Congress (I) has been trounced in Tamil Nadu elections, Sri Lanka intervention for which ironically, Gandhi has been seeking international recognition has become a nightmare and several of India’s initiatives in relation to China, Afghanistan, US and even USSR have stalled. Gandhi now seeks to regain some political luster by attempting to resolve the Punjab issue.
If indeed, the latest initiative is an exercise in political expediency and propaganda then Gandhi will surely sink further in the deepening political crisis that engulfs India.
Article extracted from this publication >> March 10, 1989
