The item written by I.J. Singh in the issue dated Feb. 3, 1990 under the caption, “What should be done with Rajiv Gandhi is very interesting and provocative. His comparison of Rajiv Gandhi to the likes of Marcos and Baby Doc Duvalier as personalities and actors in political scenes ends there. The scenario changes when it is the world’s most populous and so called democracy, in a pluralistic society that we are talking about, or the so called secular India, a union of States.
There is no doubt that justice has to take its course, but that justice should have same scales for a billionaire ex-prime minister of Gandhi-Nehru lineage as for an ordinary citizen of India. During the process of court trials (which is a must), howsoever tedious and painful they may be, the Indian people should go through the process of ‘exorcism to get rid of the aura of the Nehru dynasty as ‘rulers’. The judicial proceeding should unfold the historical blunders and plunders the Gandhi family had inflicted on India during their respective totalitarian regimes.
Atmosphere should be created for the lifting of veils from the archaic and most horrifying political decisions that were made and implemented by the Gandhi’s as heads of State: so that not only Indians but also the world should know and rewrite the true history of India of the Gandhi-era. That alone would reveal who sowed the political seeds that created cracks and gulfs in the Indian Union, who were the real traitors; who committed treason, who committed state-terrorism on its innocent people by arming criminals, who played on the religious psyche of the masses for vote catching, who destroyed the fabric of democracy by the military invasion of Golden Temple, Amritsar, in 1984; who committed ‘pogrom’ on the Sikhs; who kept millions of Indians below the poverty level; who politicized the military and who Russianized the state police; who suspended the right of life of the Punjabis through hastily passed black laws and the 59th amendment to the Indian constitution, who hanged innocent people like Kehar Singh; who violated all international norms of human rights and civil liberties, who played the political power chess game by mercilessly using as pawns the lives of thousands of innocent people; who eliminated and so cowardly, any leadership that attempted or voiced the will and passion for freedom of the downtrodden and who is now sabotaging all the efforts of the present elected Government, a coalition of minority parties, trying to grapple with the inherited blasphemy of the Congress(I) Government. Then, let the world judge and give an appropriate punishment. There should be no back doors of ‘kind escape’ left open: for Rajiv Gandhi or anyone of his coterie for that matter, to be able to enjoy their booty in a far off land. Haiti and Philippines. Differ from India at their jurisdiction. There are 10 million yuppico in India who are globe-trotting. They would have to have an imperial state head that would be their puppet in power. That’s no justice. And where there is no justice there would never be any peace.
It matters the least where and how Rajiv Gandhi lives or dies, since he is a mortal; but it does matter that the history smudged by him thru his malevolence be cleansed by him publicly.
Satwant K. Damoon MD New York
Article extracted from this publication >> March 16, 1990
