NEW DELHI: A major salvo against the Sikhs was fired and the Government played its anti-Sikh electoral card when Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi told a Indian Independence Day rally at the Red Fort here that certain forces were putting obstacles in the countries path of development and were creating hurdles in the government effort to bring prosperity.
Without naming anyone, Gandhi said the dependents of the “assassins” were honored by the “separatist forces” and one of them was made Member of Parliament. He criticized those who had “abandoned the path of principle laid down by Mahatma Gandhi, Pandit Nehru, Lal Bhadur Shastri and Indira Gandhi.”
He said the plot to assassinate Indira Gandhi was hatched abroad and “this was the first step towards. breaking the country.”
An emotionally charged Gandhi, said he was ready to sacrifice his life to defend India’s unity and integrity.
“My mother taught me that no sacrifice is too great for the country. The secessionist forces killed Mrs. Gandhi. I lost my mother. I vowed not to allow these forces to destabilize my country. We should be prepared to make sacrifices to finish the evil designs of the traitors who snatched my mother from me.”
Gandhi said that at the time of his mother’s assassination there were dark clouds of separatism, hovering over the country.
The same ugly forces of communalism which were responsible for the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi were once again arising and “these have to be tackled firmly.
The Delhi Police and other intelligence agencies left nothing to chance, Entrance to the Red Fort grounds was strictly by invitation, All persons were subjected to a thorough check. For the first time, a company of the Maratha 9th Infantry regiment was deployed at strategic positions around the Red Fort with instructions to shoot down unauthorized flying objects.
Political observers decried the use of blatantly communal twist in Rajiv’s speech, “but what do you expect from someone who shrugged off the massacre of Sikhs in 1984 in Delhi by saying, “when a big tree falls the earth is bound to shake.”
Article extracted from this publication >> August 25, 1989
