Many Sikhs are clutching at straws in the hope that the decade of intense suffering of our people will end. The latest development in India-Chandra Shekhar’s offer to talk to the Sikhs has thus fooled many among us. The sincere sounding offer is anything but that. According to the latest reports he has already started hedging and hawing. He says he gave no assurances to Simranjit Singh Mann. Earlier he had even offered to amend the constitution of India to placate the Sikhs. Chandra Shekhar was criticized for making such an offer by the Hindu fundamentalists and the leftists. If Chandra Shekhar were speaking from a position of strength maybe there was a possibility that we could have taken him seriously and something may have come out of the talks with him. As things stand he does not even command 10% of the strength in Parliament. Even with the help of treacherous Rajiv Gandhi’s Congress-I he does not have more than 250 MPs in a house of 525.
There are several factors which have prompted Shekhar to suddenly adopt a conciliatory posture. The most urgent one is a vague fear that a war in the Persian Gulf is imminent. This war according to this fear has a great potential of spilling over to the subcontinent and engulfing India and Pakistan. In such an eventuality India’s position would be weak indeed. The Sikhs will fight against India as will the Kashmiris. That is the reason India has not attacked Pakistan now even though the “provocation” has been far greater than in 1948 and 1965 thus the pressing need to placate Sikhs now.
Then there is a growing realization in Delhi that the Sikh movement for freedom has inspired many other minorities to follow suit. Not a day passes when the army is not called out to oppress civilians somewhere in India.
As to the sincerity of the Hindu fascists to live in harmony with the Sikhs here is an example. Balram Jakhar who was the speaker of the lower house of Parliament for a long time and is a prominent Congress-I leader is on record for having recently said “it would be worthwhile even if several hundred thousand Sikhs were killed as this would save the unity of India.”
Rajiv Gandhi and his puppet prime minister were just this week at a Arya Samaj rally where speaker after speaker condemned the minorities and urged the government to promote and protect the interests of the Hindu majority. The only parallel one can draw in this country would be the President attending a Klu Klux Klan rally and applauding.
Rajiv Gandhi has nothing to lose. If Shekhar can pull the wool over the eyes of the Sikhs yet again the Congress-I will step in to take the credit but if he fails Shekhar stands alone. If the Sikhs are fooled they have no one to blame but themselves. The Hindus have all along been insincere. If not why have all the minorities barring none has had to take recourse to armed struggles to demand what was rightfully theirs.
The offer of talks is hollow as will be seen in a few days. In fact everyone in Delhi was taken aback at the suddenness of the PM’s move. No one in the judiciary or Parliament knew what was going on. But the reaction of the Hindus was immediate and it was outright condemnation.
The Sikhs must not lose heart even though our struggle has still a long way to go. With every passing day India as a nation is getting weaker. It has no money to pay its massive foreign debt corruption has infected its vital organs. We need to be patient India will die its own death. It is only a matter of a little more time.
Article extracted from this publication >> January 4, 1991
