In a front page editorial, the Hindu fundamentalist newspaper, ‘The Hindustan Times, called for instant public execution of Sikhs captured by the police or paramilitary troops. “Being democratic is all very fine”, commented the editorial, “but there can be times ‘when the due process of law has to be suspended…. Mad dogs are destroyed in every well-ordered society”.
No professional psychiatrist is required to diagnose the inherent perversity and the frothing venom that mark the editorial. Its writer, evidently, is afflicted with much deeper malady than suffered by a mad dog and sooner a “well-ordered” society rids itself of such sick elements, better it would be for its health. Ordinarily also Hindustan ‘Times has never tried to conceal its congenital hatred for the Sikhs and has relentlessly been pursuing its policy of Sikh-baiting ever since India gained independence.
In Punjab, fifteen bus passengers are killed by unknown gunmen. In a frenzy of communal vendetta Sikh religious shrines are attacked, holy scriptures are burnt, men killed in their homes and Sikh establishments are torched in Delhi and Sikhs protesting against this outrage are shot dead by the Delhi police. Yet no eye-brows are raised, no angry editorials are written and necessity of “suspending due process” of law is not felt.
Indian government pampered Nirankaris gunned down thirteen unarmed Sikhs in cold blood at Amritsar on April 13, 1978 and Hindustan Times “well-ordered” society was not even shocked. Hundreds of Sikh young-men are being eliminated through fake police encounters for the last four years, yet the horrid fate of these helpless victims merits no mention in the columns of the Hindustan Times. Ten thousand Sikh men, women and children are brutally massacred in Delhi in the wake of Indira Gandhi’s assassination and Hindustan Times comes out with a sardonically simplistic explanation of history’s worst-communal holocaust as “a spontaneous expression of anger”.
For Hindustan Times killing is the exclusive prerogative of the Hindus, sanctioned and sanctified by the outrageous Manu-Simriti code. Hindustan Times’ code prescribes that minorities like Muslim’s, Sikhs, and Dalits must suffer their “preordained” fate of carrying the Cross and must slavishly reconcile to a life of permanent humiliation.
Killing of bus passengers or for that matter killing of any innocent person is a crime against humanity and a grave challenge to society. No civilized person can ever condone it. But when cold blooded murders of those belonging to other religions are ignored, when rave editorials are deliberately written to provoke revengeful violence against an entire community simply because the culprits are suspected of belonging to that community, then, the secular character of the country degenerates into majority community’s dictatorship. And no power or mechanization can hold it from inevitably drifting towards disintegration.
India can never hope of extricate itself from the vicious cycle of revenge and retaliation so long the crooked mentality of Hindustan Times dominates the scene. The same mentality was responsible for the creation of Pakistan and now it is pushing Sikhs to a point of no return.
How irrational it is to hold the Sikhs struggling for their constitutional rights and privileges responsible for the acts of unknown gunmen. So long the culprits are not apprehended, nothing can be said about their motives and background. Who knows, they might be government agents. They might be foreign infiltrators or they might be common criminals. It is only through a due process of law that the recurrence of such ghastly tragedies can be prevented and not by suspending the legal process.
Besides Punjab problem needs to be tackled: at its roots and nothing would be accomplished by grappling with the by-products of the struggle. The central point of the problem lies in the loss of Sikh trust in the majority community and in their increasing sense of slavery in India. To remedy this ticklish situation, courage and sincerity are imperative. Nothing else will bring a lasting solution.
Article extracted from this publication >> August 1, 1986
