INDIRA GANDHI’S ASSASSINATION AND AFTER

The horrible memories of 1984 pogrom of Sikhs orchestrated by certain vested interests in the capital city of New Delhi in the wake of the assassination of Indira Gandhi, the then Prime Minister by her two Sikh bodyguards surfaced again soon after the alleged master-minds, Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar jumped into the fray to contest the 15th general elections on Congress tickets. Another alleged master-mind, HKL Bhagat, on completion of his mission, vanished from the scene all together years before. Whether he is in hell or heaven is not much of a concern to anybody. There is no point in disbelieving the Sikhs’ allegation that the whole pogrom was orchestrated and systematically executed on 31 October 1984, November 1-3 allegedly at the behest of late H K L Bhagat, Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar. Almost 3000 Sikhs were ruthlessly butchered, their women repeatedly raped, even girl children were not exempted, Sikhs’ sacred Guru Granth Saheb desecrated by urinating on them or by tearing them apart and their dwellings set ablaze by organized mobs.

The male Sikhs who were the bread-winners of their families were dragged out of their houses or caught by chasing them and in the presence of their women beat them up mercilessly, struck them with iron rods, tyres put around their necks, doused them with kerosene and set them alight. The women and children were rendered homeless and they had to take refuge somewhere else, a large number of widows went insane and the children who were forced to witness their fathers being killed ruthlessly by the mobs and their mothers and sisters beined raped callously right infront of them, couldn’t escape from the trauma and in the course of time they fell prey to alcohol and drugs, thus turning to be a burden and pain for their hapless mothers.

“Kill them. They are the sons of venomous snakes. Don’t allow them to survive. Otherwise they will bite you and kill you”- H K L Bhagat, the Congress leader was reported to have exhorted the goons who were quite obedient and loyal to their masters. These goons were actually enjoying their duties they were entrusted with ,they were celebrating in fact, and had no sense of sorrow or pain over the assassination of Indira Gandhi.

Twenty five years have elapsed since 1984. Still the peace-loving minority community of Sikhs have not escaped from the trauma of that period.

Our Prime Minister, Sardar ManMohanSingh is a Sikh. Even then it took twenty one years for him to apologize for the pogrom committed against his community.

“To err is human. There were lapses in November 1984”- His duty to his community is fulfilled!- Is an apology by the PM sufficient to heal the wounds of the beleaguered Sikh community.

Till now, no action has been taken against the perpetrators of the pogrom. Till now the alleged master-minds have not been brought to justice. Instead, the Grand Old Party provided them with tickets to contest the 15th General elections from two Delhi constituencies. Upon coming to know of their plans to contest the election, the Sikh community joined hands in protest against it and as a result, both of them had to withdraw their nominations. The amount of hatred and anger the Sikhs have towards those Congress leaders is appalling.

Upon the assassination of Indira Gandhi, her son Rajiv Gandhi took over the reins of power. On being inquired about the massive rape and burning of the dwellings of Sikhs, his response was:
“When a big tree falls, the earth shakes”.

Those words were like adding salt to the wounds, and even today those words reverberate in their ears like deafening explosions. It helped to aggravate the anger and hatred towards the Gandhi dynasty and the Sikhs have dedicated themselves and are praying to Waheguru ( the Sikh God) to pay for it. Sikhs’ dedication to Waheguru is heartening and in the moments of despair and frustration, they turn to him and pray to him. Still many among them firmly believe and attribute the brutal assassination of Rajiv Gandhi to his words of contempt and indifference to their helplessness when they were badly in need of the help from the authorities. Some of the Sikh women’s words of curse directed against the Gandhi family and their sobs, doom and gloom, on describing the trauma, they had undergone during those fateful days, I shudder to repeat here.

Jyoti Grewal in her book, “Betrayed By The State- The Anti-Sikh Pogrom of 1984”- is a must read. She has taken enormous pain and days of research and interviews in the making of this book. I am sure, she has succeeded in her venture. She could bring out those faces who were waiting in the fringes of the society with nobody to go into their hardships since November 1984 and the trauma they are sure to take along with them even to their graveyards.

Ms. Grewal is certain that, if the culprits of 1984 pogrom were brought before the law and awarded deserving punishment, the 2002 pogrom enacted in Gujarat, would not have happened. In other words, 1984 pogrom and indifference and contempt by ruling authorities towards the Sikhs and the Government’s support to the culprits and master-minds became a catalyst to Narendra Modi and his followers to indulge in an orgy of violence throughout Gujarat- the land of Mahatma- leading to the near decimation and fleeing of Muslim community to safe sanctuaries across India.

Whether the embers will go on burning or will there be anybody to provide a soothing effect to those who fell victims to the pogrom of 1984 is anybody’s guess. Except some shedding of crocodile tears and apologies in abundance what ought to be done will not have much relevance is my personal opinion.

I hope this is an apt and opportune moment to extend kudos to Jyoti Grewal for penning this enlightening work.