On October 31, 1984, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards, Satwant Singh and Beant Singh, in retaliation for Operation Blue Star, which targeted Sikh militants at the Golden Temple, deeply wounding Sikh sentiments.
The following day (November 1), anti-Sikh violence erupted across India. While official records state 2,733 Sikhs were killed in Delhi alone, human rights groups estimate the number closer to 4,000. Unofficial nationwide estimates suggest the toll could exceed 10,000, though exact figures remain unconfirmed.
Sikh Gurdwaras were desecrated, businesses destroyed, homes looted, and women assaulted. Killings were most barbaric by use of weapons like swords and daggers —victims were beaten, stabbed, burned alive, and, in the most horrific cases, set on fire after being trapped in vehicle tires. The worst-hit areas in Delhi were Trilokpuri, Shahadara, Mongolpuri, Sultanpur, Nand Nagri and Geeta Colony. The violence raged for days as law enforcement stood by, refusing to intervene. Around 20,000 fled Delhi and over a thousand were displaced, said reports. Sikhs in Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh were also targeted.
Atal Ji pleads for action – receives false assurance
“The ruling party and the bureaucracy, taking orders from the former, both deliberately and wilfully neglected their duties right from October 31 to November 4, 1984. Many opposition leaders would vouch for the fact that their pleas to the administration to contain the situation in the post-assassination period went unheard. When opposition leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee contacted Mr. Rao (P.V. Narasimha Rao, then Union Home Minister) on October 31, the latter is reported to have assured him that the situation would be brought under control within a few hours. Never mind the fact that just when Mr. Rao was saying this to Mr. Vajpayee, the Additional Commissioner of Police, Gautam Kaul, was telling a crowd outside Ayurvigyan Institute that the police was in no position to control the situation. Surprisingly, Mr. Kaul was later promoted.” (Gurcharan Singh Babbar, edited, Government-Organised Carnage: November, 1984, New Delhi: Babbar Publications, p.85)
Role of Congress Leaders
Former Union ministers Kamal Nath and HKL Bhagat, along with Congress leaders Jagdish Tytler, Sajjan Kumar, Lalit Makan, and Dharam Das Shastri, were key accused in instigating mobs during the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. Delhi High Court convicted Congress leader Sajjan Kumar, sentencing him to life imprisonment for his role in the murder of five Sikh family members—Kehar Singh, Gurpreet Singh, Raghuvender Singh, Narender Pal Singh, and Kuldeep Singh—in Delhi Cantonment on November 1, 1984.
There have been attempts to pass of the genocide as a spontaneous reaction of the people distraught at the killing of their prime minister. A closer scrutiny however points towards a very well-conceived and coordinated plan to “teach the Sikhs a lesson.”
That night, [after the assassination of Mrs. Gandhi] local politicians belonging to the ruling Congress party met to decide how “to teach the Sikhs a lesson they would never forget.” Party cadres were mobilised. Contacts were made with lumpen elements living in the shanty towns and neighbouring villages. Sikh homes and shops were marked. Trucks were commandeered; iron rods and cans of kerosene oil and patrol acquired…… At break of dawn on 1st November, the anti-Sikh pogrom got going in right earnest. Truck-loads of hoodlums armed with steel rods, jerry cans full of kerosene oil and patrol went round the city setting fire to gurdwaras. (My Bleeding Punjab by Khushwant Singh: UBS Publishers’ Distributors Ltd., 1992, p. 91)
Eye Witness
Moti Singh witnessed Sajjan Kumar’s meeting at a park in Sultanpuri. Having served in the Congress (I) party for 15 to 20 years, Moti Singh recognised many of the attendees, such as Kumar’s personal assistant Jai Chand Jamadar. From the rooftop of his house, Moti Singh heard Sajjan Kumar say: Whoever kills the sons of the snakes, I will reward them. Whoever kills Roshan Singh [son of Moti Singh] and Bagh Singh will get 5000 rupees each and 1000 rupees each for killing any other Sikhs. You can collect these prizes on November 3 from my personal assistant Jai Chand Jamadar. (Twenty Years of Impunity; the November 1984 Pogroms of Sikhs in India by Jaskaran Kaur: A Report by Ensaaf, 2006, p. 28)
Santokh Singh described how a mob of 5000 to 6000 people, led by prominent Congress (I) leader Panna Lal Pradhan, attacked the Sikhs in Hari Nagar Ashram, New Delhi on the morning of November 1. The DCP, SHO Ishwar Singh, Ved Prakash, Head Constable Mohinder Singh and 50 other constables reached the scene. Using loudspeakers, they instructed the mob to kill every Sikh and burn their properties. The senior officers then instructed the policemen to participate. When the curfew order was announced at 6:45 p.m. the police declared they would not enforce it against non-Sikhs. They also repeated the rumour regarding dead Hindu bodies arriving in trains from Punjab and fired rounds at the Sikhs, although no one was hit. The military eventually rescued Santokh Singh and his family. (Twenty Years of Impunity; the November 1984 Pogroms of Sikhs in India by Jaskaran Kaur: A Report by Ensaaf, 2006, p. 49-50)
Slogans to Kill Sikhs
The murderous words and constant refrains chanted by the mobs, on television, throughout neighbourhoods, demonstrated a desire to kill Sikhs as a people. “Khoon ka Badla Khoon,” or “Blood for Blood” began at AIIMS, and reverberated across India through the state-owned TV service Doordarshan.
Ranjit Singh Narula, retired Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, watched local television on the morning of November 1, amazed at how the crowd outside Teen Murti, where Mrs. Gandhi’s body lay, chanted “Khoon Ka Badla Khoon” and “Sardar Qaum Ke Ghaddar,” or “Sardars are the Nation’s Traitors” while the large number of government officials observed without taking any action to stop the inflammatory slogans. This continued on TV the whole day. Even the new Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi did not stop the chanting mobs…… Almost every affidavit spoke of mobs shouting slogans to kill Sikhs. Other slogans often heard were: “Maar Deo Salon Ko,” or “Kill the Bastards”, “Sikhon ko mar do aur loot lo,” or “Kill the Sikhs and rob them”; and “Sardar Koi Bhi Nahin Bachne Pai,” or “Don’t let any Sardar escape.” (Twenty Years of Impunity; the November 1984 Pogroms of Sikhs in India by Jaskaran Kaur: A Report by Ensaaf, 2006, p. 31-32)
Jagdish Tytler dictates Delhi Police Commissioner
Sudip Mazumdar, Journalist (eye witness): “November 5, 1984, 5 p.m. The police commissioner Mr. S.C. Tandon was talking to a group of journalists about the situation in the city. In response to a question from a reporter that Congress (I) MPs and other senior party leaders were trying to pressurise the police to release the gangsters arrested in connection with the anti-Sikh violence, Mr. Tandon firmly denied the allegation. Prodded to give a clear answer, Mr. Tandon stated that no member of the Congress or any other party was putting pressure on the police. He had barely finished saying this when Jagdish Tytler, Congress MP from Delhi’s Sadar seat, walked into the room along with three other people. “Tandon saab, kya ho raha hai, aap nee mera kaam abhi tak nahin kiya (Mr. Tandon, what are you upto, why have you not done what I asked you to?)”
The Commissioner was embarrassed. The journalists started laughing. Mr. Tytler went on shouting at Mr. Tandon at which a reporter asked him to tell Mr. Tytler not to disturb the press conference. Mr. Tytler snapped at him, “this is more important.” Then the reporter invited Mr. Tytler to attend the press conference and face some questions regarding his involvement in the carnage. Mr. Tytler went red in the face but sat there all the same, “you are obstructing the relief work (for the survivors) by keeping my men in custody”, Mr. Tytler told the Commissioner. This incident silenced the Commissioner effectively against any further questions about the Congress party’s involvement in the violence.” (Gurcharan Singh Babbar, edited, Government-Organised Carnage: November, 1984, New Delhi: Babbar Publications, pp.124-125)
Congress-Led Meetings and Distribution of Weapons: Identification of MP Sajjan Kumar
On the morning of November 1, Congress (I) MP Sajjan Kumar was identified near at least the following Delhi areas: Palam Colony around 6:30 to7 a.m., Kiran Gardens around 8 to 8:30 a.m., and Sultanpuri around 8:30 to 9 a.m. Raj Kumar of Palam Colony, a Hindu, was returning from the market after deciding not to open his shop on November 1.When he reached the Palam Railway main road, he saw a jeep coming towards him, followed by people on scooters, motorcycles and foot.
MP Sajjan Kumar, whom he recognized from Kumar’s visits to Palam Colony, sat in the passenger seat. The people following the jeep told him they were going t o a meeting at Mangolpuri. By the time Raj Kumar reached the meeting, Sajjan Kumar had started speaking. Although Raj Kumar could not hear Sajjan Kumar, he heard the mob’s deadly answers to Sajjan Kumar’s calls: “Sardaroo Ko Mar Do,” [Kill the Sardars] “Indira Gandhi Hamari Ma Hai– Aur Inihoo Ne Ushey Mara Hai” [Indira Gandhi is our Mother, and These People Have Killed Her].
Role of HKL Bhagat
Sarup Singh lived across from eminent Congress (I) leader Shyam Singh Tyagi in Shakarpur. On the evening of October 31, he saw MP and Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting HKL Bhagat standing in front of Tyagi’s house talking to four or five people. They went inside Tyagi’s house, while Tyagi left to gather more people. Sukhan Singh Saini, a Hindu, witnessed the same meeting and recognized Shyam’s brother Boop Singh Tyagi, as well as 13 other people. He also saw Bhagat distribute money to Boop Tyagi, ordering “Keep these two thousand rupees for liquor and do as I have told you….You need not worry at all. I will look after everything.” (Twenty Years of Impunity, the November 1984 Pogroms of Sikhs in India by Jaskaran Kaur (2004)
Role of Kamal Nath and Vasant Sathe
When the mob again attempted to get inside the Gurudwara (Rakab Ganj Sahib), one person who was inside the Gurudwara and had a licensed gun fired some shots in air so as to frighten the mob. Thereafter the mob became bigger and at that time Congress leaders Shri Kamal Nath and Shri Vasant Sathe were seen in the mob. (Nanavati Commission Report, p. 21)
Reply filed by Shri Kamal Nath is vague. (Shri Kamal Nath, in his affidavit, has stated that in the afternoon of 1-11-84, on receiving information that some violence was taking place in and around Gurudwara Rakab Ganj Sahib, he as a senior and responsible leader of the Congress Party decided to go there) He has not clearly stated at what time he went there and how long he remained there. The situation at the Gurudwara had become very grave at about 11.30 a.m. and continued to remain grave till about 3.30 p.m. The evidence discloses that Shri Kamal Nath was seen in the mob at about 2 p.m. The Police Commissioner had reached that place at about 3.30 p.m. So he was there for quite a long time. (Nanavati Commission Report, p. 141)
Manmohan Singh’s statement in Parliament
In 2005, Indian Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, himself a Sikh, in an astonishing admission, following on from the latest judicial inquiry into the events, said the following in the Lok Sabha, the Indian Parliament: “What happened in 1984 was a grim national tragedy and it brought us all to shame. Both the assassinate on of Shrimati Indira Gandhi and subsequent events leading to anti-Sikh riots and all those ghastly happenings should have never happened. They are blots on our national conscience. On this, there is no difference of opinion on any side. But the question arises: “Where do we go from here?”
Twenty-one years have passed; more than one political party has been in power; and yet the feeling persists that somehow the truth has not come out and justice has not prevailed. Therefore, it is our collective responsibility to find ways and means where we could accelerate the processes which would give our people a feeling that they do appreciate justice in this massive State of India. I wish the debate had taken that tone. But the debate has been on narrow, partisan lines and I respectfully say to the House that does not serve its purpose. …say once again, was a national shame, a national and a great human tragedy.
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