It is imperative to assert, at the outset, that this article does not argue against the right of the Sikhs to justice for the horrific violence inflicted on them in 1984. The community deserves more than an apology by the former Prime Minister, late Dr Manmohan Singh—it deserves retribution in the form of the masterminds of the genocide being handed out exemplary punishments for their role in the wanton massacre of Sikhs in Delhi, Punjab and other parts of Bharat. Something that the Congress – and any other allied party that came to power with its support – has denied the community for years.
The article seeks to make two simple points. One, Sikhs, primarily in the diaspora, demanding a separate state of Khalistan are missing the point when they conflate the secessionist demand with the denial of justice to the community for 1984. Two, putting the incumbent BJP government in the docks and blaming Prime Minister Modi for the injustice of the early 80s is akin to erroneously barking up the wrong tree.
Secession cannot be entertained
Global bodies (read nobodies) like the Sikhs for Justice and other pro-Khalistan groups have, quite deceptively, conflated the demand for a separate Sikh homeland with the lament against the injustice of 1984. As such, there remains a fundamental problem with their imagination of restoring the Sikhs to their past glory. If such a renaissance were to occur, the thriving Sikh empire of Maharaja Ranjit Singh established in 1799 would have to be invoked. At its zenith, the empire stretched from Gilgit and Tibet in the north to the deserts of Sindh in the south, and from the Khyber Pass in the west to the Sutlej in the east, with its capital at Lahore. Quite ti the contrary, the present movement for Khalistan has under its purview an ethno-religious Sikh state – outside the union of Bharat – but within the confines of its political geography.
The major contradiction lies in the idea of a Sikh state itself which naturally militates against the unity of the country and promotes a secessionist ideology. If past glory is what the pro-Khalistan elements are after – in which miraculous justice will be served for all wrongs done to the Sikhs – the demand should be made of what is now Pakistan, not Bharat. After all, the capital of the glorious Sikh empire was Lahore! And the greater part of Punjab – cut away during the Partition and ceded to West Pakistan – was the cradle of Sikh dominance in the region, was it not?
Barking up the wrong tree
To take the second argument further, the Congress party – now in the midst of crowning itself as the protector of the backward and downtrodden, primarily the minorities – was firmly in power and fully in control of the untrammeled violence that was visited upon the Sikhs following the assassination of Mrs. Indira Gandhi. The subsequent days – some accounts mention the continuance of the bloodletting for months – witnessed one of the worst genocides in the history of independent India. Not for nothing was the year 1984 written into history books as one of the worst, most violent years, post-independence. While official records claim a number close to 3000 Sikh deaths, unofficial figures estimate anywhere between 8000-17000. While some of the most gruesome instances of targeted violence was witnessed in Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and Bihar were badly affected, mainly from October 31 to November 3, 1984.
Several eyewitness accounts – contained in published memoirs, testimonies, inquiry commission reports and news articles – have identified Congress leaders, some of whom were low-level functionaries then trying to punch up their pay grade, as the key conspirators of the pogrom. One such account in Sanam Sutirath Wazir’s recent book, The Kaurs of 1984, names Sajjan Kumar and his brother as being directly involved in the burning alive of an elderly Sikh businessman in Mangolpuri in Delhi. Numerous such accounts exist, have been repeatedly brought to light indicting Congressmen like Kamal Nath and Jagdish Tytler, culpable of genocide. Wazir’s book also foregrounds eyewitness accounts of Sikh men being mercilessly butchered at the orders of another Congress leader, HKL Bhagat, in Trilokpuri, in East Delhi.
Even though the Congress and its crony historian-journalist nexus have been quite successful in spreading false propaganda against the RSS being in the forefront of the violence against the Sikhs, the fact remains – and quite solidly established by commissions of inquiry and court verdicts – that the charges against the RSS remain in the realm of fiction and nothing more. That having been said, the same crony nexus somehow now appears to provide steam to the misplaced and disjointed finger-pointing indulged in by the pro-Khalistan elements at the NDA government led by the BJP. A classic case of barking up the wrong tree? Most certainly.
It could, however, also indicate a more insidious gameplan at play here. The current leadership of the Khalistan movement is made up mainly of diasporic Sikhs, a number of them being related to or the progeny of former secessionist leaders and militants who found refuge in countries like Canada, Australia, the UK and USA. That the imaginary Khalistan continued to exist and thrive in the diasporic Sikh consciousness is well documented. Presumably, the recent spike in anti-Bharat activities could be traced to a general anti-India narrative shift that has pervaded global discourse since the emergence of Narendra Modi as a world leader.
Needless to say, that this narrative shift is being clandestinely aided, abetted and financially supported by international players remains a foregone conclusion. Why the global Sikh diaspora has chosen to embroil themselves in this anti-India tirade, instead of engaging fruitfully with the largely sympathetic BJP government, is anybody’s guess. If anything, the Sikhs should be focusing their energies on seeking accountability for 1984 from the first family of the Congress – the Gandhis! After all, wasn’t it Rajiv Gandhi who instigated the violence by calling for the blood of the Sikhs? Furthermore, it would perhaps bode well for them instead if they could think of a rapprochement with the Modi government, capitalising on the current situation, rather than holding a brief for the detractors of Bharat. Something more fruitful and just might just emerge from it. More importantly, however, the demand calls for the Balkanization of Bharat and therefore must be resisted at all costs.
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