People's Democracy

1984 ANTI-SIKH CARNAGE

Sordid Tale Of Quest For Justice

Hardev Singh

THE carnage targeting the Sikh minority in October-November 1984 is perhaps the most shameful spectacle of barbarism. In Delhi alone over 3874, men, women and children were butchered just because they happened to be born in Sikh households. Loot, arson and rape made the genocide utterly barbarian. The complicity of the politicians and higher-ups in the government and free play assured to hired gangs, thugs and lumpens made it unforgivable.

The tragic part is that the 1984 anti-Sikh carnage in not an isolated happening but a part of periodic eruption of the agenda of the ruling elite against minorities and weaker sections. Each time, some crocodile tears are shed and hypocritical remedial steps are announced. The most effective device to cover-up and stall any decisive action and punishment is to set up a ‘Commission of Enquiry’. It must be noted that this device is used not to apply the balm but to cover up the wounds. It is very rarely that the culprits are brought to book. The stage is then open for enactment of the another holocaust, with not much different dramatis personae.

Take 1984. Ten commissions and panels have been appointed successively, the last being the Nanavati commission which submitted its report after five years in July 2005. Twenty one years after the riots, this commission, in a whitewash exercise, suggests some half-hearted measures even which were brushed under the debris by the government in its Action Taken Report (ATR).

Widespread public backlash and strong protest in parliament, voiced forcefully by the Left, provided no choice for the government. The ATR was withdrawn. The prime minister stated in parliament “on behalf of the government and the people of the country, I bow my head in shame.” He acknowledged that the 1984 carnage was a national shame. Two accused, who held positions in the government, Tytler and Sajjan Kumar, were forced to quit. A number of measures were announced to provide succour to the victims, including action to punish the guilty.

Misra Commission stopped short of naming certain high-ups as culprits but was constrained to observe: “From the fact that so many Gurdwaras and educational institutions founded and run by the Sikh community had been damaged, it is reasonable to hold that rioters not only had the Sikh population as their target but also kept their eye on their religious institutions. Perhaps for the first time in recent history such a large scale mobilisation against religious institutions of one particular community has been done.” It stated that in Delhi alone during the seventy-two fateful hours, 180 Gurdwaras and 10 educational institutions were burnt and damaged besides 3874 persons killed.

Now it is two decades and a year since 1984 and the perpetrators and organisers of the gruesome carnage, far from being punished roam about freely.

At least, four committees – Jain-Banerjee, Poti-Rosha, Jain Agarwal and Narula – have recommended registration of cases against Jagdish Tytler, Sajjan Kumar, HKL Bhagat and Dharam Das Shashtri. There is no end to the farce. The courts also do not lag behind.

Among FIRs, 250/84, which has been lodged in Mangolpuri, implicates some functionaries of the ruling party. Cursory investigations were conducted in October 1984. Notwithstanding repeated recommendations by committees, re-investigation was not taken up. During the trial, which reminds one of shadow boxing between prosecution and defence, the trial judge trashes practically all the witnesses by picking holes that their testimony in the court is contradicted by statements recorded under section 161 of criminal procedure code by investigation officers who appear as defence witnesses. All the accused are acquitted and surviving widows are left to lick their wounds having lost all they had, including breadwinners.

The victims gather courage and take resources to knock at the doors of the High Court against these acquittal which are wholly untenable.

As if time has not run out fully, the cases have yet to be heard for admission since July 2003 when they were filed. Five times, one of the two judges, before whom cases were posted, declined to hear causing further adjournment of over two months each time. Let us now see when the cases are heard. We will talk of justice later.

This is the sordid tale of quest for justice by victims of the 1984 carnage, which the prime minister rightly calls a “national shame”.

(The writer is All India Lawyers Union general secretary)