Shameless Collaborators
By V.B.Rawat
12 August, 2005
Countercurrents.org
The
ghost of the 1984 massacre of Sikhs has returned to haunt the Congress.
For two days you make noise in the parliament and then ask a person
to resign. It's good but not enough. We know it well that the Congress
party want to look good as Sikhs seems to have been enjoying 'their'
prime minister as well as Chief of army staff. That Punjab was back
to normalcy and the religious party of the Alkalis got defeated in the
subsequent elections because it did not deliver. Congress and other
political parties in India don't come to power on a positive vote but
on a negative mandate. This negativism of our people has damaged the
secular polity of the country. Now the small fry has gone out of the
cabinet, so government will go on an offensive. Its good that several
head rolls for the involvement but what about those who have lost their
nears and dears ones in these state sponsored massacres.
The grave fact is
that the Congress Party refused to take action against any of the conspirators
in the violence. In fact, they occupied important positions in the party.
It is not just the question of one commission or the other. We all know
how much Parliament remained out of work during Rajiv Gandhi's regime
on the report of Thakkar-Natarajan commission where the needle of suspicion
of Indira Gandhi's assassination was pointed towards some high ups in
the party.
It is strange that
the secular elite which have been active elsewhere kept conspicuous
silence. Where are the people sitting on Rajghat with candlelights?
No, it would be politically incorrect for them to charge a 'secular'
regime for this. Unfortunately, we in India have been divided in the
camps. Secular camps belong to left of center beneficiaries of the Congress
and the other side we have the Hindutva gangs. Hence when secularism
is a matter of political choice between the upper caste Congress or
upper caste BJP or upper caste communists, then all those who differ
and disagree with this criminal philosophy remains on the margins of
so-called national mainstream.
One should not ignore
the grave fact that minorities are slowly becoming pawns for those in
power for their narrow political gains. And this politicisation of hate
for vote started in the aftermath of Indira Gandhi's assassination,
when the government forgot all decency, allowed slogans like 'khoon
ka badla khoon se lenge', blood for blood, on the Doordarshan regularly
till she was cremated. It was time when every Sikh was looked down as
a terrorist. People may not remember but the fact is in the forces they
were splinted between different groups. They were not trusted after
some of their friends had revolted in the army against the desecration
of the golden temple complex in June 1984. The Sikh alienation continued
and it was the time when Hinduisation process of the congress was on
the highest level. In Punjab, the terrorists were targeting the innocent
particularly minority Hindus and in return feeding the communal feeling.
The party which exploited it to the best of its use was none other then
Congress party.
Indira Gandhi's
assassination gave a point to the Hindu communal elements to prove their
point of how dangerous the minorities could be if they are not controlled.
Rajiv took over India. He became pride of Hindu youths. He was the son
of Bharat mata, indira Gandhi who has to be saved from the Sikhs. For
days we were watching Rajiv carrying the dead body of his mother Indira
Gandhi on his shoulder and then went to Gaumukh to pour her ashes in
the Himalayas. He then promised to purify Ganges, though a noble gesture
yet had sentimentally linked to appease the caste Hindus. It is not
unknown fact that the Sangh Parivar had appreciated Rajiv Gandhi during
this period. The parivar cadre in fact did not vote for the BJP that
time because the issue of Hindu leadership at the helm was bigger. So
congress and Rajiv was much bigger then any other leader and that India
has to be saved from the onslaught of Sikhs. The entire country voted
on a highly charged atmosphere. Sikhs became a matter of not only jokes
but also hatred.
Then Rajiv came
to power with a thumping majority and wiped out the entire opposition.
Never in the independence India, had, any prime minister got ¾
majority in the Parliament. He was India's 'Nayak' that time. The opposition
was completely decimated. Congress became the original Hindutva representative
and duplicates got wiped out. The people allegedly involved in the killings
of Sikhs got wonderful rewards. They got plum ministries and party position.
Since the mandate was a negative one basically to teach the Sikhs a
lesson, there was no need for any political party or government to go
the Sikh families and talk about their rehabilitation. Therefore, on
the first death anniversary of Indira Gandhi in 1985, Rajiv addressed
a big rally of the Congress workers at the vote club and said ' jab
bada ped girta hai to dharti hilati hai', when the big tree falls, the
earth tremble'. Thereafter, every anniversary of Indira Gandhi became
a point to remind others, that the mandate have exonerated him and his
party from every evils they did. In fact Rajiv promised Ramrajya later
on in his 1989 elections when charges were hurled and his Mr clean image
had got immensely hurt. It is interesting that some time he even spoke
like ' nani yaad kar denge'.
It is therefore
shameful for the human rights defender's in India to be in this or that
camp. We have made ourselves a tool in the hands of the power groups
because at some point of time, every one of us is suffering from a myopic
vision of India. When ever any thing happen we pretend that we had a
golden past when we all lived together. We think of an India where massacre
happened so far were an aberration. When a gangster burns a missionary
in Orrisa, it is an aberration for our Dalit president as if such things
never happened. Dalits always faced this victimization from the upper
castes Hindus. When the Babari Masjid was demolished we all wept that
Hindus are not like that. They are the most tolerant people. When the
Muslims were slaughtered in Mumbai in the aftermath of the Babri demolition,
we again cried, oh they are not Hindus but Shiv Sainiks. When the Muslims
were killed in Gujarat, we all came to the street that Narendra Modi
is the villain and not the Hindus. So when Hindus do something, we have
different identity for them. We never said so far that Hindus killed
Sikhs or Hindus killed Muslims but when the same thing is done by the
others, we all immediately generalized the things. Indira Gandhi was
assassinated by Sikhs so they must be taught a lesson. Train in Godhara
was burnt by the Muslims and not fanatic Muslims. Bomb blasts in Mumbai
are by the Muslims; hence they need to be taught a lesson. Our media
jump on the stories. The ill informed reporters would put the mikes
in the mouth of those who would shout and abuse this fame. Hence we
would see a Togadia opening abusing Muslims or a Sikh fanatic abusing
the Hindus or a Muslim fanatic glorifying the Pan Islamism.
Should the event
after our independence be called an aberration? Years after years, we
have witnessed riots, massacres and bloody battles where the police
and those in power play games. In fact, the police are an instrument
to retain us in power, defend them and snatch the rights of the people
and therefore a policeman in India is a law unto himself. He damn care
for law books as whatever he says is a law. We have seen the gory events
of Gurgaon in Haryana, as how the police mercilessly beat the workers
of a factory who were demanding fair wages. So in every riots and massacre,
the police are a party.
Satwant Singh was
hanged to death on charges of assassination of Indira Gandhi. Interpol
has arrest warrant against Dawood Ibrahim for his alleged involvement
in Bombay blasts in January 1993. Rajiv's assassins are also given death
sentence but never in the history of India has any politician been charged
and send to gallows for butchering innocent people or inciting hatred.
We cannot think of Mumbai Badshah behind the bar for spreading hatred
and speaking whatever he wishes. We cannot think of the chums of Dilli
Darbar in the jail for their involvement in the numerous riots they
have participated. It is beyond our belief that those who were involved
in the heinous crime of demolishing a place of worship in Ayodhya would
be taken to task. We cannot imagine that Narendra Modi would face trial,
even our prime minister regretted US decision of not permitting him
visit there. I fear none of them will ever be booked for their criminal
work of inciting hatred. By the time some body comes to the conclusion,
the politicians are on their way. Nobody can now hang Narsimha Rao for
his monumental blunder of keeping conspicuous silence for three days
when Sikhs were maimed and killed in the streets of Delhi and they had
nowhere to go and ask for help. Kalyan Singh became hero as the court
gave him one day imprisonment despite the fact that he has been seeing
he does not believe in this court but court of 'Ram lala". In fact,
the reactionary events become more important for us. Hence the blast
issue became more important then the rehabilitation of the riots victim
in Mumbai. In Delhi it became more important for the government of India
to punish those killed Indira Gandhi but it never bothered to take care
or even check as what happened to those families who lost their family
members. Nobody went to wipe the tears of those who have victims of
our tainted nationalism.
Minorities are simply
becoming fodder to majority nationalism in India. It may be BJP one
day or Congress other day but the victim are the hapless minorities.
If they assert, it is easier to level them anti national. If they form
their own party, they are communal. If something is done for them then
it is their appeasements. If they go to the court, the process is tardy.
Who can forget that when CBI went to arrest one of the great leaders
allegedly involved in the anti Sikh violence, there was violence against
the CBI. It could not arrest him. Of course, we should not forget that
the leaders of the community betrayed the cause. Today, Akali Dal is
raising the issue of violence against Sikhs because it gets strength.
It fails to condemn the terrorist violence. We all keep silence when
the issue involves our own community and cry our best when we are the
victims. The minority commission in India became a joke for all those
who know what happened in Gujarat. The Commission's chairman, a Sikh,
was interested in a dialogue between different religious groups and
RSS. It refused to say a single word against the notorious Gujarat government
but now the same Commission is crying that nothing is done to calm the
Sikhs. In fact, the Sikhs are saying that the prime minister should
be keener on helping them. It is tragic that in democracy how we use
our identity to get justice. Prime Minister belongs to us all. He is
an Indian first, a prime minister and a Sikh the last but the religious
gangs would always like to make us believe that he is first a religious
man and then other. This exhibition of religious symbols to get justice
need to be stopped because we are ultimately going to be a victim of
religious fanaticism and hatred. It is therefore not strange that the
Akali Dal are condemning every kind of terrorism including what happened
in Kashmir but keep quiet on the Sikh terrorism. They were partner to
a government in Delhi whose subordinate had a field day in Gujarat.
The minorities became whims and fancy for them and gangs of the Hindutva.
Today the powerful make a mockery of judiciary. The witness come to
the court, say one thing today and take a u-turn the next day and cannot
blame any one. Same happened in Gujarat.
The BJP, the Congress
and others would blame each other. The fact is that India's upper caste
leadership is conspirator against minorities. It used their religious
leaders for its own different purposes and ignored the common man of
the street. It needs to learn a few lesson of civilization before it
is too late. You cannot push them to walls by harping on their weakness
and without protecting them. You cannot bring minorities to mainstream
without giving them due protection. And this protection is not possible
with out participation. If our police force has remained brutal towards
the minorities and the marginalized, it is because there is very less
representation from these community. The cruel fact is that after the
operation blue star, the Sikhs were carefully sidelined in every sector
and hence when Indira Gandhi was assassinated eyewitnesses said there
were just three Sikhs during her cremation. The same thing is there
in Provincial Arms Constabulary in UP and others in Gujarat and other
state. You may not find even 1% Muslim representation in our Para military
and police forces. Above all, the religiosity in our forces is tremendous
hence any religious conflict become emotional for them. Muslims and
other minorities become 'they' and Hindus ' we'. The Indian state has
done very little to secularize our police and Para military forces and
the victim are the innocent.
We need to fix responsibility
on the political leadership against this kind of carnage. The highest
leaders must assume more responsibility and face impartial probe. There
is a need for law against genocide and its implementation. And the responsibility
should be at the highest level. Let us ensure participation of minorities
in our nation building. You cannot build an India on hatred and retaliation.
You cannot blame the entire Sikh community for killing Indira Gandhi.
You cannot blame the entire Muslims for Godhara carnage and Bombay blasts.
It is as clear that nobody ever said that all the Brahmins were responsible
for killing of Gandhiji simply because Nathu Ram Godse happened to be
a Brahmin and impressed with brahmanical values. We should show sign
of a mature democracy and give chance to every one to flourish. Politics
of religious appeasement will ultimately destroy India's fabric. We
need to be stern on politics of religion and religious gangs taking
public space. It is time to call them bluff and civilise our police
force and make them professional by make them more pluralistic and representative
of the values of diversity in India. India will only shine when every
body here live with dignity, with out fear and participate in our national
life.