Delhi Riots 84

There have been many different types of religious conflicts in India in the last century, the brutal violence can go back more than five hundred years, but more recently tensions were built up in Delhi after Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by two of her Sikh bodyguards in retaliation for the attack on the Sikh holy shrine in Amritsar, Harimandar Sahib (Golden Temple).

The violence unleashed upon the Sikhs in Delhi and other parts of the country by Hindu mobs from October 31st to November 4, 1984 is unquestionably connected with the tensions in Punjab, India since 1981. Sikhs have not been satisfied in India, they feel they have been treated as slaves in and they have not seen a fair share of the progress in Punjab. While communications between Sikhs and The government were often misinterpreted and mostly misunderstood, the tension between the two never stopped mounting. There were many talks of negotiations between the Indian Government and representatives of the Sikhs political group, the Akali Dal. Some publicized, others in secrecy, nothing ever progressed out of these talks. A series of incidents including bank robberies, killing of innocent civilians occurred during these times. Many of the victims were Hindu, an almost equal amount were Sikhs. Indian newspapers which were government run were not helping the cause by slandering Sikhs and reporting only the deaths of Hindus by Sikhs.

The Prime Minister of India at that time was Indira Gandhi, while the Sikhs regarded Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, who played the main role in the Sikh rebellion, as their leader. Sikhs have been engaged in an armed insurgency for the past two decades. Their ultimate aim is the formation of a sovereign nation called Khalistan, “land of the pure”. Tens of thousands of people have been killed in the past two decades. In early June 1984, The Indian government forces attacked the Golden Temple in Amristar on the pretext of flushing out terrorists. The Indian army used excessive force; eyewitnesses say that the army deployed tanks, armed personnel carriers, rocket launchers, machine guns and helicopters. Ultimately this built up anger in the hearts of Sikhs worldwide which lead to the assassination of Ms. Indira Gandhi. On October 31st, at 9:15 AM, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi Was shot by two of her security guards and rushed to All India Institute of Medical Sciences and pronounced dead at 6:00 PM. This later resulted in some of the worst carnage in India since Partition.

The Indian government knew very well that Sikhs would be blamed for this murder. The riots of 1984 in Delhi were part of an act of genocide committed on a minority group setup and supported by the so called biggest democracy in the world. A climate of violence and terrorism had been building up in India, particularly Punjab and Delhi for years. This should have necessitated the taking of steps towards adequate security and preventive measures. During the time gap between the attempt of assassination and the official announcement of Gandhi’s death, the time too take preventing measures against civil disorder and violence was more than enough. The police was virtually invisible, but even later during the evening when a number of incidents were know to have occurred, there have been accusations by the witnesses that they police was apathetic, indifferent, or worse gave encouragement to the mobs. There is no information regarding investigations into crimes of looting, mayhem, arson, rape, murder, abductions, etc.

The bail accepted by the police was said to have been as ridiculously low as Rs. 250. Even those arrested for brutal killings were released by the police either on bail or in several instances at the go ahead of some political leaders. When a civil power is unable to control a situation of disorder, it may call upon the military authorities to its aid. Such was the situation in Delhi way before the army was called in. The lack of co-operation from some police personnel who at times even deliberately misled army units, who asked for directions, severely handicapped the army. The army units were also equipped with old maps which did not include more recent residential colonies. Political parties including several MPs have been accused of having instigated the violence, making arrangements for the supply of kerosene and other inflammable material and of pointing out houses of Sikhs. Some of them also been accused of interceding with authorities to obtain releases of followers who had been arrested for various crimes. Every police station had strength of about 100 men and 50-60 weapons. Yet, no action was taken against miscreants in most places. The few places where the local police station took prompt measures against mobs, hardly any killings took place there. Farsh Bazar and Karol Bagh are two such examples. But in other localities, the priority of the police, as it emerges from the statement of the then police commissioner S.C. Tandon before the Nanavati Commission, was to take action against Sikhs who dared to offer resistance. All the Sikhs who fired in self-defence were disarmed by the police and even arrested on trumped up charges. Curfew was in force throughout Delhi – but only on paper. The Army was also deployed throughout Delhi but nowhere was it effective because the police did not co-operate with the soldiers who were not empowered to open fire without the consent of senior police officers.

Meanwhile, mobs continued to rampage throughout Delhi. The utter failure and the disgrace of duty by the police in Delhi was a clear sign that the Indian government did nothing to stop this attack and worse, was part of a much larger scale of genocide. Rajiv Gandhi, Indira’s son, said at the Calcutta Airport before leaving for New Delhi "Let us teach these bastards - the Sikhs - a lesson” (October 31, 1984). More than 250,000 Sikhs have been murdered in staged encounters, 70,000 innocent Sikhs are still in Hindu India’s jails without trials and are kept even after the completion of their sentences. Between 1984 and 1994, the Indian government has spent abroad more than US $1.5 billion to make Sikhs terrorists in the eyes of their fellow countrymen in Canada. Not only to make them terrorists, the Indian government is using the Sikh followers or black sheep, cabinet Ministers, Sikh journalists and other writers to slander the Sikh community. The motive of the Indian government is to distract world opinion from the blatant abuses of Human Rights, and the Sikhs justified demand for the liberation of Khalistan from the Indian government. Since 1978, Amnesty International has not been allowed in to Punjab. From 1984 to 1992 over 250 000 Sikhs have been killed by India. Human rights watch declared in 1999, “Virtually everyone detained in Punjab is tortured”. All statistical facts are validated and unbiased. I believe that no one should live under these conditions, where they don’t have full confidence in their own government to protect them. How can you live in a “democracy” that treats you like slaves. After the 1984 riots, there was not a single Sikh who didn’t think about Khalistan and the need for it.