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With the tabling of
Justice G. T. Nanavati Commission in parliament, the issue of punishing the
Congress leaders involved in the planned massacre of the Sikh religious minority
in Delhi and other parts of the country in Nov. 1984 has once again come up on
the Indian political scene. In the current Monsoon session of the parliament,
heated debates between the Congress and NDA allies, particularly Akalies went
on. The so-called left allies of the central govt. blew the trumpet of the
opposition to the Congress for some time. When the time came for voting on the
resolution of suspending work by the opposition, they played the cunning card of
being absent from the House. After the PM Man Mohan Singh made a hypocritical
speech and ploy of giving an apology, they even outdid the Congress in blowing
the trumpet of the rulers. The affected families took out angry demonstrations
outside parliament. The govt. had to face the fury of widows and orphaned
children. Instead of providing justice to these affected families they were
greeted with lathis and canons of water. The affected families expressed
grievances even by revolting against the Akali leadership.
No commission as yet
has made a genuine attempt to describe as to who are the real culprits of the
greatest tragedy that has so far happened to the Sikh religious minority after
so called independence. Officially ten Commissions and Committees have been
constituted so far on this issue. The names of these committees constituted
during the last twenty one years are — the Marwaha Investigating Committee,
Ranganath Mishra Commission, Jain Bannerjee Commission, Kapoor-Mittal
Commission, Ahuja Commission, Roza Committee, Jain-Aggarwal Committee, Narula
Committee and justice G..T. Nanavati Commission. The nine Committees and
Commissions constituted between Nov. 1984 and 1999 provided nothing tangible to
the people about the mass massacre committed under the very nose of Indian
rulers. The NDA (the then central rulers), in order to make some anti-Congress
capital out of the issue, constituted yet another one member justice G.T.
Nanavati Commission to investigate this issue. After completing the
investigations during these five years, in 2005 this Commission submitted its
report to the home minister Shiv Raj Patil on 9th Feb. 2005. The Commission of
Inquiry Act provides that the govt. should take some action within six months of
the submission of the report.
The Action Taken
Report on the recommendations of the Commission by the Govt. on the report of
the Nanavati Commission tabled during the current Monsoon Session has proved the
adage of complicity of the thief and dog (the govt. and commission) true. The
report of the Nanavati Commission has camouflaged this self evident truth that
the massacre of the Sikh religious minority people in Nov. 1984 was part of a
pre-planned policy of the Congress govt. and party. In this massacre Jagdish
Tytler, Sajjan Kumar, H.K.L. Bhagat, Dharmdas Shastri etc., the prominent
Congress leaders, directly or indirectly led the communal and goonda gangs in
attacking the Sikh religious minority people. The police and civil
administration not only remained silent but became accomplices in this carnage
and even instigated such elements.
Consequently, 4000
people were burnt with burning tires around their necks in three days in Delhi
the capital of country and the other chief cities of the country like Kanpur and
Bokaro etc. Their houses, properties and businesses were burnt to ashes within
no time. Thousands of women were rendered widows and children were orphaned. The
contemporary Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi, justifying this massacre said, "When
a huge tree falls, the earth shakes". In order to expose these self-evident
facts PUCL and PUDR released the investigative report, "Who are the Guilty?" in
the form of a booklet, which was banned by the Congress govt. On the contrary,
the constituting of Commissions was a well-planned scheme to sidetracke this
issue. As a result this issue has been hanging fire for the last 21 years. No
Commission or Committee did anything for the people.
Even the report
submitted by the Nanavati Commission has not visualized the massacre of Sikhs in
Nov. 1984 as a part of the policy and scheme of the Congress rulers. The
Nanavati Commission did not investigate the massacre in any city except Delhi.
Nor has any verdict been given in the report to the effect that it has the main
responsibility of the govt. to safeguard the life and property of every citizen
of the country, but why did the Congress govt. not safeguard the life and
property of the Sikh religious minority people? The report has concluded that
there is,"the possibility to a considerable extent of the involvement of the
Congress leaders Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar". The commission has
submitted its different recommendations about the different leaders on the basis
of these possibilities. Necessary action against Jagdish Tytler has been
recommended. No action against Sajjan Kumar is recommended due to his acquittal
by the court, and no action is recommended against H.K.L. Bhagat with a view to
his health and mental tension. The contempor-ary PM Rajiv Gandhi has been
squarely let off from these events. The then home minister P.V. Narsimha Rao was
awarded praise for playing a fully responsible role. An attempt has been made to
thrust the whole responsibility on a few administra-tive personnel, a large part
of which have retired from service. So, incapability to take any action against
them was expressed. The remaining job was executed by the central govt. in its
Action Taken Report on the Nanavati Commission report by saying that no action
can be taken against anyone on the basis of "possibilities".
But, out of fear of
isolation from the Sikh religious minority and their furious demonstrations, the
central govt. has made a tactical reversal on some issues, due to which Jagdish
Tytler and Sajjan Kumar have resigned their offices. Two committees have been
constituted to provide financial relief to the affected families. The prime
minister has apologised and has assured to take legal action on the recommend-ations
of the Commission. But if we scrutinise the whole speech of the prime minister
in the parliament, he has cunningly defended the policy and scheme of the
central Rajiv govt. by calling it a "tragedy". On the one hand, action has been
talked of, but on the other hand it has been said, "It has been sufficiently
proved that there is no proof against the senior leaders of the Congress. In the
end the falsehood, with which the minds of the Sikh youth have been poisoned for
the last 21 years, has proved baseless". It has been further said that, "several
commissions have investigated the tragedy of 1984. We all know that we are still
far from that reality and efforts should continue to reach this truth". The
prime minister who does not know the "reality" of the historical tragedy
of Nov. 1984, whose cohorts are accused of "false and baseless accusations",
who knows that, "no officials and govt. employees can be persecuted four
years after retirement" is talking of taking action or apologising not out
of innocence but is doing so out of cunning so that the fury of the people could
be diffused and the ruling power could be safeguarded — so that the facade of
apology could be presented as an achievement of the Congress during the
elections in Punjab, so that this issue could be snatched from its Akali rivals;
so that this issue could be further postponed by constituting some other
commission or committee in the name of "continuing the efforts to reach the
truth". The Congressmen and so-called left immediately picked up this cunning
card and started singing in chorus about the wisdom of the prime minister. The
bourgeois press also awarded the certificate "Manmohan Singh has created a
new history by apologising" where as the reality is that Manmohan Singh has
performed the misdeed of forgetting the past history by apologising. The
sentiments of the Sikh religious minority are not going to cool down by this
apology alone, rather the issue is to punish the culprits of the Nov. 1984
massacre. The issue is also the rehabilitation of widows and orphans.
This job has been
performed neither by the Congress govt., nor by the ex-central NDA that
constituted the Nanavati Commission, nor by their ally’s the ex-Akali govt. The
massacre of Sikhs in Nov. 1984 has leapt up in their memory only after the
tabling of the Nanavati Report and the coming elections in Punjab. If they had
been only a little bit genuine about the massacre of Sikhs in Nov. 1984, they
could do have done many things during their rule for 5 years. Their need is
nothing but to prolong this issue through Commissions, to cool tempers down, and
to exploit the sentiments of the Sikh religious minorities.
The revolutionary
democratic forces need to expose this fresh gimmick of the Manmohan Singh govt.
They should expose the real motives of the NDA and their Akali allies. They
should demand punishments to police and civil officials including Congress
leaders who were the culprits of the Sikh massacre in Nov. 1984. They should
come forward for the demand for compensation for the burnt houses and destroyed
businesses of the affected families. They should raise a strong demand for the
rehabilitation of widows and orphaned children. By doing so they should
propagate effectively among the people, particularly among the people of the
religious minorities that their religious interests and rights in the present
semi-colonial semi-feudal system cannot be safeguarded. Their rights and
interest can be safeguarded only in a new democratic federal system, in which
the religious minorities, nationalities, tribes will enjoy equal rights, and
which will be free from the exploitation and oppression by imperialism,
feudalism and comprador bureauratic capitalism.
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