SFS 2nd Conference

SFS 2nd Conference

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

1984: AN ATTACK ON MINORITY

“Though we boast of being the world’s largest democracy and the Delhi being its national capital, the sheer mention of the incidents of 1984 anti-Sikh riots in general and the role played by Delhi Police and state machinery in particular makes our heads hang in shame in the eyes of the world polity.”
-Delhi High Court in its verdict on anti-Sikh riots related case in 2009
       Whatever happened during 31 October-3 November,1984 is a big shame on the so-called democracy of India. What’s more shameful is direct involvement of the government and administration in directly executing the genocide of Sikhs. More to the disgust of the victims was the strange justifications by Rajiv Gandhi and other senior leaders of Congress. A cover up that has lasted 27 years, even after formation of 10 commissions, none of the guilty has been punished.
Precisely 27 years ago, on a day very much like this at about 1:30pm All India Radio declared the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi dead. Spotnews announce Mrs. Gandhi's assailants as two Sikhs and one clean shaven Sikh. In the days that followed, Sikhs, for the first time in independent India, felt like Jews in Nazi Germany, as mobs of rioters ran riot, setting upon Sikhs, who, by their distinctive turbans and beards, were easy targets. Sikhs were beaten and burnt alive all around Delhi and many other places in the country. Women were gang raped. Even the children were not spared. What was more, the congress shamelessly called this “planned genocide of Sikhs” just riots. To further salt the wounds of the victims, Rajiv Gandhi, Indira Gandhi’s elder son and the country’s next PM blatantly justified the violence at a Boat Club rally 19-days after the assassination of Indira Gandhi, as “Some riots took place in the country following the murder of Indira ji. We know the people were very angry and for a few days it seemed that India had been shaken. But, when a mighty tree falls, it is only natural that the earth around it does shake a little.” And when that tree did shook, it claimed lives of 2733 Sikhs in Delhi alone and much more in the other parts of the country. According to the government, about 20,000 Sikhs fled the city but to Rajiv Gandhi that was mere shaking of earth. Again in an interview to the Sunday Magazine (March 16, 1985) he justified the massacre saying that that "the violence was extensive only in those areas where Sikhs distributed sweets". He even opposed a judicial inquiry into the events. No wonder even today Sonia is totally silent and it was left to her stooge PM Manmohan Singh to shed crocodile tears.
       

Sunday, November 6, 2011

Lone warrior

Irom Sharmila: A life of solitude. Photo: Sathya Saran
Irom Sharmila: A life of solitude. Photo: Sathya Saran
For 11 long years, Irom Sharmila has been on a hunger fast, protesting against the Armed Forces Special Act in Manipur. An interview with an almost forgotten heroine.
May be the fact she was a slow learner made her a reclusive child. Or perhaps it was the fact that she was the youngest of eight and born at a difficult time in her family's fortunes. Her father had died; her mother was trying to run a provision store to keep the home fires burning. Even as a baby Sharmila had to depend on the kindness of other women to nurse her and her elder siblings to tend to her daily needs and upbringing. Sensitive and introspective, Sharmila, through her teens, kept much to herself; her favourite companions her books, the Bhagwad Gita among them.