The bloody November of ‘84

Thousands of Sikhs were massacred, mutilated and women raped in streets of Delhi after Indira Gandhi was assassinated on October 31^st 1984 that was nearly 25 years ago. And a generation of victims has grown up denied justice. It is inconceivable that a pogrom of such magnitude was done without political involvement and this blogger like most other people in this country very much suspect Tytler as one of them (he is a conniving sleazy scoundrel). Again as written earlier this is a matter of conjecture so after so many years it is easy to change the reality. It is about diluting the event with time.

Mr. Chidambaram may not have anything to do with what happened in Delhi decades back but to suggest that CBI is neutral is a joke which we are sick of. Also telling an emotionally charged Sikh journalist “to have patience” is a travesty, I guess he is intelligent enough to gather that 25 years is too long by any standards “to have patience”. Instead of the journalist concerned Mr. Chidambaram should apologize for being insensitive. The CBI in recent times also seems to have gone market media friendly, revealing the details even before it was official, and secondly this official matter should be presented to court not to the media. This is grievous case of corruption on the part of CBI (and those who control them), to help politician fight election. Clearly Tylter has quite a clout. Also it is clear that the market fixers have sneaked into democratic machinery. Politicians need fixers but the tilt has started to harm, it is becoming apparent.

There has been lots of discussion in the blogs and other sites on this event. How should the journalist behave is focused by some. The "journalist" in recent times is nothing short of hilarious, frankly I like most Indians have started to sympathize with their compulsions, poor people trying to make some living. I guess by throwing shoe the journalist concerned has shown more responsibility than many of these so called journalists

The reaction of Sikh community seems to have gone mild in recent times, maybe like most of the common people in this country they have taken it as fate. Secondly the so called secularist get much concerned about issues of Muslims and some even go overboard (one politician even said he will run a roller over anyone who harms this community, it is ok to be a scoundrel when playing secular I guess). For small timers been seen as concerned-about-Muslim-only serves a lot to enhance their career, never mind if most Muslims are really not bothered or tired of this game.

The massacre of ’84 is quite vivid in my memory, we knew many Sikh communities in Delhi as I did part of my schooling there. A boy who was witness to the event of a Sikh man being burned told the horrific incident in detail, when I was in Pune. It was one of the most tragic events in modern Indian history. For next few years this community was blatantly targeted, and those who knew Sikh families at personal level it was a traumatic period. Most people were angry, I recall, but then the vested interests were successful in creating fissures and so the community was isolated, people started to suspect Sikhs. Punjab burned for years.

It is amazing that the prosecution rate of communal riots is almost negligible in this country. And what is shocking they will still carry on with archaic laws and systems that are completely politicized. It helps the elite to keep the pain alive as it keeps the people divided, it helps them garner vote. Clearly it is a win-win situation so then who should be bothered. Keep the injury open, if the injury is healed who needs the doctor.

When societies are kept divided, when insignificant events/prejudices are bloated out of proportion it helps lots of powerful people to position as saviors undermining existential realities of common people. It helps power mongers and greedy people to fit into narration that is easy to understand, therefore easy to exploit. It is in this context a communal riot is the most welcome event. It is such a simple narration. It is gripping than any reality show. Infact aren’t we waiting for one?!!

Post script: quite insignificant to write this one here but when I was in secondary school in Delhi we had many Sikh community kids in the class. One kid used to sit in front of my bench, so when it was 12 o clock we used to do pong pong on his juda “sardar ke bara baj gaye” he tolerated us few times (he was a studious boy) then he complained to the teacher, she gave us some whacking and told us “peeche ja ke murga bano” (English is a funny language the translation of this would be “go back and become a cock!!”). That’s about it!!