By Ajoy Ashirwad Mahaprashasta and Venkitesh Ramakrishnan
Justice to the victims of the anti-Sikh violence in Delhi seems far away even after 25 years.
Photo/Sandeep Saxena
THE crowd at the Constitution Club in New Delhi on November 7 perhaps symbolised what Jarnail Singh said at the launch of his book on the anti-Sikh violence of 1984, I Accuse. In the hall, packed to capacity, were only Sikhs except for a few journalists, when Jarnail Singh, who shot to fame when he hurled his shoe at Home Minister P. Chidambaram during a press conference a few months ago, asked desperately: “Why has no one except members of the Sikh community come forward as witnesses in the carnage that took place across the capital in 1984? Why, even after 25 years, only Sikh groups have been raising their voices against the government’s inaction?”
Jarnail Singh’s statement rings alarmingly true. The violence that took the lives of nearly 4,000 Sikhs, according to unofficial sources, in the three days that followed the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by two of her bodyguards on October 31, 1984, remains a blot on Indian democracy. Nearly a dozen inquiry committees, including two judicial ones, since the carnage have not expedited justice for the victims. Almost all the prime accused in the case have got off scot-free and have even enjoyed plum posts in the government.
On the 25th anniversary of the carnage, many victims have even given up hope. H.S. Phoolka, counsel for the victims, told Frontline: “It is widely accepted that it was an organised massacre. Evidence was systematically destroyed in the immediate aftermath [of the violence]. It is difficult to prove things now, so many years later. Many witnesses have passed away. All we can hope for is symbolic justice, and we will fight for it.”
The first conviction, for murder, came nine years after the riots. Jarnail Singh remembers how as an 11-year-old he witnessed the violence firsthand. According to him, the research he did to write the book clearly shows that the police and the government officials were in collusion to ensure that the Sikhs of particular areas in Delhi did not escape unhurt. He goes on to write that the policemen who were the main accused were rewarded with promotions and medals.