1984 Massacre: Who is Guilty?

“They are attacking my Nursing Home,” a Sikh doctor friend was pleading for help over the phone. It was about 10 PM in a South Delhi posh colony and slogan shouting was going on in front of my house : Har Har Mahadev ( Hindu), and Jo Bole So Nihal (Sikhs)… Close by was a big Gurudwara, strategically located on a hilltop, overlooking the colony below its perimeters. Naturally, the voice pouring down from the roof of the Gurudwara was rather forceful and frieghtening to the Hindus residing below the foothill of the Sikh Temple. I invited prominent citizens of both the communities to a joint meeting.

The Hindu leaders had “heard from authentic sources” that a big Sikh force armed with weapons was inside the Gurudwara (Greater Kailash-l) preparing to attack the Hindu homes…So the Hindus fearing the imminent attack had organized “Defence Brigrade” (Hindu Sena). It was this Sena that was airing the Hindu fear by raising powerful cry of Har Har Mahadev.

On the otherside, the Sikh leaders had confirmed reports that the Hindus in many areas of the city, supported by the administration, had launched a campaign to eliminate the Sikhs in retaliation of Indira Gandhi’s killing. “But why have you collected fire-arms in the Gurudwara?” shouted a Hindu leader claiming that he had seen a few guns pointing at the Hindu homes, across the road, from the top of the Gurudwara. And that he had seen a lot of people going in and out carrying huge bundles of things wrapped in clothes.. Those guns could be for self-defence, I argued, and proposed two things:

1) To guard the safety of citizens, we, the Sikhs and the Hindus- organise the Joint Peace and Security Force;

2) And to open houses and temples-Gurudwaras for joint inspections, if necessary.

I led members of both the communities inside the Gurudwara, climbed the high walls and the roof but found no fire arms or weapons of attack.. A big number of Sikh families had taken shelter inside the Gurudwara. A few dozens children and the Sikh women were hiding inside, fearing attacks from their Hindu brethren of thousands of years. But fearing the attack, copies of the Holy Book Gurugranth-sahab were taken away from the Gurudwara to some safequarters.

And we organized a Joint Defence Force with my eldest son Ajay as the Capt.- in- Command. We maintained 24 hour vigil around the Gurudwara and in the G.K. -Part –l. Colony.

We confronted many organised goons who came in white ambassadors - without number plates- equipped with petrol bombs, axes and hammers. They also had maps and house nos of the Sikh homes. We evacuated the Sikh families to Hindu homes and the Sikh homes were marked with the Hindu name plates. My Sikh friend’s Nursing Home was turned into “ Sharma Nursing Home”.

Once I received a call that an anti-Sikh mob had reached the cross road ( chowk) on the highway, near the Kamala Nehru College, behind the Archana Cinema. I rushed to the spot and confronted some 20 young men, from their accent – appeared to be from Haryana border. A Sikh on motorbike was being chased by this mob. As I shouted, the mob hesitated and the rider managed to escape. But I was now surrounded by the menacing hoodlums. I shouted: “How dare you attack innocent citizens on the road like this?..” “They are snakes..”, said one lathi wielding youth.

Another one was candid: “ Shastri ji ka kahna hai, ye log astin-ke-samp hain”
(According to Shastrij-ji, these (Sikhs) are snakes inside our arms).

Twenty-one years have lapsed. I have not met this “Shastriji”, but have heard that he was a local Congress Leader belonging to Indira Gandhi Congress. Also that he and all others who had been in front of “the needle of suspicion” were conducted in politics by the firebrand Sanjay Gandhi, and not unlike their leader all of them lacked intellectual high moral aptitudes.

I cannot identify this local Congress leader of illfame. Nor can I prove beyond any doubt, who, who was behind the carnage – killings of 3000+ sons and daughters of my nation. But if any further legal procedures are adopted to create pathways for the guilty to escape the punishment…that would be darkest page in our history.