by Ishaal Zehra
It was
fiery June of 1984. There was a large crowd of people in the Holy Shrine
gathered to observe the martyrdom day of their Guru Arjun Dev, an event of
special significance in the development of Sikh faith. Sikhs from all over the
world had travel long distances to become part of this Holy ritual. Many of
whom wouldn’t have even thought in their wildest dreams that this could be
their last journey. The dark night of June 5th became witness to the beginning
of bloody game which ultimately finished off with the assassination of
thousands of innocent Sikh men, women and children. Operation Blue Star was the code name given
to the dreadful attack launched on the Golden Temple (the holiest Shrine of
Sikh community) in June 1984 by the Indian government. Justification for such
an odious episode which claimed a huge number of civilian causalities could not
have been better than operation for the seizure of militants hiding in the Holy
Shrine.
On
June 2nd 1984, Indira Gandhi-led Indian government cloaked a veil of secrecy
and horror over the entire northern Indian state of Punjab. A curfew was
announced and Indian Punjab came totally under the army control. Telephone
lines were cut and all the press reporters were asked to leave. Surrounded by
military troops, the State was completely disconnected from rest of the world.
Nobody was allowed to enter or leave. Self-proclaimed largest democracy had set
the stage for what was to follow; a deliberate, cold-blooded massacre of her
own citizens, by the state establishment itself.
Wikipedia
registers that a media blackout was imposed in Punjab before the attack on
Golden Temple. The Times reporter Michael Hamlyn reported that journalists were
picked up from their hotels in a military bus, taken to the adjoining border of
the state of Haryana and "were abandoned there". A group of
journalists who later tried to drive into Punjab were stopped at the road block
at Punjab border and were threatened to be shot if they proceeded. Indian
nationals who worked with the foreign media were also banned. The press
criticized these actions by Government as an "obvious attempt to attack
the temple without the eyes of foreign press on them".
When all's
said and done, the operation started. A variety of army units along with
paramilitary forces, led by General Kuldip Singh Brar, surrounded the temple
complex on 3 June 1984. Army claims to keep asking the militants to surrender,
using the public address system but some people contradict this statement and
say no one was informed to come outside the temple. Several hundreds and
thousands of Sikhs in the temple were became target of massacre by the Indian
army, not even sparing the children. Priceless Sikh artifacts and literature
was burnt. An Enormous number of pilgrims were murdered where a majority was
mercilessly exterminated. A correspondent of the Associated Press, Brahma
Chellaney, the only foreign reporter who managed to stay on in Amritsar,
reported that “several” suspected Sikh militants had been shot with their hands
tied. Also, no efforts were made to identify the dead. No relative were
informed. Hesitant to turn over the bodies, the Indian government cremated them
immediately making sure that no autopsies could be performed and no precise
body count was made. Perhaps, the exact number of men, women, children and
elderly dead by the hands of their own government will never be known.
As if the
operation blue star had not inflicted enough misery and destruction to the Sikh
community, it was followed by operation wood rose, a mop-up operation spreading
the destruction to other Gurdwaras. The Army simultaneously attacked various
other Gurdwaras and caused considerable bloodshed. As per Dr.Sangat Singh’s,
“The Sikhs in History”, the White paper mentions 42 Gurdwaras, but some
accounts mention 74. The army was given powers equal to martial law to clear
villages of “militants”. Strict censorship, including a blanket ban against the
foreign pressmen entering the state of Punjab, made this army operation earthed
for some time. It later transpired that during this operation thousands of
Sikhs, overwhelmingly young men, were detained for interrogation and
subsequently tortured. According to estimates published by Inderjit Singh
Jaijee, approximately 8000 individuals were reported as missing as a result of
Army operations during this period. Whereas, Dr.Sangat Singh, Joint
Intelligence Committee, claims about 100000 youth had been taken into custody
within first four to six weeks of the operation and he adds that many of them
were not heard of again. Women were desecrated in various fashions. People
wearing turbans were dishonoured and summarily shot at point blank range with
their hands tied up at their backs with their turban cloth. The illusion that
operation blue star would brought the
Sikhs to heel and that they would be amenable to compromise with the government
was completely dispelled. In reality, sullen resentment produced a sense of
unity in the unfortunate community.
After the
cordon, the misinformation from the state-controlled press continued to
propagate. Claims were made and later retracted or proven lies. To set the
government record straight, a white paper was issued. Soon after, the
government’s own spokesperson conceded that the figures carried in the white
paper were grossly under estimated. This particularly destroyed the legitimacy
of that white paper. Also, the
sequence of events narrated in the government’s white paper were not borne out
by the eyewitnesses present in the temple complex during the operation. The causality
number clashes between 493 given by Indian Government under civilian/terrorist
category to 8,000 by eyewitnesses.
The
operation was truly a terror inflicted upon a minority living in a “democratic”
state. The government did not keep track when it slaughtered its own people in
that fearsome army operation. Indian government still claims that the Operation
Woodrose never happened but the cold hard facts presented in Cynthia Mahmood’s
book “fighting for faith and nation” negates those claims completely. The
Hindustan Times correspondent Chand Joshi alleged that the army units
"acted in total anger" and shot down all the suspects rounded up from
the temple complex. Mark Tully and Satish Jacob, in Amritsar; Mrs. Gandhi's
Last Battle, criticized the Army for burning down the Sikh Reference Library,
stating that it did this to destroy the culture of the Sikhs. In The Sikhs of
Punjab, Joyce Pettigrew alleges that the army conducted the operation to
"suppress the culture, and political will, of a people". Similar
accusations of high handedness by the Indian Army and allegations of human
rights violations by security forces in Operation Blue Star and subsequent military
operations in Punjab have been levelled by Justice V. M. Tarkunde.
Attack on
Golden Temple and its follow-up Operation Woodrose, concealed from public eye
with great treachery, were two of the most inhumane acts committed by the
Indian government. It is not surprising that this legacy of ill-will and
bloodshed produced a sense of alienation among the Sikhs. In search of
political gain, countless Sikhs were murdered and no one was held accountable.
Khushwant Singh (internationally renowned writer), Dr Ganda Singh (eminent
historian) and Sadhu Singh Hamderd (editor of Ajit) returned their Padma
Bhushan awards in protest. Four months and three weeks after the operations,
Indra Gandhi paid the ultimate price for the planning and execution of
Operation Blue star and Woodrose. She was shot by her two Sikh body guards.
This reaction of the Sikhs should not have come as a surprise, but it did. Four
years later these incidents Mrs. Gandhi assassins, Satwant Singh and Beant
Singh, paid the penalty for their vengeance being hanged to death in Tehar
jail. Regrettably, 29 years have passed yet the people behind 1984 massacre and
killers of thousands of Sikhs remain unpunished. In fact, the soldiers and
generals involved in the operations were presented with gallantry awards,
honours, decoration strips and promotions by the then government.
What a
shame that in much hyped “secular” India there is one law for Hindu majority
and another for Muslims, Christens and Sikhs, who are in minority. Indian
government must not forget that India can never achieve the pursuit of national
glory unless her minorities feel safe and secure while living there. It is high
time that she may act as a true secular state and accord the status as that of
Hindus, to all minorities. India must realize that bad beginnings can never
have good endings.
