BRIEF BACKGROUND

The Sikh nation had the option to opt for complete independence or to join either Pakistan or India. The British were prepared to have regional constitutional arrangements that would safe-guard Sikh interests. Mr. Jinnah, the President of the Muslim League, had offered the Sikhs a permanent sovereignty in a large part of the Punjab, from the River Ravi to Panipat, with weighlage in representation in parliamentary institutions and other organs of the state including defense forces. The Sikhs spurned such offers of partnership in a Muslim majority Punjab and instead chose to cast their lot with India notwithstanding the fact that nearly half of the Sikh population would be uprooted from the fertile canal colonies and other prosperous areas of West Punjab. The Sikh nation acted thus trusting the solemn commitments by the Hindus. Gandhi and the leadership of the Indian National Congress assured that the interest of the Sikhs, as a collective entity, would be safeguarded by giving them an autonomous region in the North (meaning the Punjabi speaking areas of East Punjab) and guaranteeing that the soon to be adopted constitution of the Indian state would not be passed without the full satisfaction of the Sikh nation.

After independence, however, neither these nor other promises were honored. Despite the fact that the Sikhs (1.6 percent of the population of India) had comprised 77.5 percent of those killed, exiled or sentenced to life imprisonment during the struggle for independence, the Sikh nation was grievously betrayed. Far from giving the Sikhs special position as a nationality, the government of India has reduced the Sikh homeland to colonial status. The constitution promulgated in 1950 was so inimical to the interest of the Sikhs that its leadership refused to sign the document in protest.

Ever since Independence, successive Indian governments have devised and pursued persistent policies which have reduced the Sikh nation to a status of dependency and subjection far worse than that experienced under the British colonial rule. By enacting draconian laws, the likes of which no civilized country has on its statute, the Sikhs are being deprived of their basic rights of life, liberty and property. They are denied the right of equality before law, freedom of religion, association and expression, and for the last four years, even the right to vote and elect a representative state government of Punjab which has become, in effect, a sub-state under the present dispensation.

Despite the protestations of the propagandist Brahmanical state, events since 1982 and the continuing brutal repression in the Punjab demonstrate that the Sikhs have a fate far worse than a black population under the racist South African State in its most insensitive phase.

Since the government of India has proven its insistence to deny the Sikhs its political, religious and human rights, the Sikh nation reaffirms the declaration for the creation of a sovereign and independent Khalistan passed at the Sarbart Khalsa on January 26, 1986 and reiterated on October 7, 1987 when the Council of Khalistan was formed.
 
 

PREAMBLE

and

and

and

and

and

and

and

and

NOTING also that to suppress the Sikhs, their sentiments and aspirations, India has deployed more full combat, paramilitary and police forces in the Sikh homeland ( comprising less than 2 percent of India's land mass ) than were ever maintained ( in peace time ) by alien rulers - - Moguls and British - - in the entire Indian subcontinent during the past 500 years. To conceal its misdeeds, the successive governments have refused to allow human rights organizations with impeccable records, like Amnesty International, to conduct investigations in Punjab.

NOW, therefore, the Sikhs are fully convinced that they can never hope to live with honor and dignity in India as equal citizens at par with majority community and are fearful of even losing their identity. The Sikhs have been virtually reduced to the status of slaves. Their homeland is being treated as a colony and made into a vast military - cum - police camp in which Sikhs are meted out treatment incomparably worse than that given to people in occupied territories during war.

Consequently, the Sikh nation has collectively declared through unanimous resolutions at various political and religious conventions and congregations on numerous occasions that the government of India should enable the Sikhs to exercise the universally accepted right to self determination under the provisions of the United Nations Charter, particularly the Covenant on International Civil and Political Rights acceded to by India in 1979. The Government of India, however, has steadfastly refused to do so. Clearly it is under no illusion that over 95% Sikhs in Punjab will vote for independence and cannot face the truth. In fact, ever since the demand for independence has been articulated by the Sikh Nation, India has sharply escalated repression resulting in the extermination of dozens of Sikhs everyday.
 
 

DECLARATION

We further declare that the future relationship between India and the Sikh homeland will be on the basis of equality and mutual advantage; modalities to be determined in the spirit of give and take and in the context of our common heritage and history so as to usher in an era of peace in the Indo-Pakistan sub-continent and South-Asia.   

                                     We invite the government of India to create a conducive atmosphere for conducting peaceful negotiations by abrogating all draconian laws, announcing general amnesty for Sikh prisoners of conscience and those detained unlawfully or on trumped up charges, and to reserve all policies, regulations and administrative orders designed to deny the Sikhs their civil and human rights and subvert the political, economic, and cultural development of our homeland and language.

        KHALISTAN  THE  ONLY SOLUTION

                                               BY Col. Partap Singh

(  The first book ever published on the declration of independence  and formation of Khalistan)
 
 

 
                                                           CONTENTS
 
 

Preface.....................................................................................................1

Chapter I       Excerpts from the Sikh Case...............................................9
Chapter II      Developments since the publication of the Sikh Case.........27
Chapter III     Story of Betrayals.............................................................41
Chapter IV     Politics of Violence and State Repression..........................51
Chapter V      A Military Operation-Code Named "Bluestar.....................81
Chapter VI     Genocide of the Sikhs-November 1984............................107
Chapter VII    Rajiv-Longowal Accord..................................................125
Chapter VIII   Fate of Sikhs Outside of Punjab......................................135
Chapter IX     Change of the Guard.......................................................145
Chapter X      The Movement Abroad....................................................157
Chapter XI     The Khalsa Raj Party and Declaration or Independence...177

Annexure 1- Atrocities by Indian Security Forces in Punjab 187
Annexure 2- Movement Against St. Repression-Key Note Add. 197
Annexure 3- Beginning of a New War Against a Natl. Minority 201
Annexure 4- Self Determination-Legality and Justification 205
Annexure 5- Deployment of Army in Punjab 211
Annexure 6- Murder of Democracy-Butchery of Sikhs 215
Annexure 7- Vision of India 1999 A.D.- Focus on Punjab 219
 
 

                                                                  PREFACE

Until the Indian government's all out military offensive against the Golden Temple (Harmander Sahib) and 38 other historic gurdwaras situated all over the Punjab under the codename "Bluestar", there was but limited and sporadic demand for Khalistan.  Even the charismatic Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, a great Sikh hero and martyr, never directly demanded the creation of Khalistan.  He did, however, declare that the day India attacked the Golden Temple the foundation for Khalistan would be laid.  Did Indira Gandhi take this as a challenge and launch the biggest ever operation against a holy place in history?

Bluestar was followed by Operation "Woodrose", a state-wide military cum police action, to break the Sikh will and to ensure that they may never again agitate for their rights and so to subjugate them.  The government directed genocide of the Sikhs after Indira Gandhi's assassination was the culminating point which convinced the Sikhs that they had no future in India; the country for whose freedom they had sacrificed the most, way beyond their numbers and after independence contributed enormously, particularly in the areas of defense and economy.

Anti-Sikh genocidal policies have been pursued with ever escalating state repression during the past seven years, irrespective of the political party or combination of various national level parties which have ruled India since 1989.  The Sikhs have been denied their democratic, fundamental and human rights.  Through a record period of autocratic President's rule in Punjab, the Sikhs have been deprived of any say in the governance of their affairs.

The Enactment of a host of draconian laws like TADA, NSA, the Special Armed Forces Act et-al, and even singling out Punjab for imposition of emergency (59th Constitutional Amendment) are some of the methods for enslaving and terrorizing the Sikhs.

The gross violation of human rights committed against the Sikhs has been condemned by almost all the international and Indian human rights organizations.  Amnesty International, with an impeccable record for fair, thorough and objective reporting, has not been allowed to enter India for the past 13 years.  India has so much to hide that it simply cannot withstand exposure.

  The United Nations Human Rights Committee has called the situation in Punjab"disturbing" and "completely unacceptable." Asia Watch, in its 138-page report, "Punjab in Crisis," released August 25, 1991, states: "Security forces have engaged in widespread torture and summary executions of Sikhs." Asia Watch charges that human rights abuses by the security forces are part of a deliberate government policy of repression.  The report goes on to say that "while the conflict in Punjab constitutes an extreme threat to civil order the government's response has been influenced more by political expediency than by a commitment to the rules of law..... by failing to address rampant abuses by the security forces, the authorities have encouraged further violence by the militants and criminal gangs."

 In its 62-page report, "India: Human Rights violations in Punjab", Amnesty International highlights some facets of the Indian government's criminal acts: "Thousands of people have been arrested by police and security forces in Punjab since 1983 . . . prisoners have been detained for months or years without trial under provisions of special legislation suspending legal safeguards ... there is a clear pattern to arrests, detention, torture and 'disappearances' . . . Sikhs are arrested on mere suspicion ... women have been arrested and tortured, beaten and raped . . . there have been persistent allegations that political prisoners have died in custody as a result of torture ... Hundreds of members of or sympathizers of armed Sikhs groups have been captured, tortured and then extrajudicially executed, the killing attributed by the police to armed 'encounters'...... Police routinely resort to extrajudicial executions.
"In 1989, for instance, the Director-General of Police in Punjab issued an order promising financial rewards for the 'liquidation' of 53 men . . The Supreme Court ordered the, Punjab government to lay charges against 21 police officers identified as having tortured detainees at the Ladha Kothi Jail In 1984 and 1985.  'The secretary to the Punjab government charged  with carrying out the order refused to do so . . . . No police officer has ever been convicted of committing human rights violations in Punjab .... Most detainees in Punjab are arrested under TADA which allows detention up to one year without charge . . Prisoners held under this act can be tried in camera and the burden of proof is switched on to the accused to prove his or her innocence ... TADA imposes a minimum of five years imprisonment including the peaceful expression of views which support any claim for secession"

Numerous other human rights and civil liberties organizations and independent social workers like retired high court and supreme court judges, senior ex-defense and civil service officers and members of parliament have roundly condemned rights  abuses by the Indian government and its various  agencies after Indira Gandhi's assassination all over India and in Punjab ever since.  The fact of the matter is that Punjab is presently the worst form of police raj and fascist rule imaginable.

I have devoted a full chapter on the movement for Khalistan abroad and have particularly highlighted the concern of the U.S. Congress with regard to the Indian state's ever escalating atrocities against the Sikhs.  Excerpts from the Congressional Record have been quoted in considerable detail.

Washington based Dr. Gurmit Singh Aulakh and Dr. Paramjit Singh Ajrawat have played a laudable role in "educating" the U.S. legislators about political subjugation and gross Violations of  human rights of Sikhs in India.  Likewise, Dr. Devendra P. Singh, Mr. and Mrs. Gurcharan Singh and Mr. Joga Singh of Norway; Mr. Dildar Singh and Mr. Baldev Singh of United Kingdom have been doing commendable job in the countries of their adoption.  I have mentioned these names because I have had extensive discussions with them and am convinced about their dedication and commitment There are indeed thousands more who are equally committed to the cause of the Sikh freedom and have made enormous sacrifices.  I salute them.

It is ironical, however, that the Sikhs living in the truly democratic and free countries have exhibited political immaturity, complete lack of unity and enlightened leadership.  Consequently, they have done little to motivate the governments of their adopted countries to exert moral and economic pressure on the Indian government.  There are any number of political organizations like Councils of Khalistan, governments in exile, high sounding World, International and Youth organizations; most working at cross purposes and trying to pull each other down.  Majority of them have been effectively infiltrated by the Indian intelligence agencies.

At the religious level, nearly half of the three million Sikhs living in foreign lands have dispensed with the sacred symbols, including the dominant "K", keshas (unshorn hair).  Little effort is being made to teach the new generations their language, the basic Sikh ideology and their glorious traditions and history.  There is a big cultural gap, both in respect of the traditional Punjabi culture as well as the culture of the countries they are living in.  In common with other Indians, they tend to interact with their own kind.  They have brought with them their gurdwaras but not the flavor and essence of Sikhism.  Infighting, litigation for controlling gurdwaras  and groupism have increased side by side with their affluence and prosperity.  I am not here to preach.  These are the outpourings of an anguished heart.  Sikhs living abroad have a duty.  They can do a great deal more for the emancipation of their nation in 'bondage' and for their own collective good.  Jews, constituting a mere 2.5 percent of their American population, are an excellent example to emulate.
One is somewhat bewildered at the Western Countries'  lackadaisical approach to the suffering of the Sikhs, Kashmiri Muslims and Christian Nagas at the hands of Indian government forces at such an unprecedented scale.  Nowhere in the world has any government pursued the kind of genocidal policies against a religious minority as in India since the Second World War.  Yet the only reaction has been
by human rights organizations, some legislators and press correspondents.  Contrast this with these governments'  reaction to the human rights abuses and the struggle for political emancipation in other areas, viz, the U.S.S.R., Europe and the Middle East.  Do these governments have two standards of assessment - one for the whites and another for the hapless minorities of India?  How long will they pander to the so-called largest "democracy" and look the other way when India deprives certain sections of its citizens of life, liberty and dignity with impunity?

Whilst direct politico-military intervention by the Western allies, as in the case of the Middle East (Israel-Arab feud) and in the Gulf (Iraq-Kuwait), may not be presently expedient, these powers can exert excruciating moral pressure on India to give freedom to the Sikhs.  Other  means of making India see reason is to link any form of aid and loan to a profound respect for human rights, the repeal of draconian laws, substantial reduction in the import of arms (India is by far the world's largest importer of sophisticated weapons) and to enable the Sikhs to exercise their right of self-determination under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to which India is a signatory.

This book sets out to place before the Indian and international bar of public opinion grounds for Sikh separation from Bharat, that is India.  It covers in some chronology the painful story of betrayals and discrimination.  The first chapter is a repeat of my booklet, "The Sikh Case" which I had written as President of the Bharat Mukti Morcha (Punjab).  Other major issues and events like Operation "Bluestar", Genocide, communal divide, politics of violence, Rajiv-Longowal Accord and the fate of Sikhs outside Punjab, have been dealt with separately under specific chapters.  The last chapter is a reproduction of the Constitutional Profile of the Khalsa Raj Party and the Declaration of Independence of the Sikh Homeland.

I have been asked both in and outside of India if there could be a solution to the Punjab (in reality, the Sikh) problem within the framework of the Indian constitution.  My answer invariably is NO.  The time is long past for any internal adjustment.  We trusted the Congress and Hindu leadership, ignoring at our own expense, the warning of Jinnah.  He said, "You have known Hindus as a subjugated race.  Once they come to power they will treat you the way they have treated shudras, a part of their own community." For countless centuries, shudras have been down graded to the level of subhumans; far worse than animals!
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is the second largest political party in India.  It has improved its presence in the Lok sabha from 2 to 130 MPs in less than two years.  Its leadership has for long been advocating transformation of India from secular into a theocratic Hindu State (Hindu Rashtra) and had left no doubt in the minds of the minorities about their future in that country.  Gowalker, the father of the resurgent ultra Hindu fundamentalism of which BJP is the latter day incarnation and which is fully implementing his Policy enunciated in his book "We are our Nationhood defined".  Here is a sample:

 "German race pride is a good lesson for us in India to learn and profit by.  The non-hindu people of India must adopt the Hindu culture and language, must learn to respect and hold in reverence Hindu religion, must entertain no ideas but those of the glorification of the Hindu race and culture.  They may stay in the country, wholly subordinated to the Hindu nation, claiming nothing, deserving no privileges, far less any preferential treatment, not even citizen's rights".
 
The Sikh militancy is the direct consequence of the Indian state's all out war against every facet of Sikh life - religion, language, history, culture, education and economy.  Treated as an expendable species, reduced to third grade citizens through a series of draconian laws, the likes of which no other country has on its statutes, and faced with the crimes committed against them by Indian security forces which even go beyond the scope of these draconian laws, a section of the Sikh community took to arms to free their homeland.  Small in numbers they have faced as many as 500,000 troops, paramilitary and police personnel and inflicted comparable damage on the adversary despite such heavy odds.  Sikh freedom fighters also filled the vacuum created by the doddering, collaborative and selfish Akali leadership which shamefacedly capitulated in the wake of India's onslaught.  Our heart goes out to those brave young men who have kept the flag flying notwithstanding that their life span is cut down to months or a few years after they join the ranks of the militants.

Although the Sikhs belonging to Congress and Communist parties are treated no different from other Sikhs when the chips are down, as during post Indira Gandhi genocide, they continue to sing their master's praises and sheepishly pride themselves as belonging to the national mainstream, a euphemism for collaborators and fence sitters.

In the life of every nation under siege, a situation and time come when it must decide whether to submit to or resist oppression.  That time is upon us.  In the context of the glorious Sikh tradition and logic of  history, the choice is obvious.  Sikhs have grievously suffered on account of political naivety of their leaders at the time of India's Independence and Partition in 1947.  But they can be forgiven for they knew not the mind and the character of the future Indian state.  There can be no excuse for the contemporary leadership and the valiant Sikh masses not to rise to the occasion and break the shackles of slavery.  A lost opportunity never comes back!

Khalistan will not only fulfill the Sikh aspirations but will usher in an era of peace in South Asia and make a positive contribution to the changing world order.  As a buffer state between India and Pakistan, which have perpetually remained in a state of cold or hot war ever since Independence, it will be a strong deterrent to their territorial ambitions.  Their defense budgets, far in excess of their financial resources and at the cost of the teeming millions who do not even get one square meal a day, can thus be substantially reduced.  South Asia could then adopt the European Common Market model to the benefit of all.

It may be pertinent to give the reader some idea of the government action taken against me after the 15th May Declaration.  I was immediately charged under Sections 24 and 53 of the Indian Penal Code.  I  applied for bail.  Whilst the case was still pending, the government lodged another FIR under TADA which has been briefly explained above.  Under this blackest of the black laws, one cannot post bail.  I was also directed to surrender my passport.  That left me with two options.  One, to go to prison and be subjected to torture and indignities for which Indian prisons are so notorious and possibly never see the light of day again.  Two, to escape from India.  I came to America via Nepal (there being no visa requirement for that country) to avoid possible arrest at the Delhi airport.

I have since been visiting various cities in the USA and explaining to the Sikh congregations and separate groups the situation in Punjab and the agony of the Sikh nation.

I  was recently invited by the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs, Peace Research Institute, Institute of Human Rights and Amnesty International, Norway to address the Seminar on Sikh Freedom and the Indian state held at Oslo on September 18, 1991.  My speech has been reproduced at Annexure 1. In fact I have written this preface on my return from Norway flying at 30,000 feet above the Atlantic Ocean.
I have resisted the temptation to discuss Indian government's  atrocities against other religious minorities like Christians of Nagaland,  Muslims of Kashmir, the ethnic minorities (of Mizoram and Assam), the exploitation of scheduled castes and tribes and the self created problems with China and other neighboring countries.  Likewise, the systematic destruction of the democratic institutions by the very people and the State organs-the Presidents, Prime Ministers, Parliament, the Judiciary  and the Chief Election Commission-who are sworn to uphold the constitution get only a passing treatment.  Gross mismanagement of almost all other affairs of the State-economic and fiscal; educational and welfare of the people; population control and the ever increasing expenditure on armed forces, paramilitary, police and the civil services which has brought India to the brink of bankruptcy had to be overlooked.  Doing so would have made this treatise unwieldy and to that extent shifted the focus from the central theme and purpose.

I wish to express my apology for some repetitions in the text and the annexures; due mainly to my desire to make each chapter and article independently self contained.  Parts of this book before Rajiv Gandhi's assassination have been retained unaltered to keep intact the assessment of the movement.
In conclusion, it would be pertinent to summarize the grounds for the Sikhs opting out of India.  Each one of these reasons provides good and sufficient basis for the creation of Khalistan.  Together, they constitute an impregnable substructure for its realization.
 

  These are:

   1) Betrayal:
 
   a) None of the promises and solemn commitments made to the Sikhs during the freedom struggle was honored.  The constitution framed was a total negation of the nationally agreed basic structure which had motivated the Sikhs to join Bharat.  It was so inimical to the Sikh interests that their representatives on the Constituent Assembly refused to sign it.
 
   b)    Far from their state, Punjab, being given an autonomous status it has been reduced to a sub-state; a mere colony of the Centre.
 
   2)   Degradation:
 
   Notwithstanding their enormous sacrifices during the freedom struggle and being lauded as the pride of India, the Sikhs were declared a "criminal tribe" within one year of Independence-a highly despicable, dishonorable and humiliating stigma.
 
   3) Discrimination:
 
     In practically every sphere, the Sikhs have been grossly discriminated against.
 
   a) Whilst the rest of the country had been reorganized on the basis of language, the
Sikhs had to peacefully agitate for 15 years before they got a truncated Punjabi
speaking state minus its capital and large chunks of adjoining Punjabi speaking areas.

       b)    Discrimination in enrollment in the defense and civil services contrary to the constitutional provisions.

4) Military Offensive:

Operations "Bluestar" and 'Woodrose" were an all out attack on the life, property, religion and cultural identity of the Sikhs.  Nothing of this kind and magnitude ever took place during the entire history of mankind even in the occupied territories during war.

5) Genocide:

The government directed genocide of the Sikhs after Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's assassination has no parallel.  Neither Nadir Shah nor Adolf Hitler incited the majority community to exterminate a minority community unlike Rajiv Gandhi.  Indeed all three used the government apparatus to commit inhuman and barbarous deeds.

6)  Economic Deprivation:

a)  By diverting its river waters, the only worthwhile natural resource, to non riparian states in violation of the well established national and international riparian laws and wresting control of the hydel projects the center has delivered a crippling economic blow to Punjab.  Once the plan is completed the state will be transformed from India's bread basket to pauperism.

b)  Through the government controlled banking system the bulk of savings of Punjab are invested in other states to the detriment of its economic development, public health, education and other welfare activities.
c)  Per capita investment in industry in Punjab is the lowest in the country thus depriving job opportunities to its youths and seriously undermining balanced growth.

7) Anti Sikh Policies:

Anti Sikh policies, amounting to selective genocide, have been pursued with ever escalating state repression since 1984.  Their democratic, civil and human rights have been forfeited through Presidential rule, draconian laws and deployment of hundreds of thousands of combat troops, paramilitary and police personnel in the Punjab representing less than 2 percent of India's land mass and population.  What is worse is that they can commit any crime without fear of retribution.  Tens of thousands of Sikhs have been massacred through extrajudicial killings, and many more subjected to all manner of barbarities-incarceration without trial for indefinite periods, torture, rape, humiliation and extortion at an enormous scale.

8) Political Segregation:

Punjab has been kept out of political process for a record period of nine years under Presidential rule.  It has now been in force for over four and a half years.  Since the Sikhs have no vote, no democratic rights, no civil liberties, they are fully justified in rejecting the constitution, to which they have never acceded, and disassociating themselves from that country.

What India has done to the Sikhs is so evil, it has no name.  It has violated every term and basis of the 1947 partnership with the Sikhs.  Consequently, the partnership stands dissolved and the political bond terminated.  The only solution is Khatistan.
 
 
 

GOD BLESS KHALISTAN

Col.  Partap Singh
President, Khalsa Raj Party
92 Sector 18A
Chandigarh 160018
Punjab, Khalistan
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

                CHAPTER I

EXCERPTS FROM
THE SIKH CASE

I  wrote "Genesis and Solution of the Punjab Problem -- The Sikh Case" immediately after assuming presidency of the Bharat Mukhi Morcha (Punjab) in October 1988.  The following excerpts from that booklet are relevant as an introduction to this monogram.  It shows how this writer had endeavored to use the national platform provided by the BMM to educate the public on the virulent antiSikh policy of the Congress and its successive governments since Independence and to suggest a solution.

The ongoing genocidal policies pursued by all the major national level parties, viz, BJP, Janata Dal, Smajvadi Janata Dal, CPI and CPM on the Congress (I) pattern, the total denial of democracy and human rights of the Sikhs, and the ever escalating state repression and uniformed brutalities have left them no option but a complete parting of the ways through the creation of an independent, sovereign Sikh homeland, Khalistan.  These "tracts from "The Sikh Case," therefore, serve only as a perception of the author three years ago and as background material.

FROM THE FOREWORD OF "THE SIKH CASE"

The Sikhs who made the greatest sacrifices for the honor and independence of India, their motherland, are being branded as secessionists, terrorists and anti-national.  Their psyche has been deeply wounded @ugh blatant acts of omission and commission by the Congress (1) Government which include a full scale military attack on their holiest shrine - The Golden Temple Amritsar and other historic gurdwaras where they had congregated to celebrate he martyrdom day of Guru Arjan Dev and the organized genocide of the community after late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's assassination in November 1984.  Tragedies beyond words!  Not a single person responsible for these monstrous crimes has been brought to book.

In fact, through persistent persecution, killings, indefinite detention and torture of innocent Sikhs, Goebbelsian anti-Sikh propaganda through the controlled media, false and exaggerated statements since Operation "Bluestar" public mind has been deeply poisoned.  Sikhs who were, until lately, highly respected in all parts of the country, are being humiliated and virtually treated as hostages.  No wonder those living outside Punjab feel so insecure that they are always on the look out for opportunities to leave their homes and businesses to rehabilitate themselves in Punjab or other countries.

Punjab, the most peaceful state until 1983, has become the most violent it is under virtual police siege.  Fundamental human rights and civil liberties are non-existent.  Justice and fair play are things of the past.  The slide towards(fascism , anarchy and armed revolution is a reality.  'there is little hope of the present rulers, who have brought about this situation, finding a just solution to this greatest political problem since Independence.  The Congress (I) policy viz-a-viz the Sikhs can be summed up in a few words.  Beat Sikhs and win elections.  Stash away illgotten wealth  in and outside India.  In stark repudiation of the adage "Equality before Law" twist it to cater to different categories of people in the following order: (I) for the prime minister; (ii) for his cronies - the Bachchans, the Chadhas, the Suris and the like; (iii) for the Congressmen; (iv) for the general public and none for the Sikhs.  Make solemn commitments and even sign accords with no intention of implementing them.  Appoint commissions to get engineered verdicts.  'Me only hope for the Sikhs and indeed the country is that the entire opposition unitedly takes up the challenge and create a truly democratic, secular polity and restore the rule of law.  The alternative is the specter of disintegration and Balkanisation of the country.
It may be remembered that during the emergency, clamped on the country by Mrs. Indira Gandhi, Sikhs were the only people)lc who launched the Gandhian type)e of peaceful agitation fill it was lifted.  Twice as many Sikhs courted arrest as The total number during the Quit India Movement.  Now that the Sikhs are being subjected to multi-pronged onslaught, the Non-Congress (1) parties should rise to the occasion and force the Centre to mend its ways.

It is a matter of shame that in the land of the greatest apostles of peace, the Buddha, Guru Nanak and Mahatma Gandhi, Indians have killed more Indians since Independence than during the 200 years of foreign rule in peace time: not including The holocaust during partition.

BONDS OF BLOOD

3. Common heritage particularly between I Hindus( and Sikhs in regard to cultural, linguistic and socioeconomic is a unique historic experiment in communal harmony.  By and large Hindus
 have regarded the Sikh Gurus as their own Gurus and the Sikhs have enthusiastically participated in all Hindu Festivals.  To substantiate this aspect of the Hindu-Sikh unity, it is worth recalling what Prof.  Gokal Chand had said in England in 1908 when he was addressing a congregation comprising of Britishers, Hindus and only a sprinkling of Sikhs - "Guru Gobind Singh is to us Hindus as Christ is to Christians."

PL Madan Mohan Malaviya exhorted that at least one member in every Hindu family should become a Sikh.

Even after the partition Pt.  Jawahar La] Nehru, appreciating contribution of the progressive and hardy Sikhs to the economy of the country said, "I wish every Indian becomes a Sikh."

4. It is a great pity, therefore, that to gain petty political advantages such as setting up Congress governments in Punjab and Haryana, the Congress-I brought about communal divide of unprecedented dimension.  The only silver lining is that there is still a large number of sensible people in the two communities who have not lost their sense of proportion and have tried to maintain the age-old relationship.  It is also fortunate that despite the fact that there have been a number of cases of revenge killings and destruction of the Sikh property in the wake of some terrorist actions in Punjab, there has been no such reaction against the Hindus who are extremely vulnerable in villages of Punjab where they are a tiny minority.  The number of Sikhs killed by the extremists is far more than the Hindus which proves that even the extremist groups of the Sikhs are not anti-Hindu.  Theirs is a fight against the government tyranny and injustice.
 
 
 
 
 

ROLE OF THE SIKHS IN THE STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE

5. The Sikhs from their very inception fought for India's freedom and restoration of secularism in the country.  They fought resolutely against the formation of Pakistan and to safeguard national integrity.  It was mainly the result of their sacrifices that the present day Punjab (and Haryana) were retained in India.  At that point of time, they rejected outright the offer made by Mr. Jinnah for an autonomous State for Sikhs within Pakistan and threw their lot with their Hindu brethren in India; their motherland.  In appreciation of the great patriotic spirit of the Sikhs and in gratitude for the tremendous sacrifices made by them in upholding their age-old kinship with Hindus, a special political status within India was agreed to by the Indian National Congress and announced publicly by Jawahar Lal Nehru himself.  He said; "The brave Sikhs of the Punjab are entitled to special consideration; I see nothing wrong in an area and a set up in the North where in the Sikhs can also experience the glow of freedom."

6.It can be asserted that the Sikh leadership opted to cast their lot with India as an act of faith and in the firm belief that the values nurtured by their religion, history and tradition will best flourish in the democratic secular country envisioned by Gandhi and Nehru rather than in a theocratic and perhaps feudally inclined Pakistan.  They also believed that their identity and future would be safe in a federal structure foreseen in the constitutional evolution of the new Indian State.  This hope was founded on a firm, clear and solemn commitment by Mahatma Gandhi as far back as 1931.  The events that led to this were as follows:

7.A Committee was formed by the Indian National Congress in 1928 under the chairmanship of Motilal Nehru to prepare a frame-work of the Constitution for free India.  In its report)rt the Committee upheld the principle of communal reservation for the Muslims while denying the same to other minorities like Sikhs.  When Sikh leaders expressed grave thoughts concerning their future in India, the Congress Party, in its annual session at Lahore in 1929, passed a resolution that on achieving independence, no Constitution would be framed unless it was acceptable to Sikhs.  Before the second Round Table Conference organized by the government of Ramsay MacDonald in 1931 to discuss the recommendations of the Simon Commission, a Sikh leader, Madhusudan Singh, confronted Gandhi when he came to address a conference in Gurudwara Sisganj in Delhi with the question as to what guarantee there was that the Indian National Congress would implement the resolution of 1928 after India became free.  Gandhi declared: "I ask you to accept my word and the Resolution of tire Congress that it will not betray a single individual much less a community.  Let God be the witness of the bond that binds me and the Congress with you".  When pressed further Gandhi said that Sikhs would be justified in drawing their swords out of the scabbards as (Guru) Govind Singh had asked them to, if the Congress would resile from its commitment (Young India, March 19, 193 1).

8.The Sikhs believed that the leadership of Indian National Congress had a firm, irrevocable and sincere commitment to the creation of a State wherein justice, social and political, complete equality before law, welfare of the under-privileged and principles that govern a modem secular State shall be pursued with deep and abiding commitment.  This was a fundamental premise that motivated Sikhs to cast their lot with India.

9.Mahatma Gandhi passed away soon after independence in Jan. 1948.  Unfortunately, Pandit Nehru through his utterances and actions at the time of reorganization of the States on linguistic basis created an impression among the Sikhs that he had resiled from the promises made to them by Gandhi and by himself.  Furthermore, the evolution of the Indian State has given the Sikhs a cause for deep concern; as the Indian State seems to subscribe to democratic and secular values more in letter than in spirit.

10.The Sikhs have a very strong sense of history and a long unbroken tradition of struggle against injustice, discrimination and oppression, (Witness: Guru Teg Bahadur's defense of the Kashmiri Pandits' right to their own way of worship even though the Sikh Gurus firmly repudiated Brahminism and the observance of rituals).  They are now beginning to wonder if the clock of democratic evolution is being pushed back and the Indian State becoming an engine of repression of the weak, numerically inferior, the poor and the underprivileged.

11. Indian National Congress had consistently propagated a federal structure for the new India with autonomous unilingual States and had pledged constitutional safeguards to the minorities.  In 1949 the Central Government formally elicited views of the Punjab Legislature on the draft constitution.  The Akali representatives, reminding Congress of its promises, reiterated: -

"It has been the declared policy of the Congress from the outset that India is to be the Union of autonomous States and each unit to develop in its own way, linguistically, culturally and socially.  Of course, Defense, Communication and Foreign Affairs must and should remain the Central Subjects.  To change the basic policy now is to run counter to the oft repeated creed of the Congress."

Flouting its own solemn promises to the Sikhs a basically unitary form of Constitution was framed.  In protest, the Sikh representatives in the Constituent Assembly did not sign the constitution.  Strictly, therefore, the Sikhs are not a party to the Indian Constitution.  Indeed that in no way detracts from the unmatched patriotism of the Sikhs for their motherland-India.  What is required is to effect such changes in the Constitution that will ensure their perpetual, enthusiastic and @traditional sense of loyalty.

FORMATION OF PUNJABI SUBA

12. The Punjabi Hindus prompted by the Congress party ruling at the Centre opposed the formation of unilingual Punjabi State by disowning their mother tongue, thereby separating themselves from the Sikhs.  This sinister falsehood was perpetuated to thwart the formation of the Punjabi @speaking State when the map of the rest of the country had been redrawn on the basis of language.  The Sikhs nat@naturally felt aggrieved, as the Central stance was openly anti-Sikh in this case also.  This became the basis for communalizing politics in Punjab which eventually developed into the Hindu-Sikh divide.

13. The Sikhs had thus to wage a 15 year long struggle for the formation of the unilingual Punjab (Punjabi Suba).  During this period which saw many agitations, the Sikhs were regularly being dubbed as communal, anti-national and even antiHindu by the Punjabi speaking Hindus.  This misinformation about them hurt
them even more as it was utterly against their socio-political philosophy.

14. During the 1965 Indo-Pak War, the high unalloyed patriotism of the Sikhs was amply demonstrated by the soldiers and civilians alike.  It had to be recognized and, as a result, the Government reluctantly acceded to the formation of Punjabi Suba The following year.  But a great deal of anti-Sikh bias played havoc with the whole process so that only a truncated Sub-State with limited powers was formed.  Even its capital city Chandigarh and large chunks of Punjabi speaking areas were kept out The crucial subjects about the control, development and distribution of the waters and hydel power of Punjab rivers was kept in central hands in violation of Constitution and the precedents set everywhere else.  On the whole, it was yet another instance of discrimination.  Even more serious struggle had to be waged for Chandigarh, left over Punjabi areas, and the river waters and hydel power.  This further embittered Hindu-Sikh relations and increased the feeling of discrimination and loss of faith in The Central Government.

SUB-STATE

15. The factual position at present is that not only have the Congress and its government gone back on Their commitment of an autonomous state within India but Punjab has been given an even lower status than other states.

Examples

(a) Territorial Issue: After the enunciation of Sachar Formula in 1949 the Punjab was divided into two distinct parts: one comprising Punjabi-speaking areas and the other Hindi-speaking.  This demarcation was fully accepted and supported by one and all.  Later, the Central Government devised a legislative measure under the name of Regional Formula.  Nobody ever questioned the fairness of this demarcation.  When ultimately the Punjabi Suba was formed, this clear-cut division was ignored and a new boundary in which large chunks of territory were ceded to the newly created States of Haryana and Himachal Pradesh was outlined.  This mischief was a glaring case of discrimination and had in it the seeds of perpetuating disharmony.  It is amazing how the Central Government goes out of its way to complicate simple issues rather than solving them.  In the process it sets one section of the Indian society against the other, and to achieve its ends it has under-mined practically every democratic institution.  What could be more anti-national than the policies of the biggest political party, the present Congress?

(b) State Capital: Whilst elsewhere in the country the state capitals e.g. Bombay to Maharshtra, Madras to Tainil Nadu and Simla to Himachal were retained in the
reorganized state in which they were located, in the case of Chandigarh, Punjab is being bullied to compensate Haryana by giving the latter large areas of agricultural land which had been accepted by all concerned as Punjabi-speaking.  Indira Gandhi awarded Fazilka and Adohar tehsils to Haryana in lieu.  A special clause was inserted in the Rajiv-Longowal accord to achieve a similar objective.

 (c)River Waters:

(i) In its nefarious game of denying the constitutional rights of Punjab over its rivers and hydel power, the Centre included Sections 78 to 80 in the Punjab Reorganization Act 1966 which enabled it to give 75% of these resources to the non-riparian states of Haryana, Rajasthan and Delhi through the Government of India Order of 1976.  The powers of control, administration and running of the multi purpose projects and headworks on these Punjab rivers were completely transferred from the Punjab Government to the Central Government.  The extension or development of these projects involving both irrigation and power also vests in the Central Government Not only is it unconstitutional but Punjab is the only state in the country from where these strictly state subjects have been taken away from the purview of the State Government.  The decision of the Narmada Tribunal which was argued by the best legal talent of the country including Palkhiwala, Dapthary, A.K.Sen, Nariman and Niren De is worth quoting:

The State of Rajasthan is not entitled to any portion of the waters of Narmada basin on the ground that the State of Rajasthan is not a co-riparian State or that no portion of its territory is situated in the basin of the river Narmada."

Haryana, Rajasthan and Delhi are non-riparian States as all these are outside the basin of the Punjab rivers.

(ii) Out of 105 lakh acres of cultivable land in Punjab about 90 lakh acres are presently irrigated .  Double cropping needs 5 or 6 acres feet annually.  Approximately 37 lakh acres are partially irrigated by canals and 53 lakh acres by tubewells.  Against 3 to 3.5 m.a.f. of sub-soil (re-chargeable) water available for drawing, seven lakh tube wells are extracting nearly 12 m.a.f. thus seriously depleting this source at present.  With nearly one lakh tube wells being added annually, the problem will become even more acute.  The time is not far (Government's Dhillon Committee Report estimation - 10 years) when it will not be possible to draw water from the resultant lower water table making 80% of 53 lac acres barren.  The havoc it will create to the ecological and social environment of the region is mind-boggling besides totally destroying the economy of the Stale.  Punjab which is now contributing 73 percent of good grain to the national
kitty will become a deficit state.  Remember, it was the progressive Punjabi farmer who turned the deficit East Punjab at the Lime of partition into the grainary of India because of water availability.  Otherwise the country would still be tied to the apron strings of PL-480.  River water is the only natural resources or wealth of Punjab on which depends its economic existence and prosperity.

(iii) In order to save ]Punjab from ruin, diverting its river waters to non-riparian states must be forthwith stopped.  Against the assessed requirement of 50 to 60 m.a.f. water today, the available fiver water is only 32 m.a.f. There is, therefore, not a drop to spare.  Any arrangement for sharing Punjab resources between Punjab and the neighboring States must be left to them to be worked out on strictly commercial basis.  Since the Central Government has, through its pronounced partisan policies, turned this simple constitutional problem into a highly complex issue, the matter should be referred to the Supreme Court whence it was maneuvered out.  The commissions and tribunals have been reduced to instruments of the Centre's devious ways to achieving its petty goals.  The Sikhs can no longer accept Their verdicts because the present allotment will further reduce the 37 lacs canal irrigated area to 21 lacs acres, bringing down the currently irrigated areas to less than 30 lac acres.  Similarly the transfer of substantial quantum of hydel power %will seal the fate of its industrial progress in future.

Bhitidranwala Phenomenon

16. Impartial historians have established that the Bhindranwala phenomenon was not the product of alleged Sikh separatism.  It was the direct result of ix)political intrigue of the ruling political party.   For the same devious reasons, the Government then turned against Sant Bhindranwala when he was not prepared to further the designs of the government.

OPERATION "BLUESTAR"

17. What was happening in the Golden Temple was known to the government and its agencies months before the attack.  The massive assault on the holiest Sikh shrine was a most unjustifiable and a totally avoidable action.  'ne Sikhs cannot but be incensed that the Operation was launched on the martyrdom day of Guru Arjan Dev.  It is unimaginable that whatever might happen, the Saudi Arabian Government will mount a comparable assault on the Holy site of Mecca or The Italian government on the Holy Vatican City.

18. Besides numerous casualties among the defenders including Sant Bhidranwala and ex-Maj.  Gen.  Shabheg Singh, a large number of pilgrims comprising men, women and children perished.  The destruction of Akal Takhat, Darshani Deohri with priceless objects-de-art, library with rare manuscripts (burnt after cease fire) and many other buildings in the Complex was an equally unpardonable offense.  Here was a case in which maximum force including guns and were recklessly employed against their own people.  Hundreds of pilgrims were picked up and kept under unlawful detention, as being civilians they could not be detained without judicial sanction.  A large number of them are still under detention in Jodhpur Jail including employees of the SGPC.

19. 39 Children (aged 2-14) were kept in unlawful custody before the Supreme Court ordered their release in Sept. 84.  Despite repeated requests by the Sikhs, no list of casualties is furnished.  This is perhaps the only country in the world in modem times where people can be deprived of their liberty without recourse to any judicial scrutiny for years.  Because of the false and persistent propaganda, people were made to believe that there was no alternative to a full scale attack on the most venerated shrine of the Sikhs.

20. Scavengers were paid large amounts of money to load and cart away the dead  and dying to be buried or cremated enmasse.  Even General Dyer had handed over  the bodies of the Jalianwala Bagh massacre to their relatives for performance of  the last rites with solemnity and honor due to the dead.

21. Operation "Woodrose", which followed, let loose a reign of terror in the countryside resulting in large number of young people being killed and imprisoned.  Some among them fled across the border to Pakistan.  For the latter, it was god-send.  Pakistan has been wanting to create a situation to do the 'Bangladesh' on India.

22. Altogether the situation in Punjab was made worse than even in the lands occupied in war.  Atrocities committed on the people are too gruesome to be recorded.

23. The troops were indoctrinated against the Sikhs over a period of time which not unnaturally resulted in their attitude towards all Sikhs who wear long hair.  No wonder they committed such wanton destruction of life and property against their own countrymen in gross repudiation of the age old tradition of the use of minimum force.  A circular known as "BAATCHEET" (Talking Points) is routinely sent to all formations and units which commanders at various levels use to 'educate' the soldiers on current topics.  Here is an extract from the July 1984 issue of "BAATCHEET":

ALTHOUGH majority of the terrorists hove been dealt with and bulk of the arms and ammunition recovered, yet a large number of them are still at large.  They have to be subdued to achieve the final aim of restoring peace on the country.  Any knowledge of the`Amritdharis' + who are dangerous people and pledged to commit murder, arson and acts of terrorism should immediately be brought to the notice of the authorities.  These people may appear harmless from outside but they are basically committed to terrorism.  In the interest of all of us, their identity and whereabouts must always be disclosed.

All baptized Sikhs who were long hair are ‘Amritdharis'.  At the time of Bluestar, The President of India and the present Home Minister and indeed all Sikh Ministers and other government functionaries are all ‘Amritdharis' dangerous people and pledged to commit murder, arson and acts of terrorism!!)

ASSASSINATION

24.  The engineered genocide of the Sikhs after Mrs. Indira Gandhi=s assassination in Delhi and elsewhere has left deep scars on the Sikh psyche.  A patriotic, self-sacrificing and traditionally the most valiant defenders of the motherland were cut down, burnt alive and done to death in a most cruel manner in many parts of the country, particularly in the Congress (I) ruled States.  The holocaust was worst in Delhi where thousands of Sikhs were killed, their woman gang-raped and abducted, and some 500 Gurdwaras burnt.  The ruling party under directions from above perpetuated all this.  None ever shed a tear or spared a word of sympathy.  Not only has no action been taken against the criminals but they have been rewarded with important positions including minister ships.

25.  The Golden Temple had been destroyed and desecrated in the past but those who did it were outsiders.  Every time the persons responsible for the sacrilege were exterminated.  This time the descreation was committed by our own government and therefore the sin involved was hundredfold.  Assassination of the Prime Minister and the Chief of Army Staff should be viewed in that perspective.  After the BLUESTAR@, this general massacre of the Sikh community is the darkest act in Indian history and an act of betrayal and ingratitude towards Sikhs, the age-old soldiers of Hindustan.  Dubbing the Sikh community as secessionist and terrorists is a ploy of the Congress (I) Government to hide its own shameful conduct over a decade in pushing the Sikhs into alienation just for selfish party aggrandizement.

26.  Let us see who fought and sacrificed most for national freedom.  70 percent of those sent to gallows, exiled or killed at Jalianwala Bagh, Budge Ghat and in Akali and Kuka movements were Sikhs and let it be known that they formed less than 2 percent of the total population.  Nearly 90 percent of those who were exiled in Andaman and Nicobar Islands were also Sikhs.  Although during the second World War, Sikhs formed about 25% of the Armed Forces, 60 percent of them joined the Indian National Army raised by General Mohan Singh and later by Subhash Chander Bose.  How come, the Sikhs who treated whole of India as their motherland and sacrificed most for her honor have suddenly become antinational?

THE ECONOMIC FACTOR

27.  Whereas the Sikhs outside Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan are based in the cities, in the aforesaid states they are very largely rural people with employment opportunities in agriculture and soldiering; fields in which they have been recognized as practitioners par excellence.  They proved to be the best colonizers wherever new ground had to be broken in development of agriculture in virgin lands whether these were the newly irrigated canal colonies of Lyallpur, Montgomery and Sargodha etc. (now in Pakistan), Ganga Nagar district of Rajasthan in the early 1920s or in the most inhospitable Terai lands in UP after independence.  It will be a safe guess that along with the state of Punjab the Sikh farmers in Haryana and Terai areas of U.P. contribute more than 80% of the marketable surplus of food grains in the country.  'Their contribution in blood and toil in soldiering would stand out likewise.

28.  It is an axiom of economics of rural agriculture development that as the stock of cultivable land in a state approaches near full exploitation and particularly when resources of water and power are strained, there must be major shifts in the employment pattern away from rural agriculture to urban industrial employment In the last 120 years, the agricultural employment in USA has shrunk from 60% to 3% and the same pattern is being followed in other developed and developing countries.

29.  Historically the Punjabi farmers have found sources of employment for increasing population of rural manpower, in colonizing new lands, through entry to the armed forces and through emigration out of @a i.e. to UK and Canada in the 60s and to Middle East in the 70s.  These traditional avenues for employment of rural youth of Punjab had been exhausted by the year 1980.  Unfortunately the problem was exacerbated with the governments of Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh embarking on policies which effectively prevented the farmers from Punjab to move into newly opened areas in the horticulture of Himachal Pradesh or the canal colonies of Rajasthan.  This is despite the fact that 52% waters of Punjab rivers are being given to Rajasthan even when it is a non-riparian state.  Such a situation is bound to lead to economic distress and strong resentment among the  youth in Punjab unless counter active measures are taken immediately and with a long term perspective to reverse the aforesaid policies and by making massive investments in industry and technical/industrial education within the State of Punjab.  Here it is pertinent to note that credit deposit ratio of the nationalized banks in Punjab is practically the lowest in the whole country which is indicative of the fact that the growth of industrial development in Punjab is totally stagnant compared to equally progressive States such as Maharashtra, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu.

SIKHS AND THE DEFENSE SERVICES

30.  The foregoing economic analysis has to be seen in the background of earlier pattern of employment available to the rural youth; mainly the Sikhs.  Recognizing the fighting qualities of the Sikhs, the British Govemment soon after the annexation of Punjab, not only incorporated some of the units of the Lahore Darbar into the British Indian Army but also recruited Sikhs into all types of Combatant and Service units far in excess of their population.  During the first World War, Sikhs comprised approximately 30 percent of the Indian Army and during the Second World War nearly 25 percent This writer joined the Indian Military Academy shortly after the second World War when courses for permanent regular commission had been commenced after the war.  The Sikh cadets comprised nearly 1/3 of the total which included Muslim cadets in the undivided India.

31.  At present, the Sikh representation in the Armed Forces is down to about 8 percent The Sikhs would have no complaint had this been the outcome of the process of selection by merit as prevails in other employment avenues offered by the government. lf the unconstitutional policy of recruitment to the Defense Services on the basis of  population is not immediately revoked, the Sikhs in the Army will be reduced toabout 2 percent.  Besides causing serious economic distress to the Sikh families, this policy will undoubtedly have disastrous repercussions on the Defense capabilities of the country.  In its final analysis it is the man behind the gun that matters and any notion that with the sophistication in weaponry tradition and martial qualifies arc no longer relevant, is fraught with great danger.  Furthermore, proposed system is contrary to the general method of merit alone governing recruitment to all other public Services-vices.  It is also violative of the principle of equality of opportunity embodied( in Articles 15 and 16 of the Indian Constitution.  It may be worth quoting the famous Pakistan General, Atiqu-ur-Rehman, "Sikhs are the finest soldiers in the world because they have the best combination of mental and physical endurance."

32.  It cannot be too strongly emphasized that populist, discriminatory and unconstitutional policies particularly in matters such as recruitment to the Defense Services in proportion to a particular community's numbers will gravely endanger the security of India.

BLACK LAWS

33.  The draconian laws enacted during the past few years have reduced Punjab to a tyrannical police State and high degree of fascism.  Life and liberty of the Sikhs in Punjab is at the mercy of the Government agencies and even a low level cop can deprive them of these God given attributes.  There are numerous examples of the State police and the paramilitary forces killing innocent people with impunity.  No action is ever taken against those who have indulged in these heinous crimes.  Being too well known and for want of space, no examples are considered necessary.  Heads of the State Police openly state that they would continue hiring men to kill so called terrorists.  Would anyone call such a State civilized or democratic?

34.  Individual terrorism has emerged as a result of State terrorism let loose in this unfortunate land since the time of Operation "Bluestar".  More and more stringent laws have been enacted which have empowered the Government to perpetrate even greater repression.  It has been proved not only in Punjab but elsewhere in the world that for self-respecting and brave people, harsher the Government oppression more determined the resistance.  It is in the national interest, therefore, that the black laws violating the basic fundamental human rights enshrined in the Indian Constitution are repealed.

CURRENT SITUATION

35.  We have seen that Punjab today is virtually under police siege.  The Government has all but appropriated to itself even God's control over His creation, life and destiny.  The concept of human rights and civil liberties are totally non-existent.  People are shot or detained without trial for long periods.  Some are picked up and disappear never to be seen again.  Torture in its worst forms has become the order of the day in virtually every police station and interrogation centre.  The innocent who comprise the largest majority are frustrated and in vain hope for a political solution for a political problem to which the present rulers have persistently turned a deaf ear.  It is all the more unfortunate that evasion of a just settlement of the Punjab problem is because of petty political and communal considerations.  A just and fair solution will interalia require punishment of the guilty for massacring thousands of innocent Sikhs.  And how can one expect that from the present government, which is itself responsible for this monumental crime?

36.  We have also seen that individual terrorism is the direct consequence of the state terrorism and repressive policies of the government.  It is believed that there are four main categories of terrorists operating in Punjab;

 (a)  Those young men who are highly motivated and seek achievement of their aim through armed struggle, since the government high handedness, repression and injustice have left no other option.
 
 (b)  Anti-social elements like smugglers and robbers who are making use of the situation and masquerading as extremists fighting for the cause.
 
 (c)    Government agents, mostly policemen who are on paper dismissed, declared deserters or those in active service given the necessary wherewithal: transport Without license plates, body guards, weapons and targets.  They operate either through infiltration in the two gangs mentioned above or independently.
 
       (d)  A second category of the government sponsored "Sikh militants" are criminals who are grouped to         commit to worst of crimes - wiping out families, killing political leaders to turn their parties against the         Sikhs.  They are given Sikh form and apparel and taught rudimentary knowledge of the Sikh traditions.         Majority of the 'militants' who surrendered during Operation Black Tilunder were from this category.

37.  Among certain people state of helplessness and demoralization is so acute that The parents have started disowning their children who have been picked up even though they are innocent A case in point: When The mother of three young boys was asked to make a report to the higher authorities after one of her sons was taken-en into custody by the police said in sobs;"And lose the other two also!"

38.  The police seem to be concentrating more on extorting money and indulging in other unlawful activities than in the performance of legitimate role of apprehending the militants and the anti-social elements.

39.  The high and mighty in the administration move about in a manner which will put to shame The commanding generals of the occupying forces.  The "VIPs" travel with a number of cars and jeeps, in front and rear, packed with armed personnel and mounted machine guns.  It is at once an awesome and disgraceful sight.  Imagine the cost of maintaining these public servants!

40.  Thousands of young Sikhs languishing in jails suffer indignities and torture and their families the agony of uncertainty, loss and disgrace.  The country suffers in a different way.  These are the very people who constitute a productive work force in agriculture and industry; in institutions of learning and sports; the military academies and training centers.  Those outside prison know not when their turn will come.

41.  Whether in Punjab or elsewhere in India the Sikhs are deeply concerned about the safety of the latter.  They are being virtually treated as hostages.  They are threatened and humiliated.  They are ordered to procure "hukamnamas" from Akal Takht - knowing full well that they have no means of doing so - or to suffer social and economic boycott.  Sikh students are butchered or kidnaped with the active connivance of police.  The recent Bidar (Karanatka) incidents are a glaring example of this form of repression.

42.  The Sikh leadership, both political and religious, is being regularly made irrelevant.  A person or a group is propped up only to be thrown out and humiliated when it suits government design.  A rival is promoted to nullify the first by whatever method, including imprisonment under NSA etc.  This game has now become the most prominent government ploy.  No wonder, the Prime Minister can turn around and say that he does not know who to talk to.  Recall the dozen meetings - bilateral between the Akalis and the Government and tripartite with leaders from Opposition parties before "Bluestar" in two of which agreements were hammered out only to be thwarted by the then Prime Minister at the last moment.  In short the government has the capacity and guile to perpetuate and complicate the issues in stark contradiction to the constitutional guarantees, law and principles of justice and fair play.  Government has used and manipulated the Akali leadership-mediocre at best of times-to serve its own objectives.  But the Akali's share in bringing about the present situation, however, is minimal.
43.  Senior Government functionaries have started saying publicly - "We are
fighting a war in Punjab.  I do not see peace in the State for another 50 years - J. F. Rebeiro, Advisor to the Government of Punjab.  Here is a clear and unambiguous confession of policy failure.
 
 

SUMMARY

44.  The solution of the Punjab problem, which due to the acts of omission and commission of the Government and the media, has acquired the dimensions of a 'Sikh Problem' and is considered by participants and observers alike as the first major test of Indian federal polity.  It is a pity that in dealing with a hardy, industrious, brave and self-respecting people, the present Indian Government has embarked upon a campaign of repression and calumny, motivated by short term considerations of partisan politics and electoral success for the benefit of Congress-1.  This has led to historical denouement unprecedented in the history of Sikhs who have a long memory of resistance to cruelty and repression by the decadent Mughal State or marauding Afghan adventurers like Ahmed Shah Abdali.  The Sikhs, particularly those in Punjab, are finding it impossible to come to terms with the fact that in June 1984, the Akal Takhat was destroyed for the first time in history; not by the foreign marauders but by the legions of Indian Army on the orders of an elected government at Delhi.

45.  Punjab problem has two basic dimensions that ought to be considered separately; post "Bluestar" phase and the pre"'Bluestar.... phase.  The attack on the Golden Temple, the holiest Sikh shrine, is an attack on the very foundation of the Sikh religion and the Sikh conscience.  The question in mind of every thinking Sikh in and outside Punjab has been that when Jallianwala Bagh massacre, a tragedy of much smaller magnitude, was perpetrated by Gen.  Dyer, even an alien Government was forced to appoint an inquiry commission with two Indian members and Lhat commission put Dyer in the dock.  Whereas the Indian Army assault resulted in wanton destruction and loss of life many times more than at Jaillianwala Bagh, no impartial inquiry has been instituted in free India.  This contrast is too disturbing, glaring and humiliating to be forgotten by the Sikhs.  Government attitude and the misrepresentation of the Sikhs by the Indian media make the Sikhs wonder whether they should entertain the hope of being treated as equal and fraternal members of the supposedly secular and democratic country.  Clearly, such distracting sense of discrimination is heightened by the fact that the Government talks of release of Jodhpur detainees or punishing the perpetrators of November carnage as 'concessions' to the Sikhs to be given at an appropriate time in the process of 1)political bargaining.  This is the depth to which the government has descended.  Failure by Indian Parliament in not even passing a resolution of regret and sympathy for the victims of November 1984 pogrom is another fact that no Sikh can ignore.

46. The redressal of excesses of operation "Bluestar" and subsequent repression in Punjab is a sinquinon of starting a dialogue with the Sikh community.  It is essential first to undo the wrongs of "Bluestar", "Woodrose" and Nov. 84 holocaust.  Since June 1984, the Golden Temple has been under the control or siege of the police.  Now the Government has passed The Act, separating Religion from Politics.  This Act strikes at the very root of Sikh religious tradition which is a congregational religion with a combination of "Miri" and "Piri" doctrines created by the Gurus.  Even more necessary than anything else is the undoing of these two steps before anyone can be reasonably convinced that Government is serious to solve The Punjab problem.  Only thereafter a stage can be set for meaningful process to dead with the grievances and aspirations of the Sikh community and Punjab.  It is also imperative that free and unmanipulated elections to the SGPC in Punjab and Delhi Gurdawara Parbandhak Committee are held as a matter of urgency so that angry Sikh young men can be brought into the political process, at least  partially.  This, of course, is on the assumption that The government shall take the step of initiating general amnesty for Sikh militants as has been secured for Tamil militants in a foreign land.

47.  Far from following a logical and positive course in respect of Gurdwara elections, the Government has been persisting with its manipulative scheme of foisting various Sikh leaders in the Sikh religious places in the vain hope of controlling major Sikh religious institutions and through them the Sikh masses.  Some Sikhs wonder and articulate the thought of shape of India if the Sikhs had not wholeheartedly cast their lot in India.  Here only the following facts are worth examining:

(a) The border of Pakistan would have been somewhere close to Delhi without
access to Kashmir.

(b)In the tie vote in the constituent assembly between English and Hindi for choice as the link language of the Union, the day was won for the latter not really by the casting vote of Dr. Rajendra Prasad but by the votes of the Akali members of the Constituent Assembly.
 
 

SOLUTION
 

TEMPORARY

48.  There can be no two opinions that situation in Punjab requires a sound, long term political solution.  There is the specter of armed revolution by the militants seeking an independent Sikh Home Land - Khalistan.  This extreme step is clearly the result of betrayal, gross injustice and brutalities of the Congress Government against the Sikhs.  Even those Sikhs who are against the formation of Khalistan are increasingly getting disillusioned by the policies and actions of the present rulers.  No Sikh can be a passive on-looker when he we his community being humiliated, its places of worship destroyed, its traditional institutions decimated and its youth killed or jailed.  There is virtually no law to protect the innocent against the cruelties perpetrated by the massive deployment of police, para military and other agencies who seem not to be accountable for their actions.  And the black laws shut out recourse to judicial interventions.  It is being openly said that time is not far when, in some districts of Punjab, it will be difficult to find Sikh boys for matrimonial alliances for the Sikh girls.
 
 

49.  It is our considered opinion that the solution to the Punjab problem should be on the following lines:-

 Firstly, the solemn commitment made before Independence for creation of an autonomous Sikh State  within India should be honored.  This will largely meet the Sikh aspirations and put an end to       agitations, morchas, bickers and ugly situations like the present one.  It will also result in India      emerging a stronger rather than a weaker country.

Secondly, in order to build a base for the long term permanent solution, some
immediate steps are necessary as a pre-requisite.  These are:-

(i) General amnesty for all detainees and those detained under various black laws.
 
(ii)  Repeal of all black laws and revoke of the notorious 59th Amendment.

   (iii)  Repeal of the law separating religion and politics.  In the long and deeply cherished Sikh          tradition of "Miri" and "Piri" concept - one supplements the other and makes for a stronger and      more just polity.
 
   (iv) Necessary legal, constitutional and administrative measures should be taken to urgently stop     the unconstitutional and ruinous drain of the water and hydel power wealth of Punjab to non-        riparian States of Haryana and Rajasthan.  Till that is done, the position as on Oct. 1966 should     be an accomplished fact not to prejudice the issue.

   (v)  Boundary between Punjab and the neighboring States of Haryana andHimachal to be on the      basis of Sachar/Regional Formula.

    (vi)   Recruitment to the Defense Services to be strictly on merit and immediate withdrawal of the      unconstitutional population formula.

    (vii)   Setting up of separate enquiry commissions and non-Sikhs representatives to go into            "Operation Blue Star" and Nov. 1984 massacres.

    (viii)   Over due elections for SGPC and DGPC to be held and control and management of              shrines entrusted to them as a matter of urgency.

     (ix)   Vilification campaign and persistent anti-Sikh propaganda through the Government               controlled media must be stopped forthwith.

PERMANENT

50.  There being no alternative to the formation of an autonomous slate within India, the structure of such a State is what should engage the deliberations of the Opposition leaders.  Here is a broad outline to serve as a basis:

(i) It should comprise all contiguous Punjabi speaking areas without bringing in the                       consideration of any community.  'The time tested Sachar/Regional Formula is ideally suited.

      (ii)    It must have full internal automony with complete control over its economy.  Only Defense,        Foreign Affairs, Communications and Currency to be Central Subjects.
 
 

Note:
'The solution suggested above was from the Bharat Mukti Morcha platform. Indian government's reaction was total rejection and stepping up repression of The Sikhs.  It is, therefore, of mere academic and historic interest. The only solution now is for the creation of a full fledged Independent, Sovereign Sikh Homeland - KHALISTAN.

CHAPTER 11
 

DEVELOPMENTS SINCE
THE PUBLICATION OF
THE SIKHS CASE
 
 

Seminar

Since the publication Of the booklet "Genesis and Solution of the Punjab problem - The Sikh Case".  I wrote as President of the Bharat Mukti Morcha (Punjab) in October 1988, many important developments have taken place which deserve the consideration of India watchers and others interested in the Punjab trauma.  BMM organized two day seminar on 'Analysis and Solution of the Punjab Problem' was held at Chandigarh on November 5-6, 1988.  Largely attended the seminar was addressed by more than 20 speakers.  Whilst the audience was by and large from North India, the speakers were from all over the country.  They were all eminent persons and represented major human activities, viz., religious, political, social, human rights, education, law, agriculture and industry.
There was unanimity on all major issues concerning Punjab, different background of the speakers and the participants notwithstanding.  These views are briefly summed up below:
(I) The Punjab problem was a creation of the Congress which went back on its commitments made to the Sikhs, year after year, for decades before the Independence.

(ii)  Policy of the Congress governments at the Center after Independence was blatantly anti-Sikh.  Betrayal, discrimination and injustice, its earlier manifestations during the past few years have, however, receded into background.  Its present ugly face includes wholesale massacre of Sikhs, desecration of their places of worship, unlawfully denying freedom and liberty to thousands for yearswithout trial, torture, molestation of their womenfolk, humiliation, intimidation and killings in f@ 'encounters' at a massive scale.

(iii)  Draconian laws such as TADA, NSA, and the Special An-Armed Forces Acts primarily enacted for Punjab have no parallel in any other civilized country.  Even the much hated apartheid South African regime does not have on its statute anything as diabolic.

(iv)  When the bill for imposing emergency in the entire country failed, the 59th Amendment to the Constitution was passed singling out Punjab, which in the Indian context means deprivation of a person's right to God-ordained life and freedom.  It hangs over the Sikh head like the sword of Damocles.  'The so-called security (in reality, repressive) forces and the police are in effect fully implementing the emergency provisions.

(v) The fact of thousands of Sikhs having been exterminated and incarcerated for
years without trial was highlighted by most speakers.

(vi)  More Sikhs have been killed by the government in peace time during the past few years than the told number of Indians killed in the 200 years of the British rule.  This does not include hundreds of thousands who died during country's partition holocaust in 1947.  It is a disgraceful record of unpatriotic, corrupt, incompetent and cruel successive Congress governments which have brought the country to such degrading precipice.

(vii)  Mr. Ram Jethmalani said: "the Sikh was the most colorful flower in the Indian bouquet I want it to bloom in every nook and corner of Indian.  It should not waste its sweetness in a few districts." He did not, however, mind if the State was renamed Khalistan and is given full internal autonomy so long as it remained in the Indian Union.

(viii)  The Punjab has been reduced to the worst form of police and fascist state imaginable.  Chapter on Fundamental Rights in the Constitution is no longer applicable to the Sikhs.  The United Nation's Universal Declaration on Human Rights, to which India is a signatory, is lauded on appropriate occasions by the Indian leaders - President, Prime Minister et al with tongue in cheek.  In practice, these fights are all but suspended in so far as the Sikhs are concerned.

(ix)  Sikhs living outside Punjab are being treated as hostages.  They are being humiliated and discriminated against.   They are virtually at the mercy of the Congress goons, the police, and other reactionary groups.  Government law- enforcement agencies look the other way or actively participate in mowing down the Sikhs.

The above is a brief summary of the proceedings of the seminar which generated considerable appreciation as well as criticism.  Some said that it was a ray of hope; others, that it was secessionist and advocated the creation of Khalistan.  Having conducted the seminar, this writer can say without fear of contradiction that the conclusions have been truthfully recorded.

The Escalating Punjab Crisis

The booklet was distributed free of cost to the participants at the seminar and since then to thousands of others throughout the country.  The then Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi, flaunted it in the Parliament and read some passages out of context.  He also made photo copies and circulated to all Congress (I) members and other selected government functionaries. The primary motives were to denounce it and avoid a solution of the Punjab problem.  The controversy raised during these months impelled this writer to draft an article "The Escalating Punjab Crisis" with a view to setting the record straight.  Therefore, even at the cost of some repetition, it is reproduced below:

"Even though the Punjab problem has assumed such vicious dimensions, the quest for solution must not be given up out of frustration or temporary failures.  This article is an endeavor to place before the public basic causes of the Punjab problem and to suggest a solution thereof.  The views expressed are mine and not necessarily that of the Bharat Mukti Morcha which are broadly contained in the booklet "The Sikh Case".  That there is a great deal of commonality in the two is inevitable since I had also authored the latter albeit through consultations with some of my Friends in and outside the BMM.  Since the Prime Minister has been making highly provocative and baseless allegations in the Parliament against the entire Opposition and specifically against Mr. Ram Jethmalani, the National President of the BMM, by reading out of context some passages from the booklet, the record has to be set right.  That the opposition parties protested by boycotting the Budget Session for prolonged periods for the first time in the Parliamentary history of India is another matter.

The sovereign Sikh state will be a modem democratic state deriving inspiration from the Sikh ethics of universal love and harmony, of respect for life the and the liberty of all men.

Historical background

"A brief narration of the circumstances leading up to the partition and independence of India is relevant to clearly show that the Sikhs have an irrefutable claim for an independent Sikh homeland.  Remember, the Sikhs were the third successor power at the time of transfer of sovereignty from the British Raj-the Hindus and Muslims being the other two-not because it was the third largest community, for Christians were more numerous, but for other cogent reasons which we shall discuss presently.

"History is witness to the shameful capitulation and surrender of the Indians to far inferior forces which chose to invade India intermittently for over 2,000 years.  In the present context the Congress and the Hindu leadership were prepared to let the whole of Punjab go to Pakistan but for the firm stand taken by the Sikhs.  All Muslim majority provinces, including Punjab and Bengal, would have en-bloc gone to Pakistan since Indian National Congress, led by Jawahar Lal Nehru, had tacitly accepted the Muslim League formula of all such provinces merging with Pakistan.

"In the process, the Sikhs to the last man, woman and child refused to stay in Pakistan and despite losing hundreds of thousands of lives, leaving behind vast fertile agricultural holdings, flourishing businesses and other properties migrated to India, practically penniless and homeless. 40 percent of the total world Sikh population was uprooted.  Agricultural land they lost formed more than 70 percent of the total productive area in the Pakistan Punjab.  This colossal sacrifice for the unity and integrity of the motherland is unmatched in the history of mankind.  This one factor alone entitled the Sikhs to be recognized for good as the most patriotic section of the Indian population.

Betrayal

"In appreciation of the great historic role, as patriots of India, the Congress made certain commitments to the Sikh community.  Formal resolutions to this effect were adopted and promises were made by the leaders, including Mahatma Gandhi and Jawahar Lal Nehru, in their individual as well as collective capacity.  The more important ones being:

(a) carving out an autonomous Sikh state in the North-West of India where they
too could "breathe the air of freedom",

(b) the Congress assurance to the Sikhs that 'no Constitution will be accepted
which does not provide full satisfaction to the Sikhs.'

"But soon after Independence they were betrayed on all counts.  Let alone the autonomous status, the Sikhs had to struggle for 15 years after the rest of the country had been reorganized on the basis of language.  What they got finally was a truncated unilingual Punjabi speaking State minus its capital and large chunks of Punjabi speaking areas.  Language based states were formed throughout India within three years of partition.  Since the Constitution did not meet their aspirations
and was so inimical to their interests, the Sikh representatives in the Constituent Assembly refused to sign that document.

"It needs to be recalled that the Sikhs put implicit faith in the bonafides of the Congress and the Hindu majority community right up to the time of Independence and rejected highly tempting offers made by the Muslim League and the British Government.  In April 1947, Mr. Jinnah offered an autonomous Sikh State comprising areas lying in the West of Panipat and East of the left bank of the Ravi River on the understanding that this State would then confederate with Pakistan on very advantageous terms to the Sikhs.  Master Tara Singh summarily rejected it in consultation with Nehru and Patel.

"Likewise, in the quest for a solution to the communal problem Mount batten, Nehru, Liaqat Ali and Baldev Singh were summoned to London for a discussion with the British Cabinet on May 17, 1947.  The British Cabinet suggested to Baldev Singh to stay behind to discuss arrangements which would enable the Sikhs to have political feet of their own on which they may walk into the current of world history.  Having divulged this to Nehru and at the latter's request he flew back with him after giving the following statement to the Press:

"The Sikhs have no demand to make on the British except that they should quit India.  Whatever political rights and aspirations the Sikhs have, they shall have them satisfied through the goodwill of the Congress and the majority community.'

"Does one need any further proof of the Sikhs' whole- hearted and unambiguous stand off the country was to be partitioned they would opt for Bharat?  But they were in for the rudest shock!

"On achievement of Independence, when the Sikh leaders approached Nehru and Patel to honor the commitments, the first said, 'The situation had changed' and the second, 'You have missed the bus.'

"Nehru declared that even the Punjabi speaking state would not be conceded 'whatever the merits,' and he stuck to his stand till his death.  So much for his fair mindedness!  When Prime Minister Shastri appointed Hukam Singh, Speaker, Lok Sabha, as Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on the formulation of Pujabi Suba in October 1965 and when its report was nearly ready, Shastri, Indira Gandhi and Gulzari Lal Nanda got to know that it was to be in favor of Punjabi Suba, they tried every possible means to stop him from making the report.   Having failed, they forestalled it by agreeing to reorganize Punjab by a vague resolution six days before the report was signed on the 15th March 1966.  The Parliamentary Committee's conclusion that the Punjabi speaking area specified in the First Schedule to the Punjab Regional Committee Order 1957 to form a unilingual Punjabi State was ignored.  Instead, a blatantly communal consideration resulted in the creation of the new Punjab and with that the seeds of discord and communalism were sown.  But there was poetic justice or injustice depending on how one looks at it.  By leaving out large chunks of Punjabi speaking areas, they created the Punjabi Suba with over 60% Sikh majority, whereas, had the Parliamentary Committee report been accepted, there would have been near parity between Sikhs and Hindus.  This episode has been narrated in the words of Hukarm Singh in greater detail elsewhere.

"The worst fallout from the anti-Sikh and discriminatory policy of the Congress and its Government at the Center was the communal divide between the two sister communities - Hindus and Sikhs - who had for centuries lived in perfect harmony and kinship."

A Diabolic Conspiracy

Operation "Bluestar" in the wake of Sant Bhindranwale phenomenon and the genocide of the Sikhs after Indira Gandhi's assassination - tragedies beyond words - are manifestations of the confrontation between the Sikh demand for justice and the Government's obduracy to deny them even equality.  In fact, the present Punjab is no more than a sub-state and in many ways a mere colony.

It is too well know that when Sant Jamail Singh Bhindranwale became "too big" for the Congress and Akalis alike and his writ ran throughout the Punjab, the Government hatched a fiendish design to bring the Sikhs to heel.  Although preparations for "Bluestar" had started nearly a year before the operation was launched, Rajiv Gandhi, then a general secretary of Congress (1), declared barely a month earlier that 'Sant Jamail Singh was a man of religion without any political ambition'.  Yet a Goebbelsian smear campaign dubbing the Sant a "Khalistan" was persistently kept up to denigrate him and the Sikhs with a view to creating a make-believe situation that there was no alternative to a full-fledged military attack on the Golden Temple complex.  Arms build up and fortifications@ of sorts were under way for months before the invasion.  And, police, para mililtry forces and all kinds of intelligence agencies were deployed in large numbers in and around Amritsar.  The Government build up is borne out by the following statement in the book "The Sikh Volcano" by Ghani Jafar (p.262):

"That the government wilfully allowed the 'terrorists ‘to accumulate their stock of arms and ammunition is borne out by the revelations made by Pritam Singh Bhinder shortly before he quit his position as the Inspector General of Punjab Police when he discovered that he was New Delhi's scapegoat for the Punjab fiasco.  In an interview to the two staff correspondents of the Statesman, Bhinder said that the government did have correct intelligence information on the supply of
weapons but nothing was done to check it.  He revealed that arms and ammunition were carried inside the Temple Cornplex in Kar Seva (voluntary service) trucks meant to carry food and construction material.  They were not intercepted because there were oral instructions 'from the top' until two months ago not to check anyof the Kar Seva trucks."
 
It is also pertinent to reproduce an extract from the Statesman dated July 7,1984:

The arrival of light machine-guns and sophisticated self-loading rifles had been taken notice of by the various agencies.  The information received was so detailed that even the make and the country of origin of the weapons was known..... "

A mind-boggling scenario!!  Can any civilized and secular government ever conceive of treachery of " magnitude against its own people?  One cannot but come to the conclusion that the evil design was to crush the Sikhs by decimating their religious and social institutions and with the end objective of breaking their will.  There has been no basic change in this policy, minor deviations to suit a particular situation notwithstanding.

The selection of the martyrdom day of Guru Axjan Dev and simultaneous attack on all historic Gurdwaras in Punjab, wanton killing and destruction of priceless heritage, the Sikh Reference library, etc. during Operation "Bluestar", was only the first major blow.  Operation "Woodrose", genocide of the Sikhs after Indira Gandhi's assassination and reducing Punjab to the worst form of police and fascist state are parts of the same fiendish scheme.  Declaring Sikhs a criminal tribe in 1948 and later dubbing all "Amritdhari" Sikhs as terrorists and dangerous people in 1984 had the same aim, viz., deny them their rights and justice; give them a bad name, and hang them!

The draconian laws and the threat of imposition of emergency, legalized by constitutional amendment, together have armed the Government to continue repression.  The police can do no wrong.  Neither the law of the land nor the Police Act applies to the personnel of Punjab police and the para military in Punjab.  They have 'god fathers' at various levels of government heirachy, including Central government to bale them out.  Take the example of a district chief Govind Ram who as SSP of District Faridkot committed such excesses that the Adviser to the Govemment directed in writing that he should not again be posted in an executive capacity.  But shortly afterwards he was posted as the head of the newly created police district of Batala where he let loose such reign of terror that even Governor Ray and his Adviser Rebeiro accused him of excesses.  But within a week the Director General of Police KPS Gill, an officer under these two worthies, gave the SSP a 'clean chit'.  That the Governor and his Adviser swallowed it is a pointer to the state of indiscipline in the top echelons of police and indeed its supremacy over the civil administration.

Witness further the case of Mr. Chaman Lal, IGP, who sought transfer because he was not prepared to illegally kill or intern innocent people.  It also proves that law and order is no longer an exclusive prerogative of the State Govemment. These cases are only illustrative.  The malady is all pervasive.  Extrajudicial killing, arrests, torture, humiliation, intimidation, molestation and extortion are its other ugly faces.  Hardly any police officer is punished since, among other reasons, "such action could lower the police morale!" It must be a very fragile commodity!  Unlawful actions even in the battle field invites summary general court martial, to award a swifter and sterner punishment to the guilty.  The Govemment policy and police indiscipline have contributed most to the state terrorism and to the complete violation of human rights in the Punjab.  The TADA permits arrest of 'harborers' of terrorists.  Thousand of innocent persons have lost their life or freedom through the misuse of this Act.  Yet there are those in the Govemment who have and are harboring real terrorists.  The erstwhile DGP of Punjab J.F. Rebeiro gave shelter in his house at Chandigarh to the killers of two youths in broad daylight.  The killers were police personnel in civilian dress.  Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi harbored the planners and executioners of the Nov.  '84 massacres; some by elevation to cabinet rank ministers!  Equality before the law is no longer operative in this land.

The Sikhs comprised nearly 40 percent of the Armed Forces at the time of partition after the Muslim soldiers went over to Pakistan.  The present policy on recruitment on the population ratio, statewise, will reduce their strength to an insignificant percentage of around one.  Universally considered to be the best practitioners of the art of soldiering, this unconstitutional policy will deprive the country of its best asset for defense.  It is the proverbial killing of the goose that lays the golden egg.  This reservation formula is highly discriminatory for the Sikhs since they are being deprived of their main source of subsistence besides farming.  Even more serious consequence of this policy is to place national security in jeopardy.  I make bold to say that the Indian Defense Forces sans Sikhs will not be able to meet the challenge from the West let alone the North.  This is what General Niazi, the vanquished General Officer Commanding told a Sikh General in the erstwhile East Pakistan, after his surrender "Had you Sikhras (a derogatory word used in a lighter vein) not been there we would have captured Delhi many times over."

Sinister trends

Having played the sob story of an orphan and by maligning the entire Sikh community, Rijiv Gandhi romped home with a massive majority in the December 1984 general elections.  Lacking in ingenuity he is again trying to play the Sikh card by harping upon the Anandpur Sahib resolution and the booklet "The Sikh Case" which have been flaunted by him in and outside the Parliament.

His recent statement that he stopped the post Indira Gandhi assassination massacre of Sikhs within just four days (who started it in the first place?) and that the Sikhs all over India were not allowed to be similarly treated has a very sinister connotation.  It clearly shows that the very existence of the Sikhs is under perpetual threat.   The more recent Bidar and Jammu anti-Sikh riots are a pointer in the same direction and a result of the persistent propaganda against the community.  September 1988 floods, though a national calamity is a tragic case of criminal dereliction of duty by the government and its officials.  Bhakra and Pong dams were allowed to be filled up beyond the danger mark.  During the 72 hours of incessant rainfall the Bhakra and Beas Management Board remained unconcerned till somebody discovered that if the sluices were not opened the Darns may be breached.  The gates were then opened suddenly releasing billions of tons of water which rushed down in waves some of which were as high as six feet.  Pong Dam on the River Beas was not so much in danger yet there too the same panicky action was taken.  The Government made no effort to caution the unfortunate people, mostly Sikhs, through the media and other means.  Hundreds of villages and deras (hamlets) were washed away and many more severely damaged.  A large number of people lost their lives.  Over one lakh head of cattle perished.  Crop and property losses amounted to thousands of crores.  Thousands of hectares of land have become uncultivatable because of sand deposits, at some places, many feet high.

Worst still was the callous and indifferent attitude of Central and State governments in providing relief.  The then Union Minister for Agriculture Bhajan Lal flew over parts of the affected areas and declared - "the crop damage in certain parts only was 4 to 5 percent and that the floods were good for the farmers".  Rajiv Gandhi, weeks later, offered Rs. 100 crores as compensation.  A ghastly addition of insult to injury.  Even that paltry sum was not alloted in full and whatever little was given to the State did not reach the worst affected people.  Likewise, the seeds for wheat were supplied well after the sowing season.  A couple of months later the Armenian earthquake tragedy occurred which was comparable in magnitude to the Punjab floods.  We are all aware of the contrast in the crisis management by the two countries.  The Soviet Prime Minister immediately rushed to Armenia and every resource, military and civilian , was pressed into service to alleviate the suffering of the affected people.  President Gorbachev cut short his historic visit to the USA and reached the site of disaster to personally supervise relief work.  Contrast this with the utterances and actions of the Indian rulers!  In fact, the latter exhibited greater concern and acted with more alacrity in sending relief to Armenia than to Punjab!!

Resistance Movement Launched

Since the full might of the Indian state - Defense Forces, Para-military, Police, Various Intelligence agencies - has been unabashedly used to kill and terrorize the Sikhs, it became imperative to resist the onslaught and help save the community from the ongoing genocide.  Consequently, a Movement Against State Repression was launched with Justice Ajit Singh Bains, former Judge of Punjab and Haryana High Court, Mr. Inderjit Singh Jaijee, a former Member of the Punjab Legislative Assembly and this writer as its conveners.  Its first all India convention was held at Chandigarh on 25 June 1989.  A large number of political parties, human rights organizations and social groups from across the country participated.  A remarkable feature of this convention was the Outright condemnation of the present regime by a number of speakers who had nothing to do with the Sikhs, nor were they directly involved in the Punjab situation.  They highlighted the fact that the Punjab problem was a creation of the selfish, partisan and persistent anti-Sikh policies of the ruling party, particularly of Nehru, his daughter and her son who have ruled more as dictators than prime ministers of a democratic country for 38 out of 44 years of 'free' India.  The participants also narrated their woeful tales and the ruthless manner adopted by the government to crush people, whose only fault was that they demanded freedom from tyranny.

It was unanimously resolved at the Convention to organize a Peoples'' Voluntary Force to help stop the butcheries, including operations which go by many names, viz., Black Cats, Hit Squads, Vigilante groups, Alam Sena, etc., with police personnel, commandos and hired criminals operating in plain clothes, often in vehicles without number plates.
The author delivered the 'Key Note Address' at the Convention which provided a fair assessment of the Punjab situation (reproduced at Annexure 11).  It is noteworthy that people have enthusiastically responded to the call for condemning and protesting against state repression.
 In its efforts to make the government mend its ways, Movement Against State Repression and Punjab Human Rights Organization 'gheraod' (cordoned) the Punjab Governor and presented a Memorandum to him on September 30, 1989.  This is one of The accepted forms of peaceful forms of protest in India.  A record number of political parties and organizations supported this agitation.  The gherao was foiled by massive deployment of para military and police, barricading of routes leading to and within Chandigarh, over a thousand preventive arrests a day prior and during the actual day of the gherao and threatening transport owners of dire consequences if they allowed the use of their vehicles for transporting the peaceful agitators.  Notwithstanding hundreds of trucks and buses full of protesters voluntarily tried to converge on Chandigarh from all over Punjab but were stopped on the way by the security forces in compliance with the government directive.  The district magistrate and senior superintendent of police, Chandigarh came to the Police Station, Sector 3, Chandigarh which was one of the many police stations where about nine hundred leaders and activists were locked up.  They took from me the copies of the Memorandum on behalf of the Punjab Govenor, who had absconded from Chandigarh on that day.  It would be relevant to reproduce extract therefrom:

'We collectively indict the government for the present state of affairs and demand that-

(a) Extra judicial killings be stopped immediately.

(b) Illegal arrests and torture must be forthwith put an end to.

(c) Illegal arrest of women and their molestation in police custody must be stopped.

(d) Persons arrested by the police must be produced before a magistrate within 24 hours as required by Perpetual.  Those now in illegal detention must be released
forthwith.

(e) Under cover operations such as Black Cats, including police and para military personnel in plain clothes, must be stopped.  Likewise, uniformed brutalities must be put an end to.

(f) List of wanted persons by the police must be published so that innocent persons are not killed and then dubbed as terrorists.

(g) All unauthorized weapons with the police and para military forces should be withdrawn so that these are not planted on the victims' bodies in faked encounters.

(h) Un-numbered vehicles used by the police and its under cover agents must not be allowed.

(i) The drama being enacted in case of prisoners who are released or granted bail by the court after great harassment and expenditure they can ill-afford and rearrested on subsequently trumped up charges must stop.

(j) Inhuman treatment being meted out to the under trials in judicial custody has become order of the day.  Many under trials have died because of torture, lack of proper nourishment and medical aid.  Jail regulations must be strictly observed.

(k) Erring police officers and men responsible for killing of innocent persons, torture, molestation of women, extortion and intimidation must be suspended and cases registered against them.  This will also be in their long term interest, e.g., Govind Ram's son may well be living today had timely action been taken against the former for scores of his criminal acts as SSP Faridkot and later at Batala.

(l) Draconian laws must be repealed and the para military forces withdrawn as a matter of urgency not only because they are committing crimes but because they are also sapping the economy of The State."
 

(Lt. Col. Partap Singh)          (Justice Ajit Singh Bains)          (Inderjit Singh Jaijee)
            Retd.                                           Retd.                                      EX-LA

Co-Convener                            Convener                                     Co-Convener
92/18 Chandigarh                     22/2 Chandigarh                          314/44 Chandigarh
 

The Prime Minister's Independence Day Speech.

In India, it is customary for the Prime Minister to address the nation from the ramparts of the historic Red Fort at Delhi.  On the morning of August 15, 1989, Rajiv Gandhi's incoherent and cheap propagandist speech went down as an exercise to incite the majority community against the Sikhs.  It became ever more evident that he was determined to play the Sikh card again for electoral gains in the forthcoming parliamentary elections.  It prompted the author to write a brief article to inform the people of India and the World community of the shape of things to come.  The article is reproduced in original at Annexure 3.

It is also important to note that Gandhi had been playing a double game: (a) to put the Sikhs on the chopping block on the one hand, and (b) to malign the opposition parties as supporters of the latter, the assassins of his mother, on the other.  Witness his accusation of Mr. N.T. Rama Rao, leader of Teigu Desam and Chief Minister of Andhara Pradesh, one of the largest state of India as a case in point.  On August 19 he said that Rama Rao and his party had "joined hands with the killers of the late prime minister, Indira Gandhi." He went on to say that "she was the symbol of unity and integrity of the country and we will not allow her killers and their allies to continue their activities in the country any more." As everyone knows she systematically destroyed the country's democratic institutions, promoted personality cult and the family rule, split the Congress Party and planted the seed for disintegration, of India.  A more (diabolic) aspect of her performance as the Prime Minister of the so-called largest democracy was to use the state apparatus to do in the most patriotic section (Sikhs) of the Indian society reminiscent of Stalin and Hitler eras.  Rajiv Gandhi never tires of praising her as the epitome of national integration!  But then Rajiv Gandhi and truth parted company as soon as he came under her political influence.

The loss of the Indian Prime Minister's credibility is total.  Therefore, when his advisers tutored him not to entirely depend on the Sikh card, he would even resort to some additional drastic measures of imposition of emergency and postponement of elections by half year at a time permissible under the Constitution were the pointers to that direction.  Of course, there was a softer option that in the event of a revolt in his party, he would leave India lock stock and barrel al-la Marcos and Imelda.  Everybody knows about his ill-gotten wealth stashed abroad.

Some conclusion

Responsibility for the partition of India squarely lies with the Congress and its chief actor at  time, Nehru.  Cabinet Mission Plan which would have kept the country united under a truly federal system, approved both by the Congress and the Muslim League, was ideally suited.  Nehru sabotaged it for the meanest ambition to become the Prime Minister albeit that of the vivisected India.  He has confessed this in his weak moments.  Millions of people on both sides of the border would not have perished or forced to leave their hearths and homes.  There is, therefore, no doubt that the very concept of a United India was blasted by Nehru, the grandfather of Rajiv who keeps harping on the unity and integrity being undermined by the Opposition, particularly the Sikhs.  Had the promised autonomous status been given to the Sikhs within the Indian Union and the Constitution framed to safe-guard minority interest there would have been no agitations.  Operation "Bluestar", genocide of the Sikhs, the draconian laws enacted for Punjab with the primary aim of administering fatal blow to their socioreligious consciousness and to break their will, India would have been militarily and economically much stronger.

Successive Congress governments have pursued blatantly anti-Sikh policies. Ever since Independence, the Sikhs have been perpetually betrayed and discriminated against.

Persistent anti-Sikh propaganda through the controlled media and other means to show to the Indians and the International community that the Sikhs as a whole are terrorists and deserve to be treated harshly.

Justice and equality for the minorities would have made for a cohesive and secular polity. There would have been few agitations and riots, thousands of innocent lives would have been saved and hundreds of thousands who have been imprisoned for short or long terms would not have lost their freedom.

The Sikh militancy is the direct outcome of the persistent atrocities, repression of the community and denial of justice.

On the Independence Day (August 15, 1989), the undeclared war against the Sikhs assumed a new and more diabolic dimension.  Sikhs will suffer more but so will India for which they have sacrificed by far the most.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

CHAPTER III

STORY OF BETRAYALS
 

Unifying Role of Sikh Faith

One of the saddest fall-outs of partisan politics in the "free" India is the Hindu-Sikh divide.  Although both are separate and sovereign re religions, for  in all intents and purposes, they had lived as one community for nearly 500 years.  There was intermarriage between the two communities, they broke bread together, as the saying goes, and in North India went to the gurdwaras (Sikh temples) for prayers with equal reverence.  As mentioned in Chapter 1, by and large the Hindus regarded the Sikh Gurus as their own.  The great modern seers and patriots, Swami Vivekananda, Aurobindo Ghose, Rabindra Nath Tagore, Veer Sarvarkar, Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya and Rajnish (Osho) eulogized the Gurus and pronounced Sikhism as the real flowering and quintessence of Hinduism.  Guru Granth Sahib, the World's most catholic of religious scriptures.

Guru Nanak (1469-1539) the founder of Sikhism in his numerous hymns (shabads) leaves no doubt about the distinct identity of the new faith; not just a reformist movement, a break-away sect of Hinduism or an integrator of the somewhat antagonistic Hindu and Muslim ideologies.

He laid great stress on Simran (contemplation on the name of God), Kirt (engagement in productive and honest work) and vand shakna (sharing of the fruits of honest labor with fellow human beings).  Nanak's nine successors consolidated his mission, preaching his basic ideology and developing Sikh institutions.

Execution of the Fifth Guru, Arjan Dev, after brutal torture on orders of the Mughal emperor, Jahangir, introduced a new dimension in the Sikh ethos, i.e., the martial character.  His son and successor Guru Hargovind fought many battles against the Mughals and won them all.  The Tenth Master, Guru Gobind Singh, too was engaged in many battles with Mughal feudatories, the Hindu Rajas of Shivalik Hills, as well as the Mughal armies.

He also formally instituted the Khalsa Panth, the commonwealth or brotherhood of the Sikhs, ended the "guruship" reposing it in the Guru Granth, gave the Sikhs distinct physical identity by keeping unshorn hair (keshas) and the four other "Ks".  He prescribed rehat maryada, practice and tradition, to guide the Sikhs in day to day conduct.

It is perhaps the Sikh confrontation with the latter day tyrannical Mughal regime, not because Guru Nanak was born in a Hindu family as were his three successors, till they were initiated into Sikhism, (all the other six successors were born Sikh), but the common features of the Vedanta and Gurmat and the fact that the Hindus were equally the victims of discrimination that a degree of mutuality of interests developed among the two communities.  The Sikhs got to be known as the sword arm of Hindustan.  They enthusiastically played this role at tremendous sacrifices to protect the country from the legions of invaders in their frequent, unending and barbaric raids from the North-West besides resisting internal onslaught of the Mughal rulers.

But the very foundation of this remarkable Hindu-Sikh unity, briefly discussed above, was to be rudely shaken soon after India became Independent.  An attempt is made in this chapter to analyze the genesis of the divide and its disastrous effects.

From the above discussion an impression may be created that the Hindus were the nursery of Sikhism and the Muslims did not embrace this faith.  In actual fact, the Sikh Gurus did not subscribe to Hinduism any more than to Islam.  Guru Nanak addressed himself equally to both the communities and in numerous verses, enshrined in the holy Granth, guided them in general and their religious leaders, the Pandits and Maulvis in particular to comprehend the true spirit of their respective religions and fashion their lives accordingly.  His very first pronouncement after he obtained divine inspiration and mission was: "There is no Hindu, there is no Mussalman," highlighting one-ness of mankind.
During his visit to Mecca, he was asked by the Qazis as to who was better - a I-Hindu or a Mussalman?  The Guru's reply was "Without good and pious deeds both would come to grief" He was also a great synthesizer and reformer.  Both communities admired and revered him.  A popular saying of that era was "Lord Nanak, the Faqir, was Guru of the Hindus and the Mussalmans' Pir." His first disciple who accompanied him during his four major odysseys was a Muslim (Mardana).

Influence of Sikhism on the Muslims was equally remarkable.  Many among them became devoted disciples of the Gurus and embraced the new faith.  When the Sixth Nanak, Guru Hargovind and the Tenth, Guru Gobind Singh had to take up arms to fight the repressive regime in Delhi and their subsidiary Rajput Rajas, a large number of Muslim volunteers fought on the side of the Gurus.  An outstanding example of their devotion and loyalty was exhibited when Pir Badrudin Shah (affectionately called Pir Budhu Shah) fought with the bulk of his forces on the side of Guru Gobind Singh and lost two of his sons and about 500 muslim soldiers in the battle.  It shows clearly that there was no clash or confrontation among the members of three communities - Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs - during the Guru period.

Guru Hargovind who initiated the concept of double sovereignty and symbolically wore two swords "Meeri" and "Peeri to assert complete temporal and spiritual freedom for his followers, the Sikhs.  In a way he espoused the cause of every citizen's freedom from state repression and slavery.  Establishment of the Akal Takht, (The Throne of the Timeless) directly in front of the Harmandar Sahib (Golden Temple) is an extension of the same philosophy.  Three more Takhts were established later by Guru Gobind Singh covering the entire country, viz, Anandpur Sahib in the North, Patna Sahib in the East and Hazoor Sahib (Naded) in the South.  Logically, therefore, confrontation with the mighty Mughal power was inevitable.  On the other hand the very location of these Takhts highlights the Gurus' perception of the geographical area of Sikh influence and, as a corollary, that whole of per-partition India was, in fact, a Sikh homeland inasmuch as it was that of Hindus and Muslims.
Reverting back to the Muslim-Sikh commonality another very important episode was the large number of Muslims who joined Banda Singh Bahadur's forces in the fight against oppressive Mughal rule.  Because of the land reforms and other social measures initiated by that great warrior, many Mohammadan chieftains as well as ordinary persons, particularly the farmers, embraced Sikhism.

It is important, however, to record that Sikhism is a sovereign, prophetic and distinct faith, inasmuch as Christianity is from Judaism, notwithstanding that Christ was born a Jew.  The close Hindu-Sikh relationship has resulted in two distinct attitudes.  The Hindus' effort all along has been to treat the Sikhs as part of Hindus whilst the latter have zealously guarded their separate identity.  'Ibis dichotomy has been at the root of many latter day problems between the two communities.  It, therefore, deserves a brief analysis for a proper comprehension of the present Hindu-Sikh divide.

In the 500 years of Sikh history there has never been any case of forcible conversion.  When a I-Hindu joined the Khalsa Panth he considered himself an elevated one and everybody else, including the Hindus, felt the same way.  The basic teachings of Sikhism, the moral commitments made at the time of baptism and especially the concept of double sovereignty brought about major attitudinal
and psychological changes in the initiate.  He automatically placed himself in the role of a Saint-Soldier (Sant-Sipahi), a basic precept of Sikhism.  It resulted in the Sikhs being by far the most patriotic of Indian communities.  Figures given at the end of chapter eleven inside title cover leaves no room for doubt, i.e., 77.5 percent sacrifices by 1.6 percent of the pre-partition India's population.  But these qualities of valor and chivalry have unfortunately lost their significance - thanks to the successive governments in the country headed by selfish, incompetent and corrupt people.  Lest this statement be misconstrued, a brief reflection on the character of these leaders is appropriate.

Responsibility for India's Partition

Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India was primarily responsible for the partition of the country.  This is amply borne out by incontestable historical facts.  Maulana Abdul Kalem Azad, a former President of the Indian National Congress and a Cabinet Minister in the Nehru Government, has clearly brought out in his book "India Wins Freedom" how the latter's obsession for becoming Prime Minister was a primary factor for breaking the country's unity and territorial integrity.  That millions of people on both sides of the border were uprooted from their hearths and homes and hundreds of thousands perished in the largest ever migration in the history of mankind was of little consequence to him.  Only a soul-less person could have carried this monumental sin for nearly two decades after the event.  His other blunders are the creation of Kashmir and China problems.  These two tragedies have cost the country dearly; in loss of territory and human life besides bringing dis-honor to the nation.

We have already touched on his blatant betrayal of the Sikhs by promising them a special set up in the Indian Union before Independence and then not only going back on his commitment but denying them even equal status on par with the other States.  He is on record stating that the Punjabi speaking state will not be acceded to 'whatever the merits'.  At various times he had poured out his venom against the Sikhs and the Punjabi speaking state - sample: "When you speak about Sikhs, I close my ears"; and further "Punjabi Suba over by dead body".  And as long as he lived, he ensured that it did not materialize.  This one instance is by itself sufficient proof of his communal and anti-secular mentality.  There are indeed many other examples, viz, his statement that every street in the towns and every village of Punjab was bilingual; a deceitful maneuver and an incitement to the communalist.  There is no village, far less a street, where Hindi is spoken in that part of the Punjab which constituted Punjabi speaking region under the Sachar/Regional Formula and which should have naturally become the Punjabi speaking state.

Let us revert to Nehru's role in the partition of India.  Perhaps the most important single event in the long history of struggle for independence was appointment of the British Cabinet Mission which comprised of three eminent members, namely, Lord Pathic-Lawrence, Sir Stafford Cripps and Mr. A.V. Alexander.  They arrived in India on March 23, 1946 and held wide ranging talks with the Indian leaders from major political parties and many other prominent personalities for the next seven weeks.  The Cabinet Mission proposed a plan for the transfer of power which inter alia ensured the unity and integrity of India.  Prime Minister Attlee announced the Plan in the House of Commons on May 16.  Both the Congress and the Muslim League accepted the Plan which appeared also to have overcome the hostile communal feelings.  But that complacency was short-lived.  Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad painfully records in his book India Wins Freedom (P. 164-166):

"Now happened one of those unfortunate events which change the course of history.  On 10 July, Jawaharlal held a press conference in Bombay in which he made an astonishing statement.  Some press representatives asked him whether, with the passing of the Resolution by the AICC, the Congress had accepted the Plan in toto, including the composition of the Interim Government."Jawaharlal in reply stated that Congress would enter the Constituent Assembly 'completely unfettered by agreements and free to meet all situations as they arise.'

"Press representatives further asked if this meant that the Cabinet Mission Plan could be modified."Jawaharlal replied emphatically that the Congress had agreed only to participate in the Constituent Assembly and regarded itself free to change or modify the Cabinet Mission Plan as it thought best

"The Muslim League had accepted the Cabinet Mission Plan only under duress.  Naturally, Mr. Jinnah was not very happy about it.  In his speech to the League Council, he had clearly stated that he recommended acceptance only because nothing better could be obtained.  His political adversaries started to criticize him by saying that he had failed to deliver the goods.  They accused him that he had given up the idea of an independent Islamic State.  They also  taunted him that if the League was willing to accept the Cabinet Mission Plan - which denied the right of the Muslims to form a separate State - why had Mr. Jinnah made so much fuss about an independent Islamic State?

"Mr. Jinnah was thus not at all happy about the outcome of the negotiations with the Cabinet Mission.  Jawaharlal's statement came to him as a bombshell.  He immediately issued a statement that this declaration by the Congress President demanded a review of the whole situation.  He accordingly asked Liaqat Ali Khan to call a meeting of the League Council and issued a statement to the following effect:
 "The Muslim League Council had accepted the Cabinet Mission Plan in Delhi as it was assured that the Congress also had accepted the scheme and the Plan would be the basis of the future constitution of India.  Now that the Congress President had declared that the Congress could change the scheme through its majority in the Constituent Assembly, this would mean that the minorities would be placed at the mercy of the majority.  His view was that Jawaharlal's declaration meant that the Congress had rejected the Cabinet Mission Plan and as such the Viceroy should call upon the Muslim League, which had accepted the Plan, to form the Government."

"The Muslim League Council met at Bombay on July 27.  Mr. Jinnah in his opening speech reiterated the demand for Pakistan as the only course left open to the Muslim League.  After three days' discussion, the Council passed a resolution rejecting the Cabinet Mission Plan.  It also decided to resort to direct action for the achievement of Pakistan."

"Nehru's statement was a virtual sabotage of the plan and despite subsequent efforts to salvage it, Jinnah steadfastly refused to accept the position and held that 'Jawaharlal's statement represented the real mind of the Congress.  He argued that if Congress could change its stand so many times, while the British were still in the country and the power has not come to its hands, what assurance could the minorities have that once the British left, Congress would not again change and go back to the position taken up by Jawaharlal's statement (ibid, p. 167)."

This statement of Jinnah is prophetic in so far as another minority, the Sikhs, are concerned.

All subsequent efforts to keep India united became abortive.  Lamentably the Maulana cried - "On 26 April 1946, I issued a statement proposing his (Nehru's) name for the President ship and appealing to Congressmen that they should elect Jawaharlal unanimously.  I acted according to my best judgement but the way things have shaped since then has made me realize that this was perhaps the greatest blunder of my political life.  I have regretted no action of mine so much as the decision to withdraw from the President ship of the Congress at this critical juncture.  It was a mistake which I can describe in Gandhi's words as one of Himalayan dimension.

"My second mistake was that when I decided not to stand myself I did not support Sardar Patel.  We differed on many issues but I am convinced that if he had succeeded me as Congress President he would have seen that the Cabinet Mission Plan was successfully implemented.  He would have never committed the mistake of Jawaharlal which gave Mr. Jinnah the opportunity of sabotaging the Plan.  I can never forgive myself when I think that if I had not committed these mistakes, perhaps the history of the last ten years would have been different."

It is significant that unlike Jinnah, who read the writing on the wall, the Sikh leadership continued to repose trust and faith in Gandhi, Nehru, Patel and other Congress leaders.  We have already recapitulated in the previous Chapter how Jinnah's overtures  to Master Tara Singh and that of the British Government to Baldev Singh were rejected out of hand.  Their blind trust even eventually led to untold sufferings and death to hundreds of thousands of their already small number during the partition and in the recent years.  Betrayal of the Sikhs has assumed the dimension of slavery for them.  A case of sins of fathers visiting upon their children!

This digression from the main theme of the creation of the Punjabi speaking state is important because of the relevance of the character of the man who was the principal actor in breaking up of the country and its prime minister during the first 17 years of its independence.  Since his successors - Shastri, Indira Ghandi and Rajiv Gandhi - swore by his policies and no doubt bent their energies to implement them, let us also examine their part in this sordid drama.  There is no better record of the betrayal of the Sikhs vis-a-vis the formation of the Punjabi speaking state than that narrated by Hukam Singh, the erstwhile Speaker of the Lok Sabha (House of People in the Indian Parliament) who was hailed by one and all as one of the finest and most impartial Speakers.  It is reproduced without any addition, subtraction or modification!
 
 
BETRAYAL OF SIKHS (by Hukam Singh, former Speaker Lok Sabha)

"Within a year after the independence, Punjab was to be betrayed and discriminated again on the linguistic issue.  While all the remaining states of India were given their constitutional right to their language within a linguistic state, this was denied to Punjab.  To quote Pandit Nehru's remark in 1948....... whatever the merits of such a proposal might be." While Nehru was known for his flexibility, on the Punjab issue, he remained stubbornly dogmatic and negative.  This became the future policy.  Nehru stuck to it for 16 years.  Shastri continued the same policy and Indira Gandhi has made no departure.

"After denying this fundamental linguistic right for many years, prime minister Shastri appointed a Parliamentary Committee, in October 1965, under my chairmanship, to prepare a report on the Punjabi Suba issue.  This was done in accordance with the fresh promises made to the Sikhs during the September 1965 war with Pakistan.  The intention of the Government then was to use me against my community, secure an adverse report, and then reject the demand, even after 18 long years of deliberate, frustrating delays.  When my report was nearly ready, Mrs. Indira Gandhi went to Mr. Chavan and said she had heard that Sardar Hukam Singh was going to give a report in favor of Punjabi Suba , and than he should be stopped ... Lal Bahadur Shastri continued the policy of Jawaharlal Nehru, and was dead against the demand of Punjabi Suba, as was Nehru.  So, when he was urged by Mrs. Gandhi to stop Hukam Singh, he did not waste any time.  Mr. Shastri called Mr. Gulzari Lal Nanda, then Home Minister, to his residence, and conveyed to him the concern about the feared report Every effort was made by Mrs. Gandhi, Mr. Shastri and Mr. Nanda to stop me from making my report But when nothing succeeded, the Congress forestalled the Parliamentary Committee Report by agreeing to reorganize Punjab by a vague resolution dated March 9, while the committee report was signed on March 15, 1966, a week later.  It was a deliberate attempt to by-pass this Committee, and undermine its importance.

"The Parliamentary Committee had come to these conclusions:

(i)  The present State of Punjab be reorganized on a linguistic basis;

(ii)  The Punjabi region specified in the First Schedule to the Punjab Regional Committee Order, 1957 should form a unilingual Punjabi State.

"The Government by-passed the Committee and forestalled its report.  The subsequent reference to the Shah Commission was loaded heavily against Punjab.  Making the 1961 Census as the basis and the tehsil (instead of village) as the unit was a deliberate design to punish the Sikhs.  The language returns in the 1961 Census were on communal lines when Punjabi-speaking Hindus falsely declared Hindi as their language.  Consequently merit was again ignored and justice denied.  Naturally tensions between the two communities increased.  If Punjabi Suba had been demarcated simply on a linguistic basis, and not on false returns of 1961, there would not have been any extremist movement.  Tension between Hindus and Sikhs in Punjab is bound to continue unless the communal section of Hindus see wisdom and retrace their steps by acknowledging Punjabi, then a sense of Punjabi identity would have grown and suppressed Hindu and Sikh communalism.  Those Hindus who lied in the census, betrayed their Sikh brothers, betrayed their language and culture and betrayed their own ancient land of Punjab and were responsible for its division on Hindu-Sikh basis.

"The present agitation was started by one section of the Akalis, but the coercive and repressive policies of the Punjab Government has united all the different groups of Sikhs behind the morcha.  The indiscriminate murders of innocent young Sikhs under the false pretext of encounters, and harassment of women and children, relatives of the hunted persons, wanted by the police under real or cooked up charges, pushed all these families into a mass satyagraha, which so far has fortunately remained peaceful, despite many political and communal provocations.

"Gandhi and Nehru had made personal promises to Sikhs before freedom, but soon after the independence they embarked on the long term program of anti-Sikh politics and policies. 35 years later, there is no end to it in sight.  The Government has never seen merit in any Sikh demand.  Government has always felt encouraged in this direction by some extremist Punjabi Hindus who have always betrayed their Sikh brothers by opposing their constitutional demands however fair and justifiable they may be.  If the facts of the Punjab problem were to be truly understood by the Hindus from outside Hindi belt, they will feel ashamed of the action of their fellow Punjabis (now supposedly Hindi-speaking) Hindus and perhaps even disown them.  I pray for the day when Hindus and Sikhs will again be united as one force."

Biography of S. Hukam Singh
by Partap Singh (P. 175-177)
 

Punjab Reduced to a Colony

The successive governments at the Centre have exhibited anything but a value based, ethical, just and fair approach to the formation of an autonomous Punjabi speaking state.  In essence, its denial is the primary cause for discriminations against and persecution of the Sikhs.

Indira Gandhi's role in preventing the creation of the Punjabi speaking state is well documented by Hukam Singh.  Her animosity against the Sikh community is apparent from her utterly uncalled for full fledged military attack on the Golden Temple and other historic gurdwaras followed by the mopping up operation (Woodrose). (For details refer to the Chapter headed 'A Military Operation Coded-named "Bluestar").

In so far as Rajiv Gandhi is concerned the less said the better.  He lacked political insight to know what was good or bad for the country.  He had, however, made a quantum jump in dismantling the democratic structure of his country started deviously, to begin with, and more viciously during the later period of his mother's rule.  His only comment on the formation of linguistic states, so far as I remember, is that this policy (of the Indian National Congress) was the worst thing that happened to India.  But he was too small to change it and re-order the political map of the country.
Gandhi surreptitiously signed an accord with the three Sikhs, namely, Sant Harchand Singh Longowal, Surjit Singh Barnala and Balwant Singh, who ostensibly represented the community.  Merits of these gentlemen, arrogantly appropriating to themselves the conscience and agony of the Sikh people, are not immediately relevant to this study.  What is pertinent is the clauses of the accord which relate to the territorial adjustment of the Punjabi Suba.  Clause 7.1 lays down that Chandigarh (the Punjab Capital) would go to that state.  But in lieu, Haryana would be compensated by simultaneous transfer of some Hindi speaking territories in Punjab because Smt.  Indira Gandhi had so desired!  Such territories would be determined by a commission on the basis of contiguity and linguistic affinity with village as a unit (Clause 7.2) The actual transfer was to take place on January 26, 1986.  Under clause 7.4 a separate commission was to be appointed later to go into over all territorial adjustment!  A more dishonest and mischievous device would be difficult to conceive.

In Chapter 1, we have already highlighted the utterly discriminatory provision of . compensation' when the incomparably better developed state capitals, viz., Bombay, Madras, Shimla and Shilong were not made bargaining factors for their incorporation into the States in which they happened to be geographically located.  By itself this single point makes mockery of the accord.  But let us proceed.  Under this clause, certain Hindi speaking areas failing within Punjab were to be handed over to Haryana.  Under its provisions a Commission (Justice Mathews) was appointed and his report was that he could not specify any areas which Punjab should hand over to Haryana.  Any just and fair government would have immediately handed over Chandigarh to Punjab to which it had originally belonged.  But not when Rajiv Gandhi's Congress Government was in the picture.  The transfer was to take place on January 26, 1986.  As per instructions, the Administrative requirements, massive in the work involved, were completed.  Even the employees of the Union Territory had been paid their salaries and Other emoluments up to January 25.  Everybody awaited the final verdict till the last moment.  Both the Governor of Punjab and the Chief Commissioner of Chandigarh were standing to, not knowing who would take the salute at the Republic Day parade next morning.  And, a while before midnight, came the directive that the city would continue to be a Union Territory.  That is where it still is!

Any fair-minded person would infer from this just one instance that the Prime Minister, who personally signed the accord, was not in the least concerned about his personal honor, loss of credibility of his government and down right betrayal of a community.  In order to salvage some of his and that of his government's image two more Commissions headed by Supreme Court Judges were appointed one after the other to still look for areas which Punjab should make over to Haryana.  The latter came out with an astonishing recommendation that Punjab hands over 70,000 acres to Haryana in lieu of Chandigarh without any basis and in complete contradiction of the terms of reference.  Sikhs rejected it with the contempt it deserved. But this is not the end of this fairy tale.  There was the all embracing provision in the accord (Clause 7.4) for the appointment of a separate commission which would go into the whole gamut of territorial claims and would adjudicate which Punjabi speaking areas in Haryana would go to Punjab and the Hindi speaking areas in Punjab to Haryana.  A bewildering situation would have arisen had the two Commissions come to contradictory conclusions in respect of some areas or villages.  But then, Rajiv Gandhi was hardly serious about implementing the Accord.  For clause by clause study of the Accord see Chapter V. However, some very glaring conclusions can be drawn for the posterity.

First, Rajiv Gandhi and the government he heads could not be trusted and relied upon even when he makes solemn commitments.  Second, the three Sikh leaders who signed the Accord on behalf of the Sikhs had learned nothing from history and fell into the Congress trap as the pre-partition Sikh leadership before Independence.  And, thirdly, no matter what admittedly the most patriotic Sikh community has done for India, it will always be suspect in the eyes of the Congress and, thanks to its persistent and diabolic anti-Sikh propaganda, the majority community.  The last inference is potentially the worst fallout and the country as well as the Sikhs are doomed unless there is radical change in the government policies.

So that is where the vital issue of the creation of a full-fledged autonomous Punjabi speaking state rests.  Besides some other equally important issues such as the river waters and hydel power, it should be reconciled before a meaningful dialogue could be held between the Indian government and the Sikhs.

Punjabi Hindus Turn Anti Punjabi

This study will be incomplete if a very sinister communal factor introduced into the politics of Punjab, i.e., renunciation of their mother tongue by the majority of the Punjabi Hindus is not probed.  Its implication and fall out have been the almost irretrievable Hindu-Sikh divide for the first time in history and, consequently, segregation and alienation of the Sikhs.  The palpable falsehood that mother tongue of the Punjabi Hindus was Hindi was openly propagated from the fundamentalist Hindu organizations and their Jalandhar based vernacular press.  Its import was loud and clear, that is, 70 percent of the Punjab population spoke Hindi and only 30 percent population spoke Punjabi - a stratagem to counter the demand for the creation of Punjabi speaking state.  In reality these percentages reflected the exact proportions of Hindu and Sikh residents.  Whilst Hindus were concentrated in the eastern region of the state, both in the urban as well as rural areas, the Sikhs were predominant in the Punjabi speaking heart-land in the western region, especially in the rural areas.  During the 1961 census almost the entire Punjabi speaking Hindus recorded their mother tongue to be Hindi.  The Central Government, always on the look out for excuses to deny justice to the Sikhs, continued to harp on the 1961 census and made it a basis for determining percentages of Punjabi and Hindi speaking people.  And, in the process not only the inalienable right to the formation of such state was inordinately delayed but, even more reprehensibly, multi pronged propaganda blitz was launched to stigmatize the Sikhs as being communal, even anti-Hindu, and therefore anti-national.
The disowning of the mother tongue was responsible for not only creating an unholy wedge between the two communities but had far reaching implications, not excluding the integrity of India.  It assumes the character of 'original sin'.  The promised autonomous Punjab was the first casualty.  The truncated Punjabi speaking state acceded to after 15 years of struggle was its other manifestation.  Its other ramifications were the calculated anti-Sikh policies which led to the numerous agitations launched by the Sikhs, Operations "Bluestar" and "Woodrose", genocide of the Sikhs in 1984, enactment of black laws whereby hundreds of thousands of innocent people have lost their life and liberty, complete suspension of human rights and indefinite President's rule in the Punjab. Although of recent origin, the anti-Sikh attitude of the majority of Punjabi Hindus has assumed a near permanent character.  The Centre has played an unholy but effective part in bringing about this situation.  In fact, the two have acted in perfect unison as against a common 'foe', the Sikhs.  Any stick is good enough to beat them.  Encouragement of Nirankaris, a newly founded deviationist and reactionary sect of the Sikhs, whose stock in trade is to denigrate the Sikh Gurus, their scriptures and institutions is one instance.  Murder of 13 unarmed Sikhs by Nirankaris at Amritsar on the Baisakhi day (13th April, 1978) using fire arms against an unarmed Sikh deputation and getting away with it is another.  To put the historical record straight it must be mentioned that Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, head of the ancient Sikh missionary seat, Damdami Taxal, founded by Guru Gobind Singh himself, emerged on the scene as an anti-Nirankari campaigner and champion of fundamentalism.  Although he took exception to distortion of Lk Sikh tenets by them there was absolutely nothing Lhat he said or did to malign Hinduism.  Notwithstanding, the government helped the Nirankaris in every way for the only reason that the latter had tried to distort the Sikh scriptures and tarnish the Sikh image.
 
Another serious consequence of the Hindu-Sikh cleavage is the complete disassociation of The Hindu community from any proposals and agitations mooted by The Sikhs even for purely secular and economic demands.  Akalis have been often blamed by Hindus of Punjabi origin, particularly those settled outside Punjab, for not carrying Hindus with them in their protestations.  Regrettably, it is well nigh impossible. The latter consistently exhibited  their extra--territorial communal loyalty.  They would support, if not champion, the cause of other neighboring states against Punjab.  That is a great misfortune.  Central Government thus has a most willing ally to deny to Punjab its legitimate and just demands thereby isolating the Sikhs to fight with one hand tied at the back!  It is to be hoped, however, that in time to come Punjabi Hindus will re-orientate their thinking as, of   they too are being discriminated against in those very states.

Mainstay of the thinking community in the Punjab, which is almost entirely Hindus, is concentrated in towns and cities, is the farming community who are mainly Sikhs.  Potentially the most drastic economic blow delivered by the Centre to the Punjab, is the unconstitutional and unprecedented usw-usurpation of control and distribution of  river waters to non-riparian states of Haryana and Rajasthan and hydel power which will thoroughly impoverish the Punjab farmers with equally serious repercussions on the affluent trading community.  Yet, the latter is least concerned about this all important issue, further substantiating the supremacy of communal consideration over all others.

There is a popular saying in rural Punjab about a father's advice to his school going son - 'I don't care if you fail but make quite sure that your cousin does not pass.' How close it is to the Punjabi Hindus approach to the Punjab problem!

An ironical aspect of the crisis is that whilst the Sikhs demanded a Punjabi speaking state where they would have parity with Hindus, what they actually got was a state with over 62 percent Sikh majority.  While the government and majority of the Hindus want Punjab to cede some more areas to Haryana, the Sikhs clamor for the re-incorporation of the Punjabi speaking areas, mostly inhabited by Hindus, which have been forcibly amputated.  Sikhs have persistently demanded the merger of those areas into Punjab.  Even this demand is dubbed as communal and has been thwarted by the successive prime ministers!

Nehru did not even allow a discussion on the issue of the creation of a Punjabi speaking state.  His daughter, Indira, hit upon a plan to make it a mere colony, with strong communal undertones and later awarded the Tehsils of Abohar and Fazilka to Haryana in lieu of Chandigarh, the state capital.  It was a blatantly c(communal decision because the bulk of the population of these tehsils is Hindu.  Since this award was transparently partisan and utterly without precedent the Sikhs rejected it.  But the damage had been done.  In all subsequent endeavors to resolve the problem and, among other things, to make Chandigarh exclusively the capital of Punjab somebody or other from the Central and Haryana governments would demand for compensation.  As discussed in the Chapter on 'Bluestar' nearly a dozen meetings were held between the Central@ Government and the Akalis as well as tripartite meeting involving other opposition parties from Jan. 1982 to early 1984.  On two separate occasions solutions were hammered out but Prime Minister Indira Gandhi would get cold feet and change her mind at the last moment.  Thus followed a series of agitations by the Sikhs and a hardening of attitudes on all sides.

Role of the Press

It is unfortunate that the 'free' Press of India has not covered itself with glory when dealing with Punjab in its hour of crisis.  Indeed some journalists in their individual capacity have been fair and objective.  But the majority of the newspapers and journalists have always 'tilted' towards the majority community.  Their communal predisposition has, in a large measure, been responsible for augmenting the Hindu - Sikh divide and distortion of history.  Sample the following paras taken from Ram Swarup's articles in the Times of India, December 19 and 20,1984:-

"To fulfill a certain need of the hour, Guru Gobind Singh preached the gospel of the Khalsa, the Pure or the elite.  Those who joined his group passed through a ceremony known as Pahaul, and to emphasize the martial nature of their new vocation, they were given the title of Singh or 'lion'.  Thus began a sect which was not based on birth but which drew its recruits from those who were not Khalsa by birth.  It was almost wholly manned by the Hindus."

And further:
"Our Sikh brothers remembered the old lesson, never really forgotten by them, taught them by the British, that they were different .... Under The pressure of this psychology, grievances were manufactured, extreme slogans were put forward with which even moderate elements had to keep pace.  In the last few years, even the politics of murder was introduced .... this grave situation called for necessary action which caused some unavoidable damage to the building (he means the Golden Temple).  When this happened the same people who looked on the previous drama either helplessly or with an indulgent eye, felt outraged ... The extremists who died became martyrs; the jawans who gave up their lives in performing a patriotic duty were forgotten."

Ram Swarup not only betrays his utter lack of historical perception and truth by making such statements as "the need of the hour" and calling the sovereign and distinct Sikh religion a "group" or a "sect" but dishes out brazenly false and untenable assessment of the evolution of political-spiritual forces of those times.  Ignoring the Government's diabolic design to stage "Bluestar", he manufactures and supports the propaganda about the creation of a grave situation which called for a full fledged military offensive.

Arun Shourie, who otherwise deserves bouquets for his dogged exposure of corruption at high places, betrays his prejudice against The Sikhs.  Let me quote:
"A demand..... out of whipped phobias as the panth-in-danger, is inherently insatiable.  The moment you satisfy a part of the demand or even all of it, a new and more extreme one is put forth..."

(Indian Express May 12, 1982)

Shourie's bias against Sikhs is deep and permanent He has unambiguously stated that the Congress Government's policy in respect of Punjab is correct Forgetting that the Punjab, more pertinently the Sikh problem, is the deliberate creation of the government by not honoring the pre-independence commitments denying them even equality, promoting communalism and later introducing the cult of violence to suppress them.  He chooses to overlook that it is the government which has been dithering and going back on its commitments.  Witness the way Indira Gandhi scuttled the agreed solution and her son the Rajiv-Longowal Punjab Accord.

Giri Lal Jain has a history of unabashed bias against the Sikhs which over the years he has systematically accentuated.  Ignoring the government's treacherous role in the induction of arms into the Golden Temple Complex before the "Bluestar" he writes in the Times of India date lined March 7, 1984:

"It is I I P.M. in the history of the Sikh community.  It must reverse the clock.  It is still possible to do so.  But time is running out.  The community must demand that the agitation be called off.  The Sikhs must heed the warning before it strikes midnight.

These examples can be multiplied ad nauseum.  But before closing this chronicle let us see what Prem Bhatia, a long time editor of The Tribune, and as is his wont, has made numerous oblique insinuations to distort history in his recent book 'Of Many Pastures'.  I quote:

"It was always clear to me that Sikh resentments were rooted in soil much deeper than the denial to Punjab of Chandigarh as the State's exclusive capital, or the complaint that Punjab was not given its full share of river waters for irrigation, or that its claims to a large chunk of territory where the Punjabi language was spoken as a rule had been ignored.  Much has been made by apologists for the Sikh community of the economic factor in the prevailing discontent and disorder.  This was only partly true and certainly no excuse for killing innocent people and robbing banks.

"It is interesting that the first major disturbance during this phase, which occurred only in April 1978, was not a quarrel between Sikhs and Hindus but between a group of militant Sikhs and the Nirankari sect, initially an offshoot of Sikhism which the Sikh community on the whole found repugnant to their faith.  During the incident, which took place in Amritsar, N s killed several Sikhs in retaliation against a threat from an aggressive mob apparently determined to have showdown.

"One of the terrorists' first major victims, Lala Jagat Narain, the Editor-proprietor of the Hind Samachar group of publications in J , was (as stated in an earlier chapter) a special hate object of Bhindranwale, as was his son, Ramesh Chandra.  In spite of tall claims by Darbara Singh, the Congress successor of Badal as Chief Minister, that he would "crush" the terrorists, the latter's hate campaign against the Hindu community and the Government in Delhi continued to grow and Bhindranwale became a legend...The movement in favor of "Khalistan" began to shape in the early eighties and had become much more than an irritating slogan by the time the Army struck at the Golden Temple to deal with Bhindranwale and his armed followers ensconced behind carefully built fortifications in the holy precincts.

"Although terrorists in Punjab had killed hundreds of innocent Hindus during the five years before this carnage, the Delhi killings represented the first large scale massacre on communal lines in which Sikhs were the victims.  Sikh minds, already deeply injured over Operation "Bluestar", were further hurt forgetful of the ancient warning that if you sow the wind you reap the whirl wind."

Bhatia has gone great guns against the Sikhs completely ignoring the basic and fundamental reasons, i.e. betrayal of the community by the Congress leadership after it assumed power in the divided India; the hate campaign started by Lala Jagat Narain and his group of lend Samachar newspapers against the Sikhs, their Gurus and institutions and not the other way around as he would have us believe; attributing the killing of Sikhs on the Baisakhi day of 1978 by Nirankaris in retaliation (retaliation for what?  Pray, how many Nirankaris were killed or even wounded?  None!!).  Bhatia's generalization in blaming the Sikhs is clearly a case of his fractured psyche.  But to make patently wrong statements that 'Sikh terrorists had killed hundreds of innocent Hindus' is a blatant lie.  The then Union Home Minister P.C. Sethi is on record stating in Parliament before Operation "Bluestar" that between Jan. 1, 1982 and Jan. 31, 1984), out of 220 victims of terrorism, over 190 were Sikhs." But his prejudice in justifying the genocide of the Sikhs on the specious ground of the allegedly terrorist killings, of a couple of hundred people (mostly Sikhs) before "Bluestar" is a sin against humanity.  But Lhat is his own equation with his conscience.  As a distortion of facts and history its only place is trash can.  Despite his platitudes here and there Bhatia cannot hide his innate hate for the Sikhs.

On the whole, the print media together with the government controlled electronic media, has played no mean role in alienating the Sikhs and accentuating the communal divide.  The Sikhs have a serious handicap in projecting to their countrymen the grave injustice done to them.  The only English paper (The Tribune) founded by a Sikh over a century ago has long been highjacked by the Arya Samajists and reduced to a mere mouth piece of that sect and its leaders like Bhafia who ruled the roost during the days of the government created Punjab crisis and still uses it to air his invective. CHAPTER IV

POLITICS OF VIOLENCE AND
STATE REPRESSION

General

It is exiomatic that when the Constitution is grossly violated, judiciary is throttled, justice is denied and large scale brutalities are committed on a particular community, there is bound to be retaliation against the perpetrators unless, of course, its will is broken and is no longer able to fight back.  But, despite all anticipations and the all-out state onslaught for over seven years, the Sikh morale and will to fight for their freedom have not suffered.  Knowledgeable people say that no other community could have stood up so boldly against such heavy odds.  Military action, deployment of hundreds of para military companies, imported governors, administrators and police officers from other states who had an established track record of exceeding their mandate and call of duty, legislating dreaded black laws, preventing foreigners and human rights organizations like Amnesty International from entering Punjab and numerous other overt and covert actions have been devised to break the community.  These are some of the ways of ushering in the era of politics of violence.

We have noted how the Congress Party and its government made a complete right-about-turn in respect of commitments made to the Sikhs before Independence.  We have also noted that a grand design was hatched to bring the Sikhs to heel.  Its first ugly manifestation was when the Government of Haryana headed by Bhajan Lal, in league with the Centre, used its police and hired goondas to assault, kill and humiliate the Sikhs who happened to be going to Delhi on the eve of 1982 Asian Games.  The excuse was the Akalis' statement of a peaceful demonstration to bring to the notice of the international community the gross violations of human rights vis-a-vis the Sikhs.  No one was spared irrespective of age and status including retired and serving senior civil and military officers,
judges, lawyers, ex-minister, women and children.  In many cases their hair - held sacred by the Sikhs - was cut off.  Forcible shearing means the worst humiliation for a baptized Sikh.  Some saved themselves by hiding in the fields during the day and traveling at night to places of safety.  A number of Gurdwaras in towns and villages of Haryana were desecrated.  In keeping with government's tradition of partisan politics, no culprit was punished.

Some hard lessons were however learned through this single episode.  Haryana Chief Minister Bhajan Lal earned special approbation of the Indira Gandhi government.  The police and the hired anti-social elements were rewarded for committing these crimes.  They felt encouraged that violence against the Sikhs in the future would be a profitable pursuit.  Consequently, the Sikhs outside Punjab felt insecure and unprotected.

Some other aspects of this very first pre-planned violence against the life and dignity of the Sikhs came into focus.  First, there was no retaliation by the Sikhs in the Punjab where they could easily have indulged in revenge killings.  Second, in practical terms, the law of the land could be dispensed with while dealing with a minority community.  Third, willingness of the security forces to undertake utterly unlawful missions at the behest of the ruling clique and thus subverting their discipline.  Fourth, anti-social elements could be pressed into service to do the dirty work.

Operations "Bluestar" and "Woodrose" were massive acts of state terrorism.  That these operations were conceived as a part of the grand design has already been placed on record.  Evidently, their sole purpose could be to reduce Sikhs to servility.  Genocide of the Sikhs on the pretext of Indira Gandhi's assassination in November 1984 was an even bigger exercise in state brutality.  An estimated fifteen thousand Sikhs were mowed down in Delhi and the Congress ruled states in the country.  The government's figure of 3,000 killed in Delhi is absurdly low that seeks to reduce the gravity of the crime.

Ever since, state repression has been systematically practiced with Punjab as its primary field of operation.  It has been kept out of bounds to foreigners lest the truth about the scale of atrocities and total violation of human rights gets known to the outside world.  Lately, under pressure from within and outside the country this restriction has been relaxed in some parts as a 'concession' under the Punjab package which is otherwise an eye wash.  But that has made little difference in the government policy and police excesses.  There is no let up in killings by the security personnel and the anti-social elements hired for the purpose.  People are picked up and lodged in police stations, interrogation centres (in fact, torture chambers) and prisons.  In most cases no report is lodged or it is delayed indefinitely which gives flexibility to the police to extort money or finish off  the ... culprits" in faked encounters.

Reports by independent organizations

Of late, men and women from social and human rights organizations as well as some members of Parliament have visited a few areas in Punjab.  This writer has accompanied some of them during their visits.  It must be said to the credit of these fine human beings that their approach to the problem has been extremely objective.  They had no communal bias nor prejudice against the government.  Among these, the Committee for Information and Initiative on Punjab has been most active.  None of the members of this committee, namely, R.N. Kumar, Nitya, ASIC Aggarwal and Tapan K. Bose are Sikhs or even Punjabis which itself makes for objectivity.  The narration- below is extracted from their booklet 'Report on State Terrorism in Punjab':

"For the last several years the Indian State has been presenting Punjab as a 'Problem Province' and the Sikhs as a 'Problem People'.  The much haunted slogan of 'integrity of the nation' has been consolidated into the Categorical Imperative that the State can do no wrong vis-a-vis the Sikhs.  The genocide of the Sikhs in 1984 in Delhi and elsewhere was seen by the authorities as understandable in the context.

There has been little news on Punjab save what the State has been dishing out which is mainly of 'terrorists' killing and alternatively, getting killed.  The constitutional imperative of judicial determination of guilt having been discounted into oblivion by both the police and the press, the reports on terrorists are presented by them without the ambiguity of the adjective "alleged ". Punjab, which in 1919 housed what was perhaps the most poignant and memorable protest against the Rowlatt Act is today besieged by a host of even more intimidatory legislation.  And in the spirit of "anything you can do, I can do better", towards colonial masters of yore the State of free India has ordained admissible in evidence confessions made to police officials.  The Rowlatt Act passed by the British government of India in February 1919 to consolidate the war-time provisions of detention without trial and trial without jury, had prompted Gandhi to call for non-cooperation with the government for the first time.  It was the repression of this movement epitomized by the massacre of Jallianwala Bag which had led Gandhi to proclaim Swaraj as the goal of the people of India in January 1922.

"It is not startling that a State which within the first decade of national independence brought into being the Preventive Detention Act, revived the DIR and has since not looked back with ESMA, MISA, NSA and others - should today contrive the Disturbed Areas Act, Armed Forces Special Power Act, and Terrorists and Disruptive Areas Act But with all these acts and the President's Rule in Punjab in full swing that it is being found necessary to formally abrogate the right to life by the 59th Amendment, does make one pause and think.  The Indian State has never covered itself with glory in the matter of human rights.  According to an Amnesty International Report, during the late 60s and early 70s, 23,000 political activists were killed all over the country.  Torture of political prisoners and of suspects in criminal cases is routine.  With manipulation of information and perjurative propaganda the Sikhs have been isolated from the rest of the Indian people and the polarization is near complete.  Given the situation, some of us felt impelled to attempt to know the truth about Punjab.  Ram Narayan Kumar, a freelance journalist, toured Punjab in March 1988.  He also came across instances which showed a complete break-down of the rule of law.  He carne across the Tiwana Commission Report - the report of a commission of inquiry set up under the Act and conducted by Justice C.S. Tiwana, retired Judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court.  'ne repose tells the harrowing tale of happening inside the Lada Kothi, a former pleasure resort of the Maharaja of Patiala which was turned into a veritable torture chamber after the Operation "Bluestar".  In a fervent attempt to measure up the concentration camps set up by more eminent dictators of yore batches of persons, whose original detention found by Justice Tiwana to have been illegal in most cases, were sent randomly to Lada Kothi to be tortured.  The recommendations of the Commission for action against the police officers identified by name and deed have not been implemented.  The Commission's report tabled on the floor of the Punjab Assembly has been effectively hushed up.

"Ram Narayan Kumar came across the case of a child of 15 picked up and exterminated in police lock-up with the explanation of 'encounter death' given to the parents subsequently.  And cases of women taken into custody, tortured and released only to be left to die.  Most interestingly of all he came across the redoubtable CIA (Central Investigation Agency), the modus operandi of which was to move around in unnumbered vehicles containing sometimes uniformed, sometimes un-uniformed, scruffy and ruffian-looking characters, who went about picking up and taking into custody anyone and torturing, killing or maiming him.  The case of lqbal Singh a former denizen of the Lada Kothi torture centre referred above was one such.  The covetous eyes of the CIA fell upon Iqbal Singh one morning and he was whisked away to the CIA staff headquarters, Faridkot, where he remained for a month.  No record was kept of his arrest.  It was for moving a habeas corpus petition for lqbal Singh that the Committee came into the picture. Iqbal's family was too terrorized to give an affidavit and the committee was formed to take responsibility and to move a Habeas Corpus Petition in the Supreme Court.  Probably upon getting an inkling of the Supreme Court's Show Cause Notice, the Senior Superintendent of Police, Faridkot, in whose custody Iqbal Singh was, released him in the presence of several persons.  The same official has since stated on oath before the highest court of the land that Iqbal Singh was never taken into custody.  Kumar records:

Then there was the case of Jagtar Singh and his wife, Harjit Kaur, who were arrested from the Golden Temple complex and taken to a local interrogation centre from where the wife was released and of the husband there was no trace.  We organized telegram to be sent to the Governor seeking Jagtar's release.  Eminent civil libertarians like V.N.  Tarkunde and several others sent telegrams to the Governor and Jagtar Singh was released.

"We believe that the character of the repression and brutality unleashed by the State indiscriminately  on the Sikhs and the moral lowliness of the officials at the helm of the affairs, as stands highlighted in the cases cited in this report, have contributed, more than anything else, to the growing disaffection among the Sikhs for the Indian state.  This ought to be condemned unequivocally by all those who believe that the sovereignty of the State is indivisible from its obligation to protect the human rights guaranteed under the Constitution.

"The right to life and liberty of the people in Punjab had been under violation for a long time even before the Parliament amended the Constitution empowering the State to suspend it Observers of developments in Punjab, in fact, see a close relationship between the escalation of separatist terrorism and the steady augmentation of State violence outside the established procedure of law.

"Escalation of terrorist violence brought about communal polarization not only of the population of Punjab but also of the State security forces.  The Punjab police, a large number of its personnel being Sikhs, was seen as the fifth column in sympathy with Sikh separatists.  The Central Reserve Police Forces (CRPF), which functioned under the authority of the Central Government, epitomized the rage and the reaction of Hindu India against Sikhs.  The Force was deployed to teach the desperate lot a lesson.  And lessons they were taught"

Kirpal Singh, a leader of the Janata Party in Amritsar, told me about the killing of innocent persons by the CRPF during the funeral procession of Harbans Lal Khanna, a Bharatiya Janata Party leader, assassinated apparently by Sikh militants, in April, 1984.

"Hindu organizations had given the call for a bandh - shut down - in Amritsar as a token of anguish at the assassination.  The CRPF took it upon itself to enforce the call.  Many Sikhs did not close their shops.  CRPF personnel ran amuck and rampaged the markets which were not shut down in sympathy with Hindu anguish.  In a fruit shop three Sikhs resisted the brigandage.  They were shot dead.  In another incident that occurred the same day, a CRPF patrol stopped a group of four men who were coming to Amritsar from village nearby.  The group consisted of two brothers, Surinder Singh and Narendra Singh, their father Mohinder Singh and Kuldip Singh, their maternal uncle.  Kuldip Singh was clean shaven and looked a Hindu while the rest were hirsute.  The CRPF patrol let Kuldip Singh get away and shot down the rest.   The government initially claimed that they were terrorists but later on equivocated by explaining the incident as an instance of inadvertent excess.  The next of kin of the victims were monetarily compensated.  But the guilty officials remained unpunished.  In early 1983, the President of the Akali Dal, Longowal, appointed a Committee to investigate the widespread reports that the police were killing Sikhs extrajudicially under the blinder of "armed encounters".  Three prominent lawyers, G.S. Grewal, who later became the Advocate General of State; Manjit Singh Khera and Ajit Singh Sirhadi, a former Minister and Advocate General-al, were on this committee.  They were able to examine eye-witnesses only in three cases of reported deaths in encounters.  The Committee came to the conclusion that in all the three cases the encounters were faked and that the detainees had in fact been killed in State custody.  All these instances precede the Operation "Bluestar" and the Delhi riots.  Let us proceed to the nearer past.

"In December 1986, a Sikh youth in Shah Kot village which came within the Assembly constituency of Balwant Singh, then finance minister, was killed by CRPF personnel.  Balwant Singh prevailed in the police administration to register a case of culpable homicide against the officers responsible.  Though the case was registered there was no follow up.  The initiative taken by Balwant Singh in this case brought about a rift between the police administration which functioned under supervision of The Union Home Ministry and the elected government of the State, culminating into the latter's dismissal by the President of India in May 1987.  Dismissal of the government was preceded by mud slinging between the Finance Minister and Mr. Rebeiro, the Director General of Police of Punjab, an ironfist appointee of the Prime Minister.  Balwant Singh criticized the police chief for being cavalier with the press in making statements derogatory to the elected government and for upholding an extrajudicial approach to tackle Sikh militancy.  Rebeiro charged the ministers and legislators of the Akali Dal of harboring terrorists.  In August 1987 the Punjab Human Rights Organization released a report on its inquiries into the allegations of killings of Sikh detainees in the State custody.  According to the findings of the organization seventy three persons in police custody had been killed in the district of Amritsar alone within a period of little more than three months between May 12 and August 22, 1987.  All these killings had been explained away as deaths in armed encounters between terrorists and the security forces.  The Punjab Human Rights Organization also released the list of people killed, giving along with their names, the dates and places of their actual arrest and the dates and locations when and where they were alleged to have died in encounters with the security forces.  While releasing the report to the press at Chandigarh, Justice A.S. Bains, a retired judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court and the Chairman of the organization, after they had written complaints to the senior police officers about extrajudicial execution of their relatives were themselves killed in faked encounters.

"FAKED ENCOUNTERS" is an elastic term which covers death caused by security forces in a variety of circumstances and reactions not involving a direct clash with persons killed."

(The report gives a number of examples through immaculately documented case
of such "encounters").

The report came out with the following findings:

Parminder Singh, the deceased , who lived in Secretary Mohalla of Gurdaspur had gone to visit a friend near Greta Bhavan, who was ironically enough a Hindu.  The  incident occurred when he was along leave of his friend to return to his house.  On seeing the patrol jeep of the 54th Battalion of the BSF, the boys, who had been standing on the road chatting, strated to move away.  The BSF men challenged them to stop and immediately opened fired, killing Parminder Singh.  The inquiry concluded that the boy killed by the BSF did not have a weapon with him.  The pistol shown to have been recovered from his dead body was a plant, the report said.  The magistrate indicated the personnel of the BSF responsible for the murder by their names and suggested that they be prosecuted under the relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code.  The recommendation was, as in other cases cited before, ignored.

In the course of my own travels in Punjab I received innumerable reports of deaths in fake encounters from people who claimed authentically that these had actually taken place in police custody.  I was able to investigate only three such cases thoroughly.  I discovered that they were indeed plain murders of detainees in custody committed by their custodians.  In two cases I found that detainees had been done to death after prolonged interrogation under severe torture.  One of these cases was from the Muktsar subdivision of Faridkot district the second from Guru Harsahay, a sub-division of Ferozepore district.  The third case of extra-judicial execution had taken place in Mohali, in district Ropar near Chandigarh.  In that case the police shot down an unarmed person while trying to abduct him from a public procession in front of hundreds of people.  He probably died immediately from the injury.  I say probably, because the police carried away his body in a imp to some unknown place after shooting him and declared his death only the next day following a public protest at the incident.

Police Violence in Punjab

Justice (Retd) V.N. Tarkunde, Mr. N.D. Pancholi and Mr. Tejinder Singh of the Citizens for Democracy visited some of the worst affected areas in the Batala Police district from March 18 to 20, 1989.  They were not accompanied by any person belonging to a political party.  Here are some extracts from their report which has appeared in a large number of newspapers and magazines:

"The most frequent charge on which villagers are arrested by the police, beaten up, tortured and kept in detention is that they had harbored the terrorists.  What happens is that a small group of terrorists goes to a village at night and demands food and shelter.  The terrorists are heavily armed and it is impossible for the villagers to refuse their demands.  Next day, the police approach the villager, arrest him and his family members, beat them up and often deprive them of money and other movables.  An instance may be cited of what happened in village Padda.  Ajit Singh Shah, his son and two relations from that village are still in jail.  They were severely beaten for having harbored terrorists and a sum of Rs.15,000 and some movables were taken away by the police.

"We heard such accounts from almost every village we visited.  A curious story was told by Swaran Singh and his friend Sukhdev Singh at Fatehgarh Churian.  Swaran Singh has been a Congressman and, being in possession of licensed arms, was able to repel an attack by some terrorists when they came to his farm-house in Boharwal village.  For greater safety he shifted to another village, Mohan Bhandrian, where he had a commission agency.  On 7-1-1989, a number of terrorists came to that village and looted all the shopkeepers including Swaran Singh.  The police came to the village the next day and arrested all the shopkeepers including Swaran Singh for having given assistance to the terrorists.  Swaran Singh was kept in jail for four days and was severely beaten and tortured.  He has now shifted to Fatchgarh Churian.  He told us that out of sheer disgust he has decided to leave the Congress and join the Bharatiya Janata Party.

"Sometimes all the adults in a village are gathered together by the police and beaten up because of the suspicion that they supported the terrorists.  On 11-1-89, at about 4 a.m. the police came to Sachur Village in 23 or 24 trucks and jeeps, called out all the men and women, asked all the adult men (about 500 in number) to lie on the ground with their faces down and beat them mercilessly with leather straps and wooden batons for more than an hour.  The operation was directed by the SSP of the area.  The villagers themselves told us this story.  They also said that 15 days earlier a similar treatment was given to all the adults in the nearby Dhabawala Village.

"More serious notice is taken by the police of families when they suspect that a family member has joined a terrorist gang.  In Bolewal village, a young man named Kulwant Singh had absconded and was suspected (probably right) of having become a terrorist.  The police arrested his elder brother Nirwar Singh, tortured him and subsequently declared that he died in a police encounter.  They arrested the youngest brother Dilgagh Singh and tortured him for extracting information about his absconding brother.  Later, on May 2, 1988, the police visited the house again at about 2:00 am. and as Dilbagh Singh was trying to run away, he was shot dead.  The story was told by his tearful mother and corroborated by the villagers.  The SSP of the area was present when Dilgagh Singh was shot dead.  Next day the DIG came to the village, collected the villagers, and after giving the instance of Dilbagh Singh threatened them of the consequences of giving succor to the terrorists.  Such cases of killing by the police are quite frequent.

"We had reports from different people that the police themselves have set up non-official forces consisting of armed gangs whose function is to trace terrorists and exterminate them.  These gangs are reported to be indulging in oppressing villagers and extracting money from them.

"It is not surprising that some young boys from the families which are thus subjected to beating, torture and fake encounters join one or other of the terrorist gangs.  By all accounts, police atrocities are at present the main cause of the continuation of terrorism at least in the border districts of Punjab.

"We are told that on March 10th or 11th about 300 to 400 policemen came to Bolewal village collected all the men and boys above the age of 11, and made them sit in the open the whole day.  At the end, 30 persons were taken into custody, beaten up with leather straps and then rel@.  More recently, on March 16 Avtar Singh and his brother were taken into custody at Jafarwal village because of their suspected terrorist connection and were killed by a non-official force set up by the police.

"It will be recalled that in August 1985, the Citizens For Democracy had, after a fortnight's enquiry, published a report on the police atrocities in Punjab after the "Bluestar" Operation of 4th and 5th of June, 1984.  The report pointed out that as a result of police atrocities, a form of State terrorism had developed in Punjab and that it had been counter-productive as it had led to the growth of terrorist activity.  The book was banned on the ground that it was seditious.  What is stated above fully vindicates the conclusions drawn in that report four years ago.

"On the basis of our enquiry, some concrete suggestions can be made for improvement of the Punjab situation.  First and foremost, all police excesses must be stopped.  It is the duty of the Punjab government to see that the police act within the bounds of law and in accordance with the Constitution.  Even if the police cannot be persuaded at short notice to change their attitude towards the people and to seek public cooperation for the suppression of terrorism, they can at least be required to adhere to the rule of law.

"Secondly, it must be realized that one of the main causes of the alienation of the Sikh community lies in the fact that no action is taken against the culprits of the Sikh massacre which took place in Delhi and elsewhere in 1984.  The government has rendered the Jain-Bannerjee@, which recommended prosecution of some of the culprits, entirely ineffective.  The work of that Committee should be revived and its recommendations should be carried out.

"Third, a process should be initiated for the eventual establishment of a democratic regime in Punjab.  The Prime Minister or the Cabinet Committee appointed for the purpose should discuss the matter with the opposition parties and initiate a process for the re-establishment of democracy in Punjab."

None of the recommendations of the committee has been implemented. - Author
Members of Parliament Visit Punjab.

On April 17, 1989, three prominent Parliamentarians accompanied by the author visited some villages in District Gurdaspur and interviewed some victims of torture, molestation and the families whose members had been killed or taken into unlawful custody by the Police and paramilitary forces.  Their report appearing in the press is reproduced below:

A three-member committee of Opposition members of parliament (MPs) has indicted the police for committing excesses on the people, including village elders and women in Batala police district.  In a detailed report on "police brutality and lawlessness in Batala" submitted recently to the President and the Prime Minister, the committee has demanded a high-level judicial enquiry into the cases of police brutality, torture and humiliation  of villagers.  "Whatever the form of any other terrorism, we got a first hand glimpse of State terrorism and it is obvious that functionaries of the State who perpetrate crime against innocent people are incapable of the disciplined effort required to deal with others indulging in equally reprehensible crimes" it said and demanded immediate action against the Batala police chief.

During their tour of the area the committee consisting of Mr. K.P. Unnikrishnan, Mr. Ashok Nath Varma and Mr. Muniram Saikia, visited two villages - Sarchur and Kastiwal - and met several residents, including retired Army personnel, to record statements about brutal police behavior.  The accounts narrated by the people, it said, were consistent and corroborative.

According to the report, on January 10 the SSP Gobind Ram, with about 500 BSF and Punjab police personnel, rounded up all 500 males in Sarchur village and all Sikhs between the ages of 18 and 80 at a focal point.  They were made to lie down and beaten with belts and bamboo sticks.
 

The police chief compelled the assembled villagers to shout the filthiest abuse against various prominent persons, particularly against a woman activist of the Akali Dal and her two daughters. The report pointed out that Surjit Kaur's son, Prabjot Singh, was picked up by the police within days of coming from abroad along with his sister and kept in police custody for six days.  Her younger daughters aged 15 and 10 were also taken away by the police and kept in custody for two days without any female personnel.  They would not describe in detail the manner of torture but kept on repeating the wretched things were done to them.

Narrating another incident of Avtar Singh, a granthi of a local gurdwara and his wife, the committee members said, it revealed the non-seriousness of the police in apprehending terrorists.  The granthi confessed to the committee that armed men came at late hours and demanded food which, in the absence of protection, he dared not refuse.  He informed the police about this but instead of providing protection or keeping a watch on the house, he and his wife were taken in custody and tortured. After being beaten severely, his wife was tortured by placing a long iron rod on her thighs with two persons standing at each end and two others rolling it up and down.  Apparently the muscles were seriously damaged.

Avtar Singh was tortured by passing an electric current through his genitals, the report said.

In Kastiwal village, which has a sizeable Christian population, the panel members met Mr. Bashir Masih, a Roman Catholic who retired from the Guards.  He revealed that Mr. Govind Ram forced the men in the village - about 500 in number - to assemble before being beaten up.

The police, after humiliating the men, threatened to strip the women before the assembly.

In the same village, Mr. Inderlal, a Hindu chowkidar, said on January 12, when he was accompanying the lambardar of the village on his rounds, the police surrounded the village and rounded up people.  Although the two showed their identity cards and land revenue books, they were forced to lie down and beaten up like others. The reports quoted another case of Mr. Dharwn Singh from the same village who had run away due to police harassment The police had destroyed his house where his aged mother lived
.
Dharam Singh came back to his house, hoisted the "Khalistan" flag and started reconstruction of the house.  He worked for three days but the police never came. After he left the place, the police came, pulled down the flag and abused villagers for not providing information in time.

 The report maintained that it was not known whether the Centre's policy was to have officers like Mr. Gobind Ram, whose conduct alienated the people.

(The Tribune dated April 18, 1989)

AN AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL REPORT

Among many cases of human rights violation reported in the March 1989 hand-out by Amnesty International, an extract from its March 1989 report (Al Index 20/05/89) concerning murder of a university professor in a false encounter is reproduced below:

"Rejinder Pal Singh Gill, an assistant professor in horticulture at Punjab Agriculture University, Ludhiana, was reportedly arrested on 25 January 1989 in Chandigarh, Punjab, by the Ludhiana police.  The police refused to give information about his arrest or whereabouts until 15 February 1989, when the Ludhiana police announced that he had been killed in an encounter with the police together with two others on the night of 26 January 1989 at Khehra Bet, Ludhiana.  He had reportedly been seen in custody at Sadar police station on 25 and 26 January 1989.

"Members of a local human rights organization investigating the report of his killing spoke to two people who said they had seen Rajinder Pal Singh Gill in the custody of the police.  One eye-witness stated that he saw him being brought to the CIA Headquarters at Ludhiana around 10:30 p.m. on January 25, 1989.  A second eyewitness claims to have seen him at the same place around 9 am on 26 January 1989.  A lawyer who had gone to Sadar police station to report a theft stated that he had seen his tractor - which was also taken away at the time of the arrest - at Sadar police station on 26 January 1989 at 10 p.m.

"Relatives filed a habeas corpus petition before the Punjab and Haryana High Court on 8 February 1989.  Subsequently, the court directed the Director General of Police, Punjab, and the Senior Superintendent of Police, Ludhiana, to produce Rejoinder Pal Singh Gill in court on 10 February 1989.  The police reportedly asked the court to extend this period.

"But, on 15 February 1989, Mr. Sumedh Singh Saini, Senior Superintendent of Police, Ludhiana, announced that Rajinder Pal Singh Gill had been killed in an encounter with the police at Khehra Bet, near Ludhiana, together with two others named as Devinderpaul Singh from Malikpur Garibdas, Ropar district, and Prabhjit Singh from Chandigarh.  The clothes of Rajinder Pal Singh Gill were
reportedly recovered from the place of the encounter but the dead body was not handed over to the relatives but cremated by the police.

"The police have not made public any further details about the circumstances of the alleged "encounter".  The lawyer who had seen Rajinder Pal's tractor at Sadar police station reportedly also stated that he had heard how the Station House Officer reprimanded his juniors for bringing the tractor to Sadar and failing to take it to Ladowal, a place near Khehra Bet, the place where the alleged encounter took place.

Amnesty International is concerned that Rajinder Pal Singh Gill may have been deliberately killed on 26 January 1989 in an "encounter' staged by the police.  This is because the police have not produced evidence that he died in an armed encounter, because eye-witnesses claim to have seen him in custody before the killing and thirdly because his wife, Rajinder Kaur, who had been arrested in August 1988, claimed in a telegram of 27 August 1988 to the Chief Justice of the Pujab and Haryana High Court that, while she was detained at Focal Point police station, Ludhiana the superintendent of police (detective) had threatened that her husband would be killed in an "encounter".  Further, as pointed out in an article in The Time of India of 22 Feb 1989, "the police have so far failed to give any satisfactory explanation for not releasing details in time of the death."

"Amnesty International urges the Indian government to institute immediately an impartial investigation into the allegations that Rajinder Pal Singh Gill was deliberately killed by the police in a staged "encounter" and to publish its findings in full.  It also requests that the government take all necessary steps to protect any witnesses wishing to give evidence during the inquiry.  Should evidence emerge that Rajinder Pal Singh Gill died as a result of deliberate shooting while in custody of the police, Amnesty International urges the government to ensure that criminal proceedings are instituted against those responsible and that adequate compensation be paid to the relatives."

Footnote: Needless to say that the India government has, as is its practice, ignored Amnesty International's suggestions which further- substantiates the government's connivance and support of the security forces in their unlawful activities.

A REPORT BY PUNJAB HUMAN RIGHTS ORGANIZATION

Report from the Punjab Human Rights which appeared in the press on 24th February, 1989 further substantiates the state atrocities is reproduced below:

"On coming to know of the police excesses in Batala and Sri Hargobindpur area, the Punjab Human Rights Organization sent out its team to gather authentic information.  A team consisting of Dr. Jiwanjot Kaur and Miss Kamal Kaur Sandhu of Nari Munch Punjab toured the Shri Hargobindpur area and particularly documented at least a dozen cases of police brutality on women.  Another team consisting of Justice Ajit Singh Bains, Mrs. Baljit Kaur Gill and Mr. Gurtej Singh toured the Batala area and recorded evidence in several villages.  During their tour the teams interviewed the affected parties, publicmen, social workers, political leaders, ex-servicemen, teachers and others.  On the basis of information collected, the following conclusions can be drawn:

1.  The police force-led by Gobind Ram has unleashed a veritable reign of terror in the area@t.  People flee to fields on the approach of suspected police vehicles in panic reaction and are generally migrating to safer places.  Registration of false cases, extortion, torture, elimination in false encounters and detestable insult campaign are some of the activities being currently undertaken by the district police in Batala.  This is continuing in spite of widespread resentment, large scale Media exposure and public disapproval by the Governor and his Adviser.  No remedial measures have been undertaken by the administration.

2.  The police is achieving its objectives through the manipulation of its own decoy gangs which visit isolated village homes at odd hours and demand food and shelter at gun point.   They abuse imposed hospitality in many ways, extort money and often molest the women folk.  Unarmed villagers are unable to resist them.  Next day the village is visited by the police and everybody in the village is humiliated on the pretext of having provided food and shelter to alleged terrorists.

3.  Police, supported by paramilitary forces, descends on the villages in the small hours of the morning.  It is armed to the teeth.  It surrounds the village and rudely pulls out the villagers it wants to insult and assault.  Sometimes they are made to come out on the pretext of distribution of flood relief.  Our teams came across victims of both sexes and of ages ranging from pre-teens to late eighties.  Elected representatives, retired military and civil officials and village servants with identity cards duly issued by the government are not excluded.

4.  The entire village community is forced out to an open field and made to lie face downwards on the ground.  People are stripped naked and given a beating with shoes and sticks by the police with the Senior Superintendent of Police and other officers joining in.  At one place a Major of the Border Security Force quilted the scene in disgust.  Honored guests, migratory labor and casual visitors are not spared.  Retired army officials get more than their share.  In a village, an ex-Indian National Army official has been forced to desert his home.  His family has gone with him.  An employee of the Punjab Electricity Board has been driven underground by frequent torture and repeated insults.  At gun point villagers are made to join the police in hurling filthy abuses at women, village elders and respected figures.

5.  From amongst the assembled Villagers, batches are selected and transported to neighboring village for being similarly insulted in front of their neighbors.  Some young men and women are selected for extended torture in the notorious BEECO building at Batala.  At this place systematic torture with the aid of variety of machines and gadgets is inflicted upon the illegally detained inmates.  There is no outside help, no remedy or hope of any sort; those who venture out to help are themselves treated as criminals.

A sample of the mildest abuse by the police was recalled to our team by numberdar and chaukidar, both more than seventy years of age.  they were going about their business of collecting land revenue.  They tried to exhibit the account books by way of confirmation of their official status.  "The registers will be rolled up and shoved up your..' They were told.

6.  Villagers told our team that the Sub-Divisional Magistrate and the District Magistrate, who although unable to help, yet listened to them sympathetically, have both been transferred out promptly.  One of them has relinquished his charge and the other is in process of doing so.  The offending Superintendent of Police stays put.  Villagers who spoke up against him on February 14, 1989 at the bidding of the Governor were again beaten up by the police for expressing resentment.

Motives and Purpose:

1.  Immediate motive behind unleashing State terror appears to be to demonstrate and subjugate the unarmed helpless villagers.  It is calculated that this will somehow inoculate them against private violence and will help in containing it.  The police appears to have the support of all those who matter in the administration of the Punjab.

2.  Higher police officials are reaping a good harvest.  Prompt payment to a sufficiently senior police officer is the only alternative to insult, illegal custody and torture and death in fake armed encounter with the police.

3.  Some policemen told our was in all seriousness that one aim of the police is to induce violence so that the continuation of Batala as special police district beyond March 17, 1989 may be justified.  That may be one aspect of the matter.

4.  It is obvious that at various levels the State machinery has become interested in the continuation of violent activity and is seeking its perpetuation for gains ranging from propaganda value to consolidation of communal votes.  Our team was told that the curtain drops while a prominent Congressman is making a show of coming to the aid of the stupefied people.

Result:

1.  Police has struck a great blow for what it calls terrorist activity by constantly inspiring thousands of people to join their ranks.  Sympathy and admiration for the underground has vastly increased.  Their Robinhood image is all too perceptible.

2.  By the present action, the police has rapidly progressed in deepening the communal divide which it officially decries but actually appears to yearn for.

3.   The net result of this activity is that whole villages are seething with discontent, disgust and rage at this uncouth, uncivilized and, in fact, barbaric behavior.

4.  Prestige of the law and order machinery is at its lowest ebb.  People compare the behavior of this police with that of the worst armies of occupation, anywhere.

5.  Delicate social fabric of the village community which binds our rural people together, has been rudely rent asunder.  Long term repercussions of this aspect are difficult to assess immediately.  But they can be safely predicted while hoping for the best.  It is a social catastrophe of the greatest magnitude.  The wounds will never heal.  Great many lives have been rudely and violently shaken away from the sure keep of ages.  Their misery will never cease."

In August 1989 the Batala police forcibly picked up Gurmeet Kaur and Gurdev Kaur from Amritsar which is outside the jurisdiction of the latter.  But since the launching of Operation "Bluestar" the government has been waging an all out war on the Sikhs.  There is virtually no rule of law.  J.F. Rebeiro is on record stating that "in the situation which obtains in Punjab, police accountability is to itself'. (Interview with Pritish Nandy, Editor of Illustrated Weekly of India Oct.1989). A brief account of the physical and mental torture Of these two women is given below: -

They were employees of Prabhat Finances and Investment Limited, Khalsa College, Armitsar.  A police team from Batala raided the office and forced them into a Maruti van which had no number plate.  Except for Head Constable Lakhvinder Singh all other officials were in plain clothes.  They were driven to Sadar Police Station in Batala and were shifted to BECCO Interrogation Centre in Batala around 7:00 p.m. Senior Superintendent of Police Gobind Ram personally supervised their torture in the course of their interrogation.

 Mrs. Gurdev Kaur was let off on August 22 , 1989 in the early afternoon.  Mrs. Gurmit Kaur was held in illegal custody till August 26.  That day her arrest was formally registered and remand for interrogation for two days was obtained.  The police remand was extended up to Sept. 3, 1989, the day Gurmit Kaur was discharged and released from custody by the designated court, Gurdaspur.
The story of their illegal detention and torture appeared in the newspaper:

"On August 29, 1989 Shri Hari Singh Nagra an advocate from Chandigarh filed a petition in the High Court of Punjab and Haryana on the basis of the newspaper report of the case, seeking medical examination of the tortured, compensation and a case against those responsible.  The State of Punjab in its answer denied the allegations, however, admitting that Gurdev Kaur was taken to BEEKO Interrogation Centre, on 21st and 22nd August, 1989 and was allowed to return to her house after some hours of questioning.  In their answer the respondents alleged that Gurdev Kaur had confessed to her involvement in terrorist activities.

On Sept. 11, 1989 both Gurmit Kaur and Gurdev Kaur filed applications before the High Court asking that they be medically examined to determine the factum of their torture.  The petition, No.2861 of 1989 was, however, dismissed by Justice S.S. Diwan on the following grounds:-

i)  Two women in the application claimed to have been tortured by the Senior Superintendent of Batala Police personally whereas the petition filed by Hari Singh Nagra only alleged that they have been tortured at his instance. (The petition was filed by a public spirited lawyer after reading of their illegal custody and torture in a newspaper).

ii)  The two women did not complain to the Magistrate before whom they appeared on Aug. 26, that they had been totured Gurmit Kaur asked the Magistrate for a medical examination only on Aug. 30 and upon being taken to the Civil Hospital gave in writing to the police that she did not want to be examined. (According to the police Gurdev Kaur was never arrested and produced before the Magistrate.  Gurmit Kaur did apply for medical examination on Aug. 30.  Her statement@ when taken to the Civil Hospital, that she did not want to be examined was made under duress.  Since she remained in police custody for 5 more days her subsequent request to the High Court for a medical examination had, independently of all these facts, a sound basis).

iii)  While applying to the High Court for medical examination at a belated stage they did not support the allegation of torture in custody with a medical certificate. (The request was belated, if so, because they have been bed-ridden and unable to move about.   On learning that a petition on their behalf had been filed by a public spirited lawyer they decided to file their own affidavits.  The fact that no hospital would give them a medical certificate establishing the torture in custody was precisely the fact that had prompted them to seek intervention from the High Court.)

The Black Laws

The draconian laws specially enacted for Punjab are so barbaric that they have no parallel, not only in the democratic countries but even where dictators and despotic monarchs have ruled since the medieval times.  A brief description of some of these laws would be appropriate so that the reader could appreciate how the Indian Government has armed itself through these repressive measures to take away the right to life and liberty of some sections of its own citizens.  The saddest part is the poisoning of the public mind against the Sikhs through the controlled electronic media as well as the massive propaganda blitz by other means at its command.

Peoples Union for Civil Liberties, an All-Indian Organization, has a long and creditable record of highlighting curtailment of human rights by the State.  Some extracts from their booklet titled "Black Laws 1984-85" are given below to further acquaint the reader about the appalling state to which the selected communities and groups have been systematically reduced.

The history of post-Independent India is replete with Ordinances and Acts which have seriously eroded the civil and democratic rights of the Indian people.  Recent enactments have dramatically aggravated this situation.  The deteriorating situation in Punjab, itself a creation primarily of the State and the ruling party, has prompted the government to bring in an additional set of repressive measures.  What is worse, a carefully manipulated climate of opinion that is full of panic and fear have allowed these legislations to be passed almost without a whimper of protest.  What is of grave concern is the almost complete lack of active opposition to these laws among democratic section of the public.

And now upon all this, comes the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Bill, 1985 which was rushed through Parliament in a record time with almost the entire Opposition giving their assent - directly or through their silence.  The Bill, popularly known as the "Anti-Terrorist Act', is the crowning act of a State which has symbolized growing oppression and terror against the people.  It is thus not only undermining its own legitimacy but also undermining the whole Constitutional basis of a civil society.  The earlier measures which have been put on the statute book over the years have so over-equipped the State and its ordinary functionaries with extraordinary powers that they are bound to be used against innocent people.  And have been.  This new Act will be too.  Apart from the fact that it was wholly unecessary.

Above all, the Act seeks to "terrorize" in a rather basic way - by terrorizing the mind, by making any dissent from mainstream thinking an unpatriotic act.  Anyone can be called a "terrorist'.  The conditioning of the press and the judiciary in recent years, following the Army action in Punjab (Operation "Bluestar") is only a forewarning of what is to follow.  In turn, this is likely to at once terrorize and alienate ordinary members of minority communities, something that real "terrorists" will in fact enjoy.  And the moot point is that the Act will hardly put a stop to terrorism.". it will only dramatically curb the basic liberties of the people.
When the Constitution of India was enacted, Article 21 guaranteed to every person the right to life and liberty which could not be denied to her/him without honoring the due procedure established by law.  Article 22 of the Constitution laid down the scheme under which a preventive detention law could be enacted.  The Preventive Detention Act was enacted in 1950, and it continued to be on the statute book until the Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA) came into existence in 1971.  From 1950 to 1970, the Preventive Detention Act was re-enacted seven times, each time the duration of the Act being three years.  There was a gap of about a year when there was no Central law on the subject, though several States had PD laws. (Preventive Detention is different from detention under normal laws, ie, the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Criminal Procedure Code (Cr.P.C.) Under the I.P.C. and the Cr.  P.C. persons are arrested for having committed acts violative of the law.  Under Preventive Detention, however, persons are arrested to prevent them from doing what the government does not wish them to do.)

In 1977, the MISA was repealed.  And the only period in the Indian Republic without any preventive detention law was the three year period, beginning with the repeal of MISA in 1977 to the promulgation of the National Security Act in December 1980, though an attempt was made even during this period to bring in a "mini MISA".

And now, 38 years after "Independence', the people of India have been subject to laws which violate all principles of natural justice.  In some ways, they are worse than laws under the colonial regime.  Not only do they subvert the right to fair trial but they can also be used against individuals and groups working for social and political justice.

We believe that the present political system is bent upon subverting the principle of freedom and justice, and destruction of the fundamental rights of the individuals.  There is an urgent need to build public opinion and to bring popular pressure against the black laws of 1984-85.

Commenting on the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (1985), Mr. V.M. Tarkunde, Retired Judge of the Supreme Court states:

"Assumption of such vast coercive powers by the Executive is quite unnecessary for coping with terrorist acts and socially harmful activities. The ordinary law of the land, embodied in the @ Penal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code, can easily deal firmly and adequately with terrorist acts and activities which are really disruptive.

The oppressive nature of the legislation is further brought out by the way it deals with persons who are merely suspected of terrorist or disruptive acts.  They can be produced after arrest before the executive (not judicial) magistrates.  They cannot be released on bail except after notice to the Public Prosecutor and only if they satisfy the magistrate that they are innocent of the alleged offenses.  If they are not released on bail, they will remain in jail for a whole year even if no charge sheets have been filed against them in any magistrate's court.

"Another harmful feature of the Bill is that the definition of "disruptive activity" is so wide as to include a mere expression of opinion, not accompanied by any violence or incitement to violence.  Any Sikh who says that he agrees with the Anandpur Sahib Resolution, any Muslim who says that there should be plebiscite in Jammu and Kashmir, any Naga or Mizo or Manipuri who says that the people of his or her state should have the right to self determination, is guilty of "disruptive acfivity" and can be punished by a sentence which may extend to imprisonment for life and shall not be less than imprisonment for a term of three years.

Those who drafted this legislation have failed to realize that the unity and integrity of India can be maintained only by the spontaneous sense of loyalty and cooperation of the people of different regions of the country and not by recourse to oppression and coercion.  Such draconian laws are counter-productive, because they drive secessionist movements underground, where they thrive on the dissatisfaction of the local population."

In his piece, 'Grabbing More and More Powers' in the same booklet Mr. S. Sahay,
Editor, the Statesman, Delhi, has this to say:-

"What money is to unscrupulous traders, power is to the politicians and bureaucrats.  Any excuse is good enough to have more and more and in any case in excess of requirements of the situation.  And what has once been grabbed has to be retained on one pretext or another.

"Recall how preventive detention initially had annual life and how after being fitted into different grabs (MISA, National Security Act and what have you), it has become a permanent feature of our life.  Recall how many extraordinary pieces of legislation have been enacted in recent years which deny citizens the right to be tried under the ordinary laws of the land.  There are special laws to deal with smugglers, with economic offenders, with other anti-social elements.  Not that these have curbed smuggling or economic offenses, the political morality being what it is, but the remedy touted is to have still more powers.

"The recent planting of "transistor bombs" in Delhi and elsewhere gave the Government an opportunity to push through Parliament The Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act It is true that the Union Law Minister, Mr. Asoke Sen, was at pains to point out during the debate on the Bill that the measure was not intended to be against the Sikhs, that it included terrorism elsewhere in the Northeast for example.  However, few will miss the proximity between the planting of the transistor bomb and the adoption of the Bill.  The North-East has been a problem
with us for over two decades.  Why was not such a measure adopted earlier?

"Mr.  Sen was also at pains to assure Parliament that the Government did not intend to rule through extraordinary powers, that the measure would not last beyond two years.  One can only say that one has heard all this before, especially in relation to the preventive laws. (The act has been recently extended by another two years).

"Whether or not the Act will strike terror in the hearts of the terrorist remains to be seen, but it is sure to strike terror in the hearts of journalists and others.  Even a District Magistrate can be authorized to take steps to prevent the acquisition, possession or publication of any information likely to assist terrorists or disruptionists.  He can also prohibit or regulate the use of postal, telegraph or telephonic services.

"Since the borderline between terrorism and insurgency in Punjab is getting thinner and thinner, it is highly unlikely that the Terrorist Act will help the Government much.  Will it then seek still more powers?" The Government has itself answered the question through the 59th Constitutional Amendment.  It can invoke the Emergency provisions for the state of Punjab whenever it suits.  The Government will then have no qualms of conscience, though long since virtually smothered through repeatedly ignoring its protest, to legally take away the life of any person.  Meanwhile, it hangs like the sword of Damocles over the Punjab's (Sikhs, in effect) head.

As the brief reports quoted above indicate, there is no known crime or act of barbarity that the government enforcement agencies have not committed to suppress the Sikhs.  We have quoted the reports of some humanitarian organizations.  They tell but a fraction of the monumental brutalities being committed.  We should perhaps wind up this dismal piece by briefly mentioning a couple of incidents which took place after the issue of reports detailed above.

Seventeen year old Surjit Kaur was picked up and taken to police station, Kathunangal, District Amritsar in Feb.  '90.  She was repeatedly gang raped by half a dozen policemen over two nights.  When bleeding won't stop she was handed over to her people in semi-conscious state.  The doctor who attended on her saved her life but would not give an authentic medical report.  He was obviously aware of what happened to his fellow professionals who had got on the wrong side of the police!

Two minor girls (aged 13 and 14) of village Bham, Police Station Sri Hargobindpur, Police DIST. Batala were raped by policemen from the police post situated there.  After satisfying their lust they killed them and threw their naked bodies in a drain nearby.  Despite their best and repeated efforts the girls' parents and the village panchayat could not even get a case registered against the culprits.  The district magistrate, who is responsible for law and order, expressed his helplessness.  It is only after a month of sustained protests, that at the time of writing, the State Governor has ordered their arrest.   It is worth noting that no person below the State Governor, and sometimes not even he, can proceed against the meanest of police functionaries.  Is there then any doubt of the complete supremacy of police over the civil administration in the Punjab?

It has been alleged that there are orders from the 'top' that Station House Officers (Incharge Police Station) have to kill a certain number of young Sikhs every month.  Since thousands are in illegal custody, the laid down quotas are easily met.  In the event of a particular SHO not having adequate numbers he 'borrows' from a neighboring police station to fulfill his allotted target.

Practically all encounters where no police person is killed or injured, are false.  If, however, in a real encounter some policemen get killed without inflicting any casualties on the militants, the police kill some innocent persons, bring their bodies to scene of the incident, plant illicit weapons on them and declare how 'bravely' they killed the "terrorist".  A case in point: Two inspectors and four constables were killed by the militants near the police district of Tarn Taran.  Since there was no casualty among the latter, police shot three innocent boys in the neighborhood and used their bodies for the purpose of showing an "encounter".

Such examples can be multiplied ad nauseum.  But the reader has no doubt comprehended the enormity of the situation prevailing in Punjab through a devilishly designed policy of achieving political ends through progressive escalation of state repression.

The fact that the government has been grossly misusing the black laws is common knowledge.  A recent report by People's Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR) which appeared in the Tribune dated 18 Nov 1989 is reproduced to give an idea of the extent of oppression in the lawless state of India:

Govt.. "misusing" TADA

NEW DELHI, Nov 17 - The People's Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR) said today that the Central and State Governments grossly misused the Terrorists and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act, 1985, against political opponents and others not involved in terrorist activities.

Describing the Act as the most extraordinary piece of legislation, the PUDR said that TADA threw to the winds every safeguard guaranteed by the Constitution, every single mechanism of checks and balances erected by it, every principle of  liberal jurisprudence, natural justice and democratic rights.

Releasing a report "United we terrorize," the PUDR said that 19,286 persons were accused under TADA, including 7,969 in Punjab, 4,491 in Gujarat, 2,143 in Andhra Pradesh, 1,270 in Assam, 275 in Haryana and 19 in Himachal.

The Government introduced TADA by citing the transistor bomb blasts in May, 1985, in Delhi and the five accused under the act - K.S. Narang, Mohinder Singh Khalsa, Mohinderpal Singh, Jagdish Singh Narela and Daljit Singh - were tortured to death, the report said.

In Delhi, during elections to the Delhi Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee the Act was used to detain Akali Dal Secretary Bir Bahadur Singh in order to force the 69 year old leader to support the then Congress (I) - backed Barnala group in the DGPC elections.  Soon after when President's rule was imposed in Punjab in May 1987, Mr. Prem Singh Chandumarja, a Cabinet Minister in the Barnala Government, became a victim of the act.

In Haryana, the Lok Dal-BJP Government used TADA against a Hisar Congress (I) leader.  Later while acquitting him the High Court indicted the police and the Government.  According to figures given in Parliament up to May, 1987, judgements were given in only six of the 1487 cases registered in Punjab, and in only three cases the accused were acquitted.

In any dispute over the jurisdiction of the designated court under the Act, the decision of the Central Government and not of the Supreme Court shall be final which may choose not to make any decision, the report said.

Citing the case of trial of Karamjit Singh for an attempt on the life of Mr. Rajiv Gandhi and that of Atinderpal Singh, Simranjit Singh Mann, Prof Jagmohan and Prof Daleep Singh in the reopened Indira Gandhi trial case, the report said the trial in these cases had not taken off.

The report named the following organizations which became TADA victims - all factions of the Akali Dal, the AISSF, the "Babbar Khalsa," "the Khalistan Commando Force," "the Khalistan Liberation Force," the Khalistan Liberation Organization," the SGPC, the DGPC and the Delhi unit of the Akali Dal.

In Jammu and Kashmir, the Ladakh Action Committee, the Ladakh Buddhist Association, the Kashmir Liberation Front and the Muslim United Front were affected by the Act.

(The author( Col.PartapSingh) stands charged under TADA for advocating freedom through democratic, peaceful and non-violent means.)
 
 
 
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