Media Coverage of 25th anniversary of Sikh Pogrom

A pogrom against Sikhs was carried out by workers of the then ruling party, Indian National Congress, after Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by two Sikhs on October 31, 1984. The pogrom, lasting three days, took the lives of over 4000 Sikhs in Delhi and other parts of country. It is still considered to be the biggest mass-killing in the country since Independence. Journalists like Khushwant Singh compare it to the Jewish Holocaust. In 2001, the writer, a Sikh, famously said while deposing before the G. T. Nanavati Commission, “I felt like a refugee in my country. In fact, I felt like a Jew in Nazi Germany,”

Burining Sikh Houses

Media which is considered as the fourth pillar of democracy and also society’s watchdog, did not, by and large, play its role properly after the carnage. There were a few exceptions like The Indian Express, Illustrated weekly of India, EPW and The Times of India, which raised their voices against the pogrom; otherwise, the voice of the media was subdued by the government. In 2001, when a similar pogrom happened against Muslims in Gujarat, the electronic media started pushing government for speedy justice. This can be understood by the fact that until 1995, there had been only two convictions compared to 20 till 2009.

In August 2005, the G.T. Nanavati Commission’s report was tabled in Parliament. The commission claimed to have in its possession some credible information about local leaders like, Jagdish Tytler, Sajjan Kumar and H K L Bhagat having instigated the mobs to violence. The very next day, The Asian Age ran a lead story with the headline, “1984 Sikhs Massacres: Mother of All Cover-ups.”  Jagdish Tytler discredited the Commission’s claims by saying that previous commissions had failed to name him as an accused.

From Siddharth Varadrajan’s blog on the 25^th anniversary of Mrs. Gandhi’s assassination: “I do not care how many innocent people might have died as a result of the actions Mr. Tytler is alleged to have committed. The answer to that question involves a burden of proof which is beyond the ken of an average person. The question I want an answer to is this: How many people did you save, Mr. Tytler? You were an important leader of the ruling party at the time and your clout is such that the Congress even today feels obligated to give you a ticket.”

A brave and new question, which no one else had ever dared to ask. This question is opening up new possibilities of discussions and discourse on responsibility sharing during carnage like this.

Being the 25^th anniversary of the assassination and violent retaliation against Sikhs, almost all news portals carried special reports on Indira Gandhi, but the focus of the content varied from Indira Gandhi, her politics and legacy to contemporary India. Surprisingly, only a relatively small space was devoted to plight of the victims and their kin.

I Accuse- Book by Journalist Jarnail Singh

Journalist Jarnail Singh, who had hurled his shoe at Home Minister P Chidambaram, in his interview to Outlook said that the media of that time (1984) did not live up to its responsibility. He added, “We know the numbers, we know what happened. But very little of the literature dwells on the conspiracy part, and on the human sufferings brought by the violence, and this is the reason behind my writing ‘I Accuse…’.”

The Hindu, in its article “Manmohan a balm, but anger still lingers in Sikhs” by Anita Joshua, tries to point out that this issue is still alive and despite the government’s ‘time would heal’ strategy, the issue is easy to rekindle. This is evident from protests that followed the arrest of Jarnail Singh after he hurled his shoe at P Chidambaram.

The only problem with the media is that it is driven by sensational stories. If the media had played its role more responsibly, the victims of not only the Sikh pogrom but also Bhopal gas tragedy and other victims would have got their fair share of justice without having to wait for so long.

Media Coverage of 25th anniversary of Sikh Pogrom

Some important links to read further

http://www.sacw.net/i_aii/WhoaretheGuilty.html

http://amitavghosh.com/essays/essayfull.php?essayNo=20

http://www.outlookindia.com/content.aspx?issue=5086

25 years of Sikh Pogrom

In 1984, many things happened for the first time in India. The year started with hosting Asian games, which also coincided with the arrival of color television in India. This led to the production of first TV serial ‘Hum Log’. Then in June, 1984, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi decided to flush out Sikh militants who were hiding in Harmandir Sahib of the Golden Temple Complex in Amritsar. Nearly 5 months after this bloody operation,  on October 31, two of Indira Gandhi’s bodyguards assassinated her in retaliation for the sacrilege of the army entering Harmandir Sahib. The assassination triggered retaliation from ruling Congress supporters in the form of anti Sikh riots or ‘pogroms’ all across the country and especially in Delhi.

Initially, the pogrom started from places close to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and Teen Murti Bhavan in Central Delhi, which later spread to other parts of the city like Shahdhara in the north, Tilak Vihar (often termed as ‘Widow Colony’) in the west and Trilokpuri in the east, across the Yamuna. Sikh houses were identified with the aid of voter lists and the residents, targeted. There was no police protection in the affected areas. As a result, 2733 innocent people were massacred in two days of brutal rioting (this is the official figure; unofficial figures put the toll at around 4000). Ved Marwah, Deputy Commissioner of Police in Delhi at the time who also investigated the riots later, says that political influence was brought to bear on the police to refrain from taking action during the riots.

A culprit, a victim and a mute spectator!

Nirpreet Kaur, a victim who later joined the Khalistan movement, said, “My family’s appeal for mercy fell on deaf ears, and the people behind the violence were the same ones I had known all my life—my neighbors and acquaintances. But with the acquittal of the guilty, we can forget about any justice. What will happen with the next generation is something no one can predict.” Many Sikhs cut their hair, including the father of one of my friends, many children were forced to dress up like girls and had to tie up their hair as girls do, just to hide their identity as Sikh children. The wave of ethnic cleansing ended only with Mrs. Gandhi’s cremation on November 2.

The government’s seriousness towards restoring normalcy can be judged by the new Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s comment on the riots: “For some days, people thought that India was shaking. But there are always tremors when a great tree falls.” Within days of the riots, the usual vote bank politics and blame game  resumed in earnest: commissions and committees, assurances and some stupid political statements, charges and counter charges, and denials by the very leaders who incited the mob to violence.

It is no wonder that although ten commissions and committees have so far inquired into the riots, only 10 culprits have been convicted. Many among the primary accused were acquitted or never booked on murder charges; in fact, they were politically promoted, with some of them even ‘serving’ as Union Ministers. “What is the use of this report? It practically exonerates most of the Congress leaders we had accused of leading the mobs. Nothing will happen to the big leaders,” says Gurdip Singh, whose father Harbhajan was killed by the rioters. British statesman, William Gladstone once rightly observed: justice delayed is justice denied. That fits the case of anti-Sikh riots of 1984 very well indeed.

The past two and half decades have been an unending trauma for the victims of the pogrom, who had to eke out a living in the shanties and crumbling colonies earmarked for them. For the orphans of 1984, their lost childhood has been replaced by a miserable youth. Referring to the second generation of riot-affected victims, Ms. Kaur says: “The children of those who were affected in the riots have borne the brunt. They have not been able to complete their studies and have got involved in drugs, gambling, pick-pocketing and other anti-social activities. This in turn would affect their next generation. So in a way, because of the riots, the lives of at least three generations of Sikh families have been lost.” The condition is so pathetic in Garh Market area which is close to East of Kailash that today these youth are reluctant to get married because of anxiety about having more mouths to feed.

After 25 years of struggle, people are getting frustrated by the lack of delivery of justice. That’s why Jurnail Singh had to fling his shoe at Home Minister P Chidambaram. Today (on anniversary) Sikh groups stopped the Rajdhani Express in Lucknow. Government must learn the right lessons from this unfortunate event.  A similar event has occurred in 2002 in the form ofethnic cleansing in Gujarat where police played important role in abetting the rioters. Unfortunately, the government is still not serious about police reforms and other issues.

25 Years of Pogrom:

Some important Links to read further:-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1984_anti-Sikh_riots

http://www1.info.indiatimes.com/1984/

http://www.merinews.com/article/anti-sikh-riots-2733-killed-13-punished/127432.shtml

http://ambainny.blogspot.com/2006/05/1984-anti-sikh-riots-in-delhi.html

http://www.tehelka.com/story_main41.asp?filename=Ne250409police_used.asp

http://www.jarnailsingh.in/

http://www.carnage84.com/homepage/front.htm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8306420.stm

http://www.sacw.net/i_aii/WhoaretheGuilty.html

http://amitavghosh.com/essays/essayfull.php?essayNo=20