Fresh light on 1984 riots

But when the terrorists began to target the Sikhs, the tide turned. People extended their hand to police to fight the terrorists. Punjab is now among the most peaceful states in the country. The Congress has said sorry for Operation Bluestar. Mrs. Gandhi's assassins have met the ends of justice. Yet the suspicion who killed 3,000 Sikhs in 1984 has been lurking in the minds of Punjabis, particularly the Sikhs.

In the past 21 years, the different governments at the Centre have appointed different commissions -- so far nine -- to find out the guilty. None has come with the correct answer although some of them have been harsh on the administration. The ninth, the Justice Nanavati Commission, whose report was tabled in parliament this week, too has not done a thorough job. It has failed to name the real persons who were behind the carnage. Jagdish Tytler's resignation from the union cabinet has lessened a bit of pressure on the Congress party which was in power in 1984. But he is not the real culprit. He, like Sajjan Kumar and Dharm Shastri, named by the Nanavati report, may at best have been communicators. The real face or faces are yet to detected. Who are they?

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Yet Nanavati has found enough evidence to tell the nation some home truths: One, local Congress leaders either incited or helped the mobs in attacking the Sikhs; two, the systematic manner in which the Sikhs were killed indicated that the attacks on them were organised; three, lack of the fear of the police force was also one of the causes for the happening of so many incidents within 3 or 4 days, and four, the army was late to arrive to quell the disturbances.

Nanavati does not agree with the Congress plea that the killing of Mrs. Gandhi by her two Sikh guards evoked "a spontaneous reaction of the angry public." He says there is evidence to show that male members of the Sikh community were taken out of their houses. "They were beaten first and then burnt alive in a systematic manner. In some cases tyres were put around their necks and then they were set on fire by pouring kerosene or petrol over them. In some cases white inflammable powder was thrown on them which immediately caught fire thereafter."

The shops belonging to Sikhs were identified, looted and then burnt. There was evidence, according to Nanavati, to show that at some places the mobs indulging in violent attacks had come in the Delhi Transport Corporation buses. "They came armed with weapons." Nanavati points out that if the police had taken prompt and effective steps, "very probably so many lives would not have been lost and so many properties would not have been looted, destroyed or burnt."

I do not know why the government took six months to consider the report. Even then, there is not a word of regret, remorse, much less a promise for introspection. All that the government report says is that "it has decided to advise the state governments, Union Territories and Delhi public to take necessary action accordingly." This bureaucratic jargon does not mean anything, at least nothing to the families of victims who are far from rehabilitated.

I talked to Nanavati after he had submitted the report. I found him shaken by the instances of planned and deliberate rioting. Nanavati threw up his hands in despair when I asked him if the administration had learnt any lesson. He said: Anything can happen anywhere at any time in the country because politicians have no value system to follow and the police have no limits in behaviour or action. His condemnation of politicians was, indeed, scathing. Yet in the dismal situation one thing which seems positive Nanavati noticed was that, although everyone in the riot-hit area had lost someone or other, there were instances where those left behind could feel that what happened need not have happened. Probably, this is the thread that we can pick up to sew the lives, which lie asunder and help heal the wounds that are still agape. When I initiated in the Rajya Sabha a proposal for the appointment of a commission, I had in mind something on the lines of Truth and Reconciliation Commission appointed in South Africa to know frankly, without the fear of punishment why the whites harassed, hounded, and even killed the blacks during the apartheid regime. I wanted some Congressmen or some officials to come forward and tell the truth. Who were the people who organised the killings and systematically picked up Sikhs even in the most elite localities. I knew that after 21 years there would not be much of evidence left to punish the guilty. But we might have come to know the truth. It would have served as a catharsis of sorts.

Instead, I find a slugging match between P.C. Alexender, then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi's secretary and P.G.Gavai, who was the Lt. Governor of Delhi at the time of the riots. Alexender cannot shirk his responsibility because he was the PM's secretary and in charge of the administration because Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was too engrossed in his grief over the assassination of his mother. Alexender cannot run away from the responsibility of delayed action against the mobs. Gavai has said from Nagpur where he is living after his retirement: "I was fighting my own battle then. None were interested in containing the riots. I was just called for meeting after meetings but received no help as far as containing the riots were concerned. Even the army help came a day late, when most of things were already under control. Whatever damage had to happen, happened on the first day itself. When I asked then army chief General A.S. Vaidya why there was delay in sending troops, he said, 'It takes time to organise troops'."

I am disturbed to hear that the further investigations that Nanavati has proposed will be given to the same old investigating agencies. They failed in the past. Nanavati has said so in his report. Entrusting probes to them will be a deliberate act not to pursue things seriously. The ruling party is probably afraid that more Congressmen and their loyal officers may be exposed.

Some truth may come to light if further investigations are entrusted to the National Human Rights Commission. It does not have large machinery for probe. But it has a small but honest and dedicated team of investigators. They may be able to ferret out the facts, which are lost or hidden at present among a lot of things.

Kuldip Nayar is an eminent Indian columnist.