Delhi riots of 1984, a black chapter of Indian history which involves several chronological asristrocracits and mismanagement of the congress government at that time which ultimately resulted in political as well as national disappointment.
Let’s have a look at these incidents and count the governmental mistakes done by the Congress family government that took thousands of lives in the name of revenge without leaving a mark on their political face.
Background of Mastermind JARNAIL SINGH BHINDRANWALE
Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale was born on 12th February 1947 in Moga, Punjab and died on 6th June 1984 in Amritsar, Punjab. He has remained a controversial topic in our Indian history. He was the leader of Damdami Taksal (an orthodox Sikh cultural and educational organization and its headquarters are located in the town of Mehta, Amritsar) and he was one of the major reason behind Operation Blue Star. He adopted the name ‘Bhindranwale’ from the village of Bhindran the location of the Bhindran Taksal and also attained the religious title of ‘Sant’.
He was known for his charisma and his knowledge of the scripture and history of Sikhism. From 1977 to 1982, he explored various cities and villages of Punjab to preach the Sikh faith. Also he visited other states and cities in India. As a leader, Bhindranwale influence Sikh youth to avoid drugs, use of alcohol and inspire them to follow Sikh rules and belief. He also encourage them to take amrit and fulfilling religious obligations, like the turban and beard. In the summer of 1982, the Dharam Yudh Morcha was launched by Bhindranwale and the Akali Dal with the aim to fulfilment of a list of demands based on the Anandpur Sahib Resolution to create an independent Sikh nation Khalistan. Thousands of people joined the movement and Bhindranwale grew to be a leader of Sikh militancy. In 1982, they moved to the Golden Temple complex and made it his headquarters. Later, Operation Blue Star was started to remove Bhindranwale from the Harmandir Sahib.
KHALISTAN MOVEMENT
The Khalistan movement was a religious-political movement within Sikhs for the creation of a separate state of Khalistan. In the late 1970s, this movement assumed a militant face. Jagjit Singh Chohan was the founder of this movement. In the 1970s and 80s, a violent secessionist movement to create Khalistan paralyzed the Punjab for a decade. It received support from the All India Sikh Students Federation and was led by Bhindranwale. The Akali Dal also indirectly supported the movement. The movement slowly fade in the early 1990s due to the impact of violence and economic consequences.
OPERATION BLUE STAR
Operation blue star was carried out to remove the Damdami Taksal leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and his followers from the Golden Temple located in Amritsar, Punjab, India. In June 1984, Bhindranwale and his followers took refuge inside the Harmandir Sahib Complex. Also Prime Minister Indira Gandhi ordered a military operation to take control over these militants by the codename of Operation Blue Star from 1 June to 8 June, 1984. On 1 June 1984, the army extensively moved into Punjab and sealed the international border from Kashmir to Ganga Nagar, Rajasthan. A young Sikh officer posing as a pilgrim was sent in to the temple to know their preparations. All outgoing trains from Amritsar had left by noon and other trains were cancelled and the water and electricity supply was also cut off. On 5 June, The Army attacked the Hotel Temple View and Brahm Boota Akhara, of the complex and both the structures were under their control.
Later, the army also attacked various other locations (Sources mention either 42 or 74 locations). By June 7, the army had defeated the militants and gained control of the temple complex. By June 10, the operation was over and Bhindranwale was killed in the operation. During this operation, the Indian army had around 83 mortality with 700 injuries, and 450-500 Sikh militants were killed. The handling of the operation, damage the holy shrine and loss of life on both sides. It led to widespread criticism of the Indian government. The threat to Gandhi’s life increased after the operation.
ASSASSINATION OF INDIRA GANDHI
The Prime Minister of India Indira Gandhi was assassinated on 31 October 1984 at her residence in Safdarjung Road, New Delhi. She was killed by two of her bodyguards Satwant Singh and Beant Singh after the operation Blue Star. Indira was shoot for English documentary with the maker Peter Alexander Ustinov. On 31 October 1984, she was ready for the interview with Peter Ustinov. She was wearing a saffron saree with a black border. Peter Ustinov was waiting for Indira Gandhi at the Prime Minister’s Office.
At 9.10 am, she was walking through the garden of the Prime Minister’s Residence at No. 1 Safdarjung Road in New Delhi towards the Akbar Road along with Constable Narayan Singh, personal security officer Rameshwar Dayal and personal secretary RK Dhawan. When Indira Gandhi reached the gates of 1 Akbar Road, she was in conversation with RK Dhawan and suddenly their bodyguards Satwant and Beant Singh opened fire.
One of her bodyguard, Beant Singh fired three rounds at her from his revolver and then another bodyguard Satwant fired 25 bullets from his Sten and most of them piercing Indira Gandhi’s body. She had fallen to the ground. Both bodyguard then threw down their weapons and in sometime, Border Police officers Tarsem Singh Jamwal and Ram Saran captured and killed Beant, while Satwant was arrested by Gandhi’s other bodyguards. Satwant Singh was hanged in 1989. Beant was one of old and favourite bodyguard of Indira Gandhi whom she had known for ten years and Satwant was only 22 years old when he killed her.
RK Dhawan and a police officer, carried her in Ambassador Car towards AIIMS hospital where doctors operated her. Doctors tried for almost five hours and administered 80 bottles of blood. But she was declared dead at 2:20 p.m. Salma Sultan gave the first news of the assassination of Indira Gandhi on Doordarshan’s evening news on 31st October 1984, more than ten hours after she was killed.
1984 DELHI RIOTS
The 1984 anti-Sikh riots or the anti-Sikh massacre refers to a series of organised massacre against the Sikh community in India after the assassination of the PM Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards at her residence. Anti-Sikh riots break out in some areas for several days. Government estimates that about 2,800 Sikhs were killed in Delhi and 3,350 nationwide, whilst independent sources estimate the number of deaths at about 8,000–17,000. Also the government reported that 20,000 had fled from the city. The most-affected regions were the Sikh neighbourhoods of Delhi i.e. Sultanpuri, Mangolpuri, Trilokpuri.
The assassin carried iron rods, knives, clubs and combustible material such as petrol and diesel. They entered Sikh neighbourhoods and killed Sikhs indiscriminately and destroying their shops and houses. Mobs stopped buses and trains in and near Delhi, pulling off Sikh passengers for lynching and they burnt them alive. Others were dragged from their homes to death. On 31 October, a crowd around the AIIMS and shouting “Blood for blood” The violence on 31 October, restricted to the area around the AIIMS, resulted in many Sikh deaths.
During the morning of 1 November, Congress Party leaders met with local supporters and distribute money and weapons. On 1 November, The first Sikh is killed in East Delhi. Mobs take over the streets in Delhi. Their first target are Gurdwaras. The worst-affected areas are as Inderlok, Shahdara, Geeta Colony, Mongolpuri, Sultanpuri and Palam Colony. Areas with induce police intervention, such as Farsh Bazar and Karol Bagh, see less killings and little violence.
On 2 November, A curfew is announced in Delhi, but is not enforced. The army is expand throughout the city, the police did not co-operate with soldiers. On 3 November, by late evening, army and local police units work together to subdue the violence. After law-enforcement intervention, violence is mild. In Delhi, the bodies of riot victims are brought to the AIIMS and the Civil Hospital in Delhi.
Is it right to kill innocents? What other says?
Secular India must accept that Indira Gandhi committed sacrilege by sending the Army into the Golden Temple to flush out Sikh militants. She paid a heavy price for it. But what followed was much more than a case of “the earth trembling when a big tree falls”. Congress goons led and instigated by their leaders went on a killing spree of innocent Sikhs — women, children, babes in arms and the old. This was no “Newtonian” logic.
Col. C.V. Venugopalan (retd.), Palakkad
No one goes around killing others even when one’s own kin is killed — that happens only in movies. I do not recall any pogrom or mass violence following Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination. There was no widespread violence after Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated. The reason for the anti-Sikh riots could be, in some small measure, the special circumstances in which Indira Gandhi was assassinated. What could have happened had the government intervened immediately can only be a matter of conjecture.
G.R. Jagannadh, Visakhapatnam
As long as investigating agencies remain pliant, no politician will be punished. Even judicial intervention may not help as the prosecution dilly-dallies at the behest of the ruling party. Many riot cases are kept in limbo for decades. Unless the CBI is made an autonomous body, politicians will treat the law as an ass.
A. Seshagiri Rao, Chennai
No one extended sympathy towards the innocent people killed by the racially and politically motivated mobs in 1984. No one supported the Sikhs in bringing to trial the culprits. Justice for the 1984 riots is not something to do with Sikhs alone; it is to do with all Indians.
Makhan Uppal, Delhi
VICTIMS
Attar Kaur, Sixty-five-year-old widow lost her husband and 11 members of her extended family in the riots. She said she has not been able to forget how Sikhs were slaughtered like animals. She lives with vivid memories and faded photos. Kaur says “Bhed bakriyon ki tarah maar daala sab aadmiyon ko zinda jala kar. Her Muslim neighbours took away her two older sons, chopped their hair and hide them in metal trunks. But the mob found the eldest one and beat him with sticks. When the rioters left, a neighbour told Kaur that her husband had been killed, burnt alive and nothing left for her.
On 3 November, they made their way to the Farsh Bazar relief camp, where there were hundreds like them. After a month and a half of living in tents, the riot-hit families were moved to Tilak Vihar by the government.
Rajbir Singh has no memories of his father and grandfather, except stories that have been passed on to him by his family. He was only 11 months old in 1984 when anti-Sikh mobs burnt his grandfather Kirpal Singh alive on the hand-drawn cart he used to sold peanuts for a living. The mob entered their house and dragged out his father, Modhu Singh and they doused him with petrol and burnt him alive.
Satpal Singh, Sixty-four-year-old pharmacology professor at the University of Buffalo in New York State received an offer to start and head a new division at the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology in the city of Hyderabad. While returning to Amritsar, the train made an unscheduled stop at a railway station close to the city of Bhopal. A mob of people enter into Singh’s compartment and beat him. Assuming that he was dead, his body was thrown on the railway tracks. He remembers that kind man, which saved his life on the night of November 1, 1984.
Sonu Singh, also a victim of the riots, he said, at that time they used to live in in Trilok Puri and his father and grandfather were killed by the rioters. At that time he was five-years-old and have two brothers and stay in a camp for one year and later moved to Tilak Vihar.
Raminder Singh Nibber was a shattered man when his manufacturing unit in New Delhi’s Anand Parbat was burnt down in the 1984 riots. The scars of the violent backlash have not healed. Later, he moved to Mohali and started an industrial unit from a small rented accommodation. He now run a group of companies with annual turnover of 300 crore and it took those 10 years to rebuild their business.
Surjit Singh, now sixty-six, loose their two teenaged sisters and a 23-year-old brother in the 1984 riots. Rioters looted their two shops, then set them on fire, killed their two sisters and a brother, who was at a shop. Later, he moved to Punjab with a pair of slippers covering hisfeet.
He walked from Delhi to Rewari in Haryana, where he joined four other siblings and parents and went on to take shelter at an uncle’s home in Patiala. With hard work, Surjit has built a successful business in silk.
Daljit Kaur, seventy eight, along with her late husband Balwant Singh and two sons was forced to move to Amritsar after their home and a factory in Birpara town of West Bengal’s Jalpaiguri district were burnt down during the anti-Sikh riots. The rioters tortured her husband and six or seven Sikhs who worked at the factory. They sold their property in Jalpaiguri for Rs. 5 lakh and now the property is worth Rs. 3 crore.
Harcharan Singh Channi, Owner of a tiles shop in Dugri village of Ludhiana had to relocate to Punjab from Kanpur after the riots in which he lost his older brother. Settling in Dugri and starting from very first stage wasn’t easy. With no money, he and his family spent 45 days at a camp before shifting to a temporary accommodation.