Geography of hatred

[nanosecond]

Geography of hatred

Twenty years after the anti-Sikh riots, a pattern is visible

PATWANT SINGH

Twenty-years is not sufficient time in which to judge nations for their follies which could imperil their very existence. If, however, during that period there is no introspection or critical evaluation of why the state sanctioned genocidal attacks on its own citizens, nor why, instead of punishing politicians for their criminal conduct, they were allowed to get away with their crimes and even permitted to stand for parliamentary elections, then the sanctity of constitutional law and human decencies — and in fact the state’s very existence — are at peril. As they are in India today.

Twenty years ago, in October 1984, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was shot dead by her two Sikh bodyguards. The events witnessed in the days following October 31 have few parallels, even by the standards of this savage subcontinent. The ruthless violence unleashed against the Sikhs in several cities across the country revealed the meticulousness with which the pogrom against them had been planned. Equally striking was the disinclination of the police to intervene until the violence was well under way.

Not only was a stray act of murderous folly seen as sufficient justification for violence against the entire Sikh community, but a careful propaganda blitzkrieg was also set in motion to degrade them and their faith in much the same way as was done to the Muslims in Gujarat more recently. So the danger the nation faces at the hands of venomous ‘‘leaders’’, masquerading as men and women who have been given the mandate to govern this unfortunate countr

y, must be seen in this light.

I wrote of the shadow these events could cast on our country’s future in The Indian Express in December, 1984: ‘‘Instead of a careful assessment of the long-term implications of this planned violence against the Sikhs there is evidence of ill-advised attempts to justify and gloss over it. These attempts are unbecoming and the country might have to pay a heavy price for ignoring the consequences of this violence.’’

The time to pay the price — even though the Punjab militancy has already taken a heavy toll — is drawing near more rapidly than is realised. This time around it is not just the Congress party with its morally impaired and inept leaders who still call the shots, but an entirely new breed of political mobsters whose leadership is sanctioned by their parent organisations which now occupy centrestage in Indian politics.

The RSS, BJP, VHP and such, with their vision of Hindutva, and the mindless blather of their Modis, Dalmias and Togadias is the new danger facing India. If government services and civil society stepped aside to facilitate the killing of Sikhs and the destruction of their properties in north India and elsewhere in 1984, it was inevitable that when the bell tolled for the Muslims in Gujarat the blackout of the collective conscious of elected officials, administration, police and segments of the media would facilitate the extermination of Muslim men, women and children throughout that state.

Similar versions of these despicable deeds are taking place all over India, 20 years later. A key difference being that instead of the Congress the script this time has been written, directed and produced by the BJP and its cohorts. The other difference is that the whole of India is now the happy hunting ground of these predatory forces, and those now forced to accept the Hindutva concept include Muslims, Christians and anyone else who can be bullied or beaten into submission by the mobs patronised by a collusive state.

If the ultimate c

orruption of a nation’s political system is the sacrifice of all ideologies, principles and ethical concerns in the pursuit of political power, then both the BJP and the Congress are equally corrupt. Irrespective of how many Indians of different religious persuasions are killed in the process it did not matter to the mandarins in power during Congress rule, nor to the BJP and its allies presently in power. The mass killers are no less eulogised today, than they were 20 years ago. The man who presided over the mass killings of Muslims in Gujarat is even mentioned as a future prime minister! This is the extent to which the grotesque and the obscene scarcely cause eyebrows to be raised in today’s India.

Martin Niemoller, a German clergyman of great courage who opposed Nazism and all it stood for, directed this message at those who did not raise a finger as they watched the Nazis, with their hatred for people of other faiths, enact the century’s most bizarre tragedy before them: “When Hitler attacked the Jews I was not a Jew, therefore, I was not concerned. And when Hitler attacked the Catholics, I was not a Catholic, and therefore I was not concerned. And when Hitler attacked the unions and the industrialists, I was not a member of the unions and I was not concerned. Then, Hitler attacked me and the Protestant church — and there was nobody left to be concerned.”

Followers of different religious faiths in India should take Niemoller’s words to heart. Because if the Sikhs were targeted 20 years ago, the Muslims more recently, and Christians are tomorrow’s target then India too, instead of a proud, free and republican nation we dreamt of, will go the Nazi way. It will, moreover, be fragmented and torn apart by its constituents; instigated by those whose potential for evil far exceeds their preoccupation with ethical and moral principles. If Sikh feelings are mindlessly brushed aside by the Congress, which has given parliamentary tickets to those who are believed to have colluded in the Sikh genocide

of 1984, then no Sikh with any sense of self-esteem or pride will forget this slight. The same applies to the Muslims and Christians as well. A stage could well be reached when the fundamentalists in power in New Delhi over-reach themselves and put the racially-driven body of India into unending wars and conflicts.

With the general elections now under way, India stands at the crossroads of history. If religious-revivalists and hot-heads are allowed to dominate national politics, the next 20 years will be grim. If their agenda of hate is reversed, or at least kept in check by right-thinking men and women of this country during the next 20 years, then India and its people can still find a place under the sun.

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