Congress wants to bury stigma of 1984 carnage

[nanosecond]

Congress wants to bury stigma of 1984 carnage

NEW DELHI: By nominating a Sikh to be India’s prime minister for the first time, the Congress Party is trying to remove a stain caused by a pogrom that left over 2,000 Sikhs dead after the 1984 assassination of Indira Gandhi, survivors said.

School teacher Avinash Singh, wearing a brown turban and sporting a flowing beard as required by his religion, was one of the victims of the five-day anti-Sikh riots that followed the Gandhi’s murder by her Sikh bodyguards.

“I was in Calcutta when a crowd attacked me with sticks and I was injured on the head,” said the 48-year-old Singh, a resident of New Delhi.

“Initially I did not know what was happening but within hours I saw violence escalating. When I came to New Delhi on the sixth day and I was shocked to hear horror stories,” he said.

“This move is a clear attempt to placate the community,” the Sikh said after Manmohan Singh, at his first press conference after being nominated as premier, said he will not allow sectarian riots in India.

Indira Gandhi was gunned down by her Sikh guards in retaliation for ordering a military assault on the Golden Temple, Sikhdom’s holiest site, to flush out Sikh separatists.

Leaders of the then ruling Congress were accused of instigating Hindu mobs to attack Sikhs across India. Some of the politicians were arrested but later acquitted for want of evidence.

Gurpreet Singh, a 26-year-old New Delhi trader, was delighted to have a member of his community occupying the highest office in the land.

“I am a Sikh and I am happy that finally our community has a prime minister,” he said. “After 20 years we will get t

o forget the Sikh killings that happened in 1984.”

“This has a healing effect. I know during the last two decades not many people were punished for the riots. I will give full credit to the Congress for this and especially its leader Sonia Gandhi,” Gurpreet Singh said.

Italian-born Sonia Gandhi, Congress chief, walked away from the prime minister’s post after a stunning election victory and nominated India’s architect of economic reforms, Manmohan Singh, to head the government.

Politicians and analysts said Manmohan Singh was the acceptable substitute to lead a Congress-led alliance that includes communists and regional groups. The coalition is slated to take office Saturday.

Surinder Singh, another Sikh businessman, was also witness to the anti-Sikh riots.

“Manmohan Singh got the job because he is the most deserving candidate - but it will not help us forget history.

“I have images of Sikhs being burned alive and massacred by mobs during the riots in ... New Delhi. It is still very vivid. I was 16-years-old then. But I think one cannot erase history just by making Singh a prime minister,” he said.

“It may be an attempt to pacify the community by the Congress. But I still blame the Congress leaders. One cannot entirely forget the incident (the riots) especially if he or she loses a member of the family,” Surinder Singh said.

Other Sikhs said their religion had helped them to deal with their bloody past.

“Our religion preaches sharing your bread and earnings with others. It stands for peace and good of everybody. And every Sikh knows that,” teacher Avinash Singh said.

Sikhism, the youngest of the world religions, is barely 500 years old.

Sikhs constitute about two percent of India’s billion-plus population.

Every Sikh male baptised as “khalsa” (the pure) vows to stick to five basics of his religion — uncut hair and beard, a wooden comb as a symbol of cleanliness,cotton underwear as a commitment to purity, steel bangle signifying b

ondage to truth and the sword to defend the truth. afp

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?p...1-5-2004_pg4_18

[smartsingh24]

Bunch of bull-----. This was what i was afraid. The pm isn't a PM, he's just gonna be a puppet. This whole article shows it. They only nominated him because of his image to make it look like after this whole time, 1984 can be put behind us. But it can't, because they've done nothing to help us.

[S1ngh]

Okay.. now im getting different views.. But what im gonna do is "watch and observe".. Time will tell

[Balait_da_Sher]

ok, i find it weird that we say all the time that sikhs dont hold high positions in indian government, but when one does we are quick to label them puppet.

I think its not congress's falut, or the pm's falut. The fault is OURS.

Its us who start saying "Balm has been applied on our wounds, now that they made a sikh pm"

our wounds will never be healed, but rite now we need to show the world who we are. Then we can show them what happened to us. If they dont even know who we are, do u htink anyone cares wat has hapened or will happen?

As for Manmohan singh being a puppet or not. I think the poor guy will have to do as Sonia says. She has gotton herself out of the limelight for her safety because she knew that BJP fanatics wouldnt be kind to her, accidents do happenen especially in india.

Now that an indian is in the front she can run things in the background. I just hope Manmohan singh does wats best because it is for the best, not because sonia thinks its best. The woman dont know nothing about running a country, she is just in this position because of her family name.

Does anyone know Sonia Gandhi's Background?