1984 Riots in Delhi

Oct 31st 1984 - Indira Gandhi is shot dead by her own bodyguards, and they happen to be Sikh. The guards are said to have avenged their misgivings about 'Operation Bluestar' ordered by Smt. Indira Gandhi. Many people say, on that day she also signed her own death warrant.

In my mind a Sardarji (Sikh) are and will always be the proud clan of people who will lay down their lives for the cause of the country. I may be wrong by the event on Oct 31st '84, but that action cannot be looked at in isolation. If Indira Gandhi, had the slightest bit of hate towards the Sikh, she would not have kept them as her personal body guards. To a large extent, she had no reason to fear, because she helped create Bhindranwale into the monster that he became later on. The war in Punjab which began as a political battle had gotten out of hand. She felt she could control it, tough as she was sometimes.

The fact that she reposed faith in her Sikh brethren to protect her, should have been enough proof that some Sikh's were terrorists but not all of them. Her brutal assassination by her own bodyguards should have been reason for an introspection of the policies followed until then.

Why then the brutal blood bath that followed ? Why then the massacre of innocent civilians ? Simply because the wore a turban and were a Sikh, and belonged to the same faith as Bhindranwale ? Or because a few celebrated when she was dead ? Was it enough to enrage people to take this out of hand ?

Well, what had happened had happened ? But it had taken the govt. of India 20 years to determine what and who did the wrong !!! And yet the wrong-doers are not punished. Today no one morns the dead, and it has become a stick to be used to fight your political opponent. What else can you say about the BJP's attempt to raise their voice against the report by the Nanavati Commission.

It has been 20 years, and we cant find culprits to a riot. We haven't learnt from lessons of the past, and we create a new ones each time. Delhi, Mumbai, Godhra and on.......
When will we stop this and move on to bigger and better things to fight about ? Lets fight about a better method of Governance, better civil necessities, poverty which stares us in the face, illiteracy which is still the bane of the country. Please let us focus our energies elsewhere.

Jai Hind