ಪತ್ರಿಕೋದ್ಯಮದ ವಿದ್ಯಾರ್ಥಿ ಮಿತ್ರರಿಗೆ...

Merchant of death?

It is, by now, a well known fact to the nation that the remark of Sonia Gandhi of the Congress party calling Modi “the merchant of death” during the campaign for Gujarat assembly elections acted as catalyst in favour of the Bharatiya Janata Party which eventually led to the triumphant victory of the latter in the elections.

Well, that is not the core issue of this article, but truly the remark of Sonia Gandhi on Modi will be taken into account in the later part of this article.

Indira Gandhi, the former Prime Minister of India ordered for a military expedition on Golden Temple of Amritsar which is the most sacred/holy place for the Sikhs. The military operation which targeted the Sikh terrorists who were sheltered in the Golden Temple under the leadership of Jarneil Singh Bhindranwale was aimed at eliminating the Sikh militancy from India and this military operation had been named “Operation Blue Star”. Indira Gandhi, in spite of aware of the fact that her life was under threat, dared to order one of the most traumatic and challenging operation for the Indian Army. Indira Gandhi deserves kudos for the risk that she had taken keeping in mind the internal security and territorial integrity of the nation.

Indian Army, under the supervision of Major Kuldeep Singh Brar, who was a Sikh by religion, went on to eliminate the Sikh terrorists and surrounded the Golden Temple on June 6, 1984. In the military operation on the same day Jarneil Singh Bhindranwale, leader of the Khalistan movement, was shot dead and during the exchange of bullets between the army and the terrorists the sanctum sanctorum of the Golden Temple was damaged. This desecration of the sanctum sanctorum of the Golden Temple hurt the religious sentiments of a section of Sikh community (Dear readers, don’t ever forget that though their religious sentiments were hurt deeply the whole Sikh community was not against the military operation, but only a section of the community was against it) and, perhaps, in retaliation to the decision taken by Indira Gandhi two of her Sikh bodyguards assassinated her on October 31, 1984 at around 10.50 am and this news was broadcasted by the All India Radio at 11 am. As soon as the AIR aired this news Delhi started trembling.

The assassination of Indira Gandhi enraged the Congress party and the outbursts of the sentiments of Congress men in favour of Indira Gandhi eventually lead to the historic and one of the most barbaric riot in the post independent India popularly know as the “anti Sikh riot of 1984”. In this riot 2733 Sikhs were butchered in the nation’s capital – Delhi. Adding to this historical shame 72 Gurudwars (Sikh temples) were sabotaged. The violence that broke out on 1st November continued for around 72 hours with severe intensity. But the army was not called to curb the violence! Attacks on Sikhs were reported from several states where Congress was ruling during that period. What does this show? Clear involvement of the Congress? One more surprising fact is Congress is still called a “secular” party in India in spite of its covert involvement in the anti – Sikh riot!

There are evidences to suspect that the whole massacre of 1984 was planned and executed by the Congress leaders. Many of the eye witnesses have clearly identified the involvement of Congress activists in this genocide. Adding to this the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh calling its activists and the activists of its parivar organizations to protect the Sikh brothers strongly suggests that the riot was not a conspiracy of any pro-Hindu organizations.
When asked by the media about this massacre the then PM of India, late Rajiv Gandhi, said, “When a big tree falls the earth is bound to shake”! Further he said “action and reaction are equal”!

Justice Nanavati Commission which was set up in the year 2004 to probe into the acts told in its report that there were evidences to prove the involvement of many accused persons of which many were Congress activists!

Let us once again come back to the first paragraph of this article in which the writer has quoted the popular (!) remark of Sonia Gandhi calling Modi “the merchant of death”. There are strong evidences to call the anti Sikh riot of 1984 “the Congress sponsored Sikh massacre”. The Congress supremo dares to call Modi “the merchant of death” for he was the CM of Gujarat during the riot that happened after the Godhra carnage, but she maintain a mum silence when the issue of this riot (riot of 1984 that took place when late Rajiv Gandhi, husband of Sonia Gandhi, was the PM of India) appears on the scene! She never speaks against Jagadish Tytler whose hand in the anti Sikh riot has been suspected, but she never forgets to shout at Gujarat whenever she gets an opportunity!

And the Communist comrades never dares to speak on the Nandigram issue, nor do they speak about the killings of around 7 million people in Russia by Stalin in the name of ideology.

Dear readers, in any democratic country every kind of violence has to be condemned with strong words and, in fact, words are just not enough to condemn the violence which takes away the breath of thousands of innocent people. Every kind of violence has to be condemned and everyone who involve – be it a politician or an activist of any political party - in such acts has to be punished according to the law of this nation. Be it the Gujarat riot, anti Sikh riot or the Nandigram incident, no wise person can justify violence. The bitter fact is that the violence that has taken place during the Congress rule is being left out and the violence that perturbed the nation during the rule of non – Congress governments are being showcased or hyped to larger extents, thanks to the ideological impotency of the masses!

Why such kind of double standards? Is it because we are ideologically impotent and does this impotency pulls us back from taking up such issues? Will it be wrong if one call the Congress a “communal” party for targeting particularly the Sikh community in the riot? If not, why?