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Editoral
25 years. Time to think through
 It is a sad fact of
contemporary history that the Sikh religious and political
leadership has developed a rather strange kind of faultline and we
need to pay attention to this. Why is it that the 25th anniversary
of an attack of the magnitude and significance of Saka Akal Takht is
to be commemorated year after year only by a few Sikh religious
organisations, or political parties with a certain profile?
Why is it that we
never see other political parties interested in debating, discussing
and observing the anniversary of such a sad chapter in the history
of the Sikhs, Punjab and India? We can understand that some of our
red flag-waiving comrades do not particularly like to come visiting
the gurdwaras or the Akal Takht, but why don't we see them even
gathering at some Marxism studies centre to try and engage with this
episode of history and attempt to understand the aspirations or
otherwise of the brave community? Has their kind of Marxism made
them delinked from human beings?
India’s Congress
government, then led by Indira Gandhi, was guilty of the most
perverse subversion of all notions of law, justice and Constitution
and led the Indian Army troops against the centre of the Sikh
religion, but what is wrong with the men and women in the Congress
party today that they do not even make a pretense of issuing a
statement paying homage to at least the most innocent devotees who
were killed in their hundreds, if not thousands, in the firing and
artillery balls?
 Amarinder Singh’s
heart was torn asunder when Operation Bluestar happened, or that is
what he said, but has it turned into stone since then? Will Sonia
Gandhi disapprove of Sikh party members of Congress visiting the
Golden Temple on 25th anniversary of the attack? May be
the Congress MLAs or MPs from Punjab could have gathered elsewhere,
but what gives them the strength to not bother about the feelings of
an entire community and stay aloof from the collective outpouring of
grief and homage?
Does Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh's heart not melt at thinking about the fate of those
whose mere fault was that they thought the world's self-proclaimed
largest democracy may allow them the right to pay obeisance at Sri
Darbar Sahib, a shrine raised by a Guru whose martyrdom anniversary
fell in June and who had given his life for ideals that this country
professes to follow?
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It may be
Messers Badals' prerogative to utter or not the name of Sant
Bhindranwale, and it is of course the prerogative of the quom to
ask why, but how have they become so shameless as to blatantly
stay away from such a poignant day as the 25th anniversary of
Operation Bluestar?
From where do they strength to do so? |
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Why should only the
religious bodies be getting together at Sri Akal Takht Sahib, or at
Chowk Mehta or anywhere for that matter? What has happened to bank
employees union, teachers unions, sundry non-government
organisations, Punjab’s sports and youth clubs, the hundreds of town
and city level forums and do-gooders’ clubs? Were those who died not
young promising men and women? Did not hundreds of students die
within the precincts of the Golden Temple? Were not many many
villagers killed? Did no teachers die? No bankers?
What an
isolationist society has the modern India become? De-linked from
itself, from its pain, from its own.
Why, for God's
sake, why do not we see Prakash Singh Badal or Sukhbir Singh Badal
or the army of Dhindsas, Brahampuras, Bhunders, Tota Singhs, and all
those Singhs in Badal's party and ministry at least visiting the
Takht Sahib where people threw all they had into a morcha because
they believed that the men who were calling them to action meant
their words? And why did men like Jathedar Vedanti remain silent
about the silence of decades from the ruling Akali Dal?
 When was the last
time you heard Sukhbir Singh Badal making a reference to Sant
Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale? Did anyone ever think in the post-Op
Bluestar years that we will have an Akali Dal president who has to
be goaded to go partake of Amrit, and who will not refer to the army
attack ever?
It may be Messers
Badals' prerogative to utter or not the name of Sant Bhindranwale,
and it is of course the prerogative of the quom to ask why, but how
have they become so shameless as to blatantly stay away from such a
poignant day as the 25th anniversary of Operation Bluestar?
From where do they
strength to do so?
From you and me.
From all of us. From the people who vote them to power. From the
system that favours those who shun the cause of the people. From an
entrenched brahamanical power structure system where the elite will
not question the elitism of others. So the BJP and the Congress will
not drag them in the people's courtyards during electioneering, and
we have long stopped asking questions.
And pray why should
it only be an occasion for the Sikh community to ruminate about? Is
the rest of the country not concerned with Op Bluestar? Or has it
given up on the Sikhs? And pray! Don’t we know the answer?
10
June 2009
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