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Sikh MP shames Indian Parliament
on Operation Bluestar awards
Parmeet Pal Singh
 NEW
DELHI: Shaming Indian parliament, the country's rulers and its
policies vis-à-vis the Sikhs right inside the Parliament of the
nation, Independent Rajya Sabha Sikh MP Tarlochan Singh, the former
chairman of National Commission for Minorities in India, asked why
were gallantry awards given to Indian Army officers after Operation
Bluestar. "They were given because they had killed Sikhs," Tarlochan
Singh said, his voice aggressive and his tone angry, as Defence
Minister A K Antony took notes.
Tarlochan Singh,
who earlier said when Indians at large were celebrating their new
UPA government under a Sikh Prime Minister, "We, the Sikhs, are
observing the 25th anniversary of Operation Bluestar."
Tarlochan told
the Defence Minister and the government of PM Manmohan Singh to
withdraw these gallantary awards and tell the Army officers that it
was no gallantary to kill one's own countrymen.
"Those Army
officers who attacked and demolished GT and Akal Takht were given
gallantary awards. It is shameful on the part of the government
that within
India,
for attack on its own people, the government...gave them gallantry
award."
"What for? They
(had) captured Pakistan? (Had) They captured China? They (had)
killed Sikhs, that is why you gave them gallantry awards. I propose
that these gallantry awards be withdrawn, the officers be told that
this was no gallantry."
“Gallantry
awards are given to the soldiers for fighting the enemy and not
attacking your own people.”
He said A K
Antony was a good man and "we have known you as a good CM of Kerala.
Now I request that you re-open the file and withdraw these awards."
Tarlochan
Singh's impassioned speech was all the more appreciated by the Sikh
community and all right thinking people in
India
because there was no pressure on him to even refer to Operation
Bluestar. But he was unsparing in his choice of words and while not
a single MP from the ruling Akali Dal, including the much hyped
newly elected Harsimrat Kaur, even referred to a single Sikh issue,
Tarlochan Singh went hammer and tongs and chided the government
about its claims of having a Sikh Prime Minister.
"It is good that
there is a Sikh Prime Minister, but this should not mean that Sikh
issues will not be raised now," he said.
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WSN readers can watch Tarlochan Singh's speech on the WSN
website by clicking on the video gallery. |
"The Sikhs have
carried out protests in every city (to mark Operation Bluestar's
anniversary). There is no city in this world where the Sikhs have
not demonstrated. There is no town where the people have not been
told what the army of India did to the Sikhs. Aap ne Golden
Temple torra, Akal Takht torra, aur paanch hazaar Sikh ek raat ko
maare gaye, but no one from the government has ever mourned."
"I propose that
a resolution be moved in both Houses of Parliament and Operation
Bluestar be condemned....All over
India,
about 10,000 Sikhs were killed in 1984 riots (genocide). Nothing has
been done," Tarlochan Singh added, and asked the government to look
after the welfare of the victims of the massacre.
He also slammed
the government for not bringing about the Anand Marriage Act despite
a recommendation by a Parliamentary Committee and a promise by the
then Law Minister on the floor of the House.
"We are very
happy there is a Sikh Prime Minister, but the Sikh issues should
also be dealt with. Not that there is a Sikh prime Minister and no
Sikh issue is taken up," Tarlochan Singh concluded his address. He
was speaking in the Rajya Sabha on the Motion of Thanks to the
Presidential address.
Tarlochan Singh
criticised the government for not taking up the issue of jaziya
imposed on Sikhs in Pakistan and said thousands of Sikhs had been
ousted from their homes and were living like refugees in gurdwaras.
“The Indian government has neither sent them any aid nor taken up
the issue with the
Pakistan
government.”
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25 Years: Let’s Move Into Phase
II
 In her
scintillating speech in Ottawa at the World Sikh Organisation’s
function, Dr. Cynthia Keppley Mahmood referred to a beautiful movie
which she called “one of the great films of all time.” The movie,
Le Scaphandre et le Papillon or The Diving Bell and the
Butterfly, is the true life biopic of a man paralyzed in an accident
who can only move his one eyelid. He desires nothing but death but
then with the help of a nurse, develops a sort of code with the
eyelid’s movement and succeeds after years in dictating an entire
book, his own life story.
“(T)his is a
story of liberation and of human dignity, because the protagonist
realizes that despite all, he still has his voice and thereby his
humanity. He can still “speak.” So important is the power of speech
in being human...,” Dr Mehmood said.
Several Sikh MPs
had this power of speech when they were repeatedly elected to
Parliament in India, among them many representing the ruling Akali
Dal. But not one of them thought it fit to refer to the 25th year of
the Indian Army’s attack on Sri Darbar Sahib and Sri Akal Takht
Sahib and the massacre of thousands of Sikhs.
In Punjab,
Parkash Singh Badal thought it fit not to be seen at at gurdwara or
event even remotely connected to any observance of the 25th year of
the tragedy. In fact, he is rarely seen at any gurdwara. In
Parliament, his daughter-in-law and wife of the Akali Dal president
Sukhbir Singh Badal, Harsimrat Kaur Badal did not refer to a single
Sikh issue. The fact that she was speaking as the Sikh Nation was
marking the 25 years of the Saka Akal Takht did not matter to her.
She confined herself to the issue of female foeticide, a very
serious issue which she earlier sold to the people of Punjab as
Nanhi Chhanv, a project conceived and pushed by an image
management agency to sell her as a serious politician.
It fell to
someone like Sardar Tarlochan Singh, the Independent MP from Haryana
in the Rajya Sabha who presented the Sikh voice not meekly but
forcefully and shamed the government for giving gallantry awards to
Army officers who participated in the attack.
One could
nitpick and say that his boss, the late Giani Zail Singh, was
someone who first claimed he had no knowledge about the attack and
later decorated the officers. But it will be pertinent to remember
that Tarlochan Singh was under no pressure to take up the issue, and
when he did take it up, it was not for show.
His tenor, his
tone and the pitch of his voice showed the pain in his heart, and he
let words do the magic. “Sharam aani chahiye,” he was
addressing the Defence Minister. “Gallantry awards kis liye? Kya
Pakistan capture kiya tha? China capture kiya tha?
They killed the Sikhs, that is why you gave them gallantry awards.”
It is not easy
to speak truth to power. It is not easy to speak truth right inside
the power centers. And it is not easy to speak the truth bluntly
when you have no compulsion except the pain in your heart.
That Indian
Parliament’s recesses echoed with words of shame heaped on the
establishment is all the more important since they came when there
is a conspiracy of total silence. Was the 25th anniversary of
Operation Bluestar an event to be taken so lightly the way the
ruling Akali Dal and the SGPC have done? Should there not have been
a built up towards the event and should there not have been a year
long event schedule to mark the occasion?
And should we
not be engaging with the reality of a changed world and understand
and use the new tools, media and knowledge to propagate our point of
view? Dr Mehmood has asked the Sikhs to move into a “more mature
second phase, the hard work of actually making something happen”.
We hail the loud
voice of Tarlochan Singh; it has its place and significance. And we
at the WSN also strongly endorse Dr Mehmood’s call.
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17
June 2009
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