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Sikh protests in US jolt India’s
CBI as witnesses depose
WSN Bureau
 SAN FRANCISCO: Months after telling the court that a key witness in
a case against former Union Minister Jagdish Tytler was simply not
traceable and then suffering ignominy when media found him within
hours, sleuths of the CBI, India’s clown version of the FBI, landed
in United States to record testimonies of two witnesses in cases
connected to genocide killings of Sikhs in 1984.
But, used to its
harsh methods in India, the CBI team seemed to be harboring a
similar mindset and its behavior with witnesses left much to be
desired. In fact, the brashness with which it seemed to have
conducted itself, going by the protests in United States, brought
out the gaping flaws in Indian justice dispensing system as well its
investigative prowess.
Shockingly,
there was no effort to reach out to any other possible witnesses
residing in the US. After all,
both witnesses, Jasbir Singh and Surinder Singh, had expressed their
inability and unwillingness to go to India,
having lost faith in justice dispensing methods there. When the CBI
tried to give Tytler, widely perceived to be guilty of leading blood
thirsty mobs in India that burnt alive and killed hundreds of Sikhs
as per official statistics, the two witnesses went public to say
they were always willing to testify but the CBI never bothered.
 Pressured by
public opinion and opprobrium that the Diaspora heaped upon Indian
officials and politicians, and under judicial orders, the CBI was
forced to record statements of the two. But quite dramatic scenes
marked the sleuths’ visit.
In San Francisco,
when the Sikh community received information of CBI team’s visit,
crowds representing many shades of Sikh opinion, gathered gathered
outside the embassy to express solidarity with Jasbir Singh who had
been asked to report to the embassy to depose. For reasons never
stated, the CBI abruptly shifted the venue to Gadar Memorial on Wood
Street. Not to be cowed down, on the bright sunny morning, the
protesting Sikh men and women, carrying placards bearing the names
of Sikhs for Justice and Sikh Youth of America, walked two miles to
reach the changed venue.
Dr. Pritpal
Singh, Convenor of American Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee, Jaswinder
Singh Jandi of Sikh Youth of America and Supreme Council member of
Fremont Gurdwara Sahib, Jaswant Singh Hothi, Vice president of AGPC,
Prof. Pritam Singh Cheema, Mrs. Sarbjeet Kaur Cheema, Ram Singh of
Gurdwara Sahib Fremont, Rajinder Singh Thana and Gurjit Singh
Jhampur of Sikhs for Justice, Kulwant Singh Khaira and Gurbachan
Singh Rana of Sikh Youth of America were among the activists leading
the crowds.
Activists later
claimed that the Indian embassy officials tried to sternly tell the
crowd to melt away and even asked the San Francisco
police to evict the peacefully protesting Sikhs but this was not
India and US cops are not Punjab Policemen. So obviously, there was
not a fat chance of police suddenly throwing tear-gas shells or
raining lathis on innocent unarmed peaceful Sikh men and women.
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Indian Embassy
Official taking photo
of Sikh protesters |
Embassy
officials tried to make to look like a “nuisance-to-neighborhood”
case but with the neighboring residents actually stopping by to
watch and offering sympathies to Sikhs gathered there, the police
could clearly see that a peaceful protest was not a nuisance at all.
An embassy official then appeared on the balcony with a camera, a
sure shot way of intimidating people who could be applicants for
visa at the same embassy, but no one bothered.
But clearly,
what the Indian CBI team and the Indian officials failed to read was
the subtext of this show of support for Jasbir Singh. Why did the
community feel as if Jasbir Singh was walking towards the gallows if
he was merely going to depose before the CBI cleuths? Because that’s
how the law enforcement and investigating agencies in India often
behave. The protesting Sikhs were looked upon as accomplices, and
hence the threat to click them all with a camera.
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Protests in New York
too
Earlier, last
week, Delhi-based granthi Surinder Singh, who left India
eight months ago after deposing before CBI this year, recorded his
statement in Manhattan on Monday and Tuesday.
The CBI finally
left the
US but while there, it tried to prevail upon both Jasbir Singh and
Surinder Singh to return to India to depose but both flatly refused.
Both witnesses alleged that former union minister Jagdish Tytler
played a role in instigating rioters. Tytler incidentally was also
indicted by Nanawati Commission of Inquiry set up by the Government
of India.
Sources said the
CBI wanted both to appear in a video conference but then added the
rider that they will have to go to the Indian Consulate for this,
something both shrugged off.
Depositions by
both Jasbir Singh in San Francisco and Surinder Singh in New York
were marked by protests by Sikh crowds.
Surinder told
media people that his father and brother were under Tytler’s
influence. Jasbir Singh lost 26 family members in the massacre and
escape death by shearing off his hair and beard.
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The whole
scenario demonstrated underlying message to Sikh community that
nothing could happen to the alleged culprit so long authorities were
on his side. In America, it
would have been just the opposite. The American officials would have
come to thank the community in collaborating with the law
enforcement. Here, the role of the communities is encouraged,
appreciated and rewarded for helping maintain justice in the
society. For instance, the Bureau of Justice, Assistance of the US
Department of Justice started the Community Based Problem-solving
Criminal Justice Initiative. Collaborative
Justice Court
Advisory Committees make a difference in lives of victims and lives
of neighborhoods. It also enhances ‘trust in justice system.’
It does not
require much imagination to think what horrors Jasbir Singh might
have undergone while revisiting the scenes of Hindu mobs throwing
burning tire loops on turbaned and bearded creatures of India’s capital.
The clobbering on their heads, gouging flesh from their bodies and
eyes from their sockets were some acts that quenched the thirst of a
section of people. For leaders of the mobs, it was just a
preparation for Parliamentary elections. The proof came in an
unprecedented victory of Congress in 1985. For the world media, the
largest democracy of the planet had proved its mettle.
Jasbir Singh is
reported to have identified Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar as the
main culprits leading the marauding mobs to maim, burn and kill
Sikhs. He has been asked to report again tomorrow. Attorney
Gurpatwant Singh Pannu, who is legal adviser of Sikhs for Justice
has stressed the need to formulate “hate crime” laws in India.
Sikhs await with
abated breath the outcome of this cry in wilderness, hoping for
justice after 24 years of apathy.
31
December
2008
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