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When one man stood up to stop
the earth from shaking
Ajmer Singh
 The WSN is proud that it was the first newspaper to break the story
about the release of the remarkable book, When A Tree Shook Delhi,
on October 31. Even in India, the story appeared only the next day.
Moreover, the WSN also carried a detailed interview with Advocate H
S Phoolka in the same edition of the WSN October 31-November 6,
2007. We present here a most interesting narration of the incident
which showed how it was eminently possible for the police to save
Sikhs' lives and property, and how many in khaki uniforms failed
their primary duty. As a community paper, it is but our duty to
rightly apportion praise and blame. This report is a tribute to the
bravery and integrity of men like Officer and Gentleman, Maxwell
Pareira.
The situation was explosive by the timer Maxwell Pareira, the number
two police officer of the north Delhi district, reached Sis Ganj
Gurdwara on the morning of 1 November 1984.
He found that about 200 Sikhs had descended on the road, and
displaying naked swords and spears, were doing ‘a war dance’ in the
famous Chandni Chowk market. The provocation obviously was the mobs
closing in on the gurdwara from both directions, shouting aggressive
slogans.
Unlike his counterparts in other parts of Delhi, Pareira did not
disarm the Sikhs and leave them at the mercy of the mobs. Instead,
he persuaded them to go inside the gurdwara by promising to provide
them security. He kept his word and dealt with the mob sternly
despite having a meagre force at his command.
To be sure, it took a lot of courage and ingenuity to do so. Once he
got the Sikhs to go indoors, the mobs from both directions were
emboldened to pelt stones with greater vigour. All that Pareira and
his men could do in return was threaten to fire with their
revolvers. In a gritty display of policing, they managed to keep the
crowd at a safe distance from the gurdwara till a small
reinforcement came along with tear smoke ammunition.
The tear gas firing that ensued helped the police chase the crowd
away from the gurdwara on the Chandni Chowk road in both directions.
The team that had chased the crowd right up to Town Hall reported to
Pareira on the wireless that some of the miscreants, having been
prevented from attacking Sis Ganj Gurdwara, had turned their
attention to shops owned by Sikhs. The mob indulged in looting and
arson.
On rushing to the fresh flashpoint, Pareira saw that a Sikh-owned
shop, Amrit Watch Company, had already been set on fire. He warned
the crowd to disperse. It had little effect. That is when Pareira
took the next logical step to enforce law and order, something that
no other officer did anywhere in Delhi on 1 November, the first and
worst day of the carnage.
Pareira ordered firing. He got his men to open fire on the
miscreants who were looting a shoe shop owned by Sikhs. Constable
Shiv Prashan of Kotwali police station opened fire on his order.
Shiv Prashan fired three rounds, shooting one person dead in full
view of the rioters. Driving home the rule of law, Pareira announced
then and there, a reward of Rs 200 to the constable, making sure the
reward was heard by everyone as he announced it on a loud-hailer.
The firing and the reward had the desired — and expected — effect.
Sis Ganj Gurdwara was saved as the mobs melted away.
An administrative inquiry conducted by retired bureaucrat, Kusum
Lata Mittal, rightly concluded, ‘This resolute and firm stand of
Shri Pareira had an instant impact and the mob dispersed.
Thereafter, there was no serious incident (in that area) during the
entire period of riots. This incident proves beyond doubt that where
the police officers showed the strength and the determination to
check the riots, they could be really effective with little force
too.’
There was unfortunately no such ‘resolute and firm’ action in the
face of a similar threat to Rakab Ganj Gurdwara, the other great
holy shrine for Sikhs in Delhi, around the same time. Police
Commissioner Subhash Tandan, and Additional Commissioner Gautam Kaul,
despite being superior in rank, showed none of Pareira’s will to
check the breakdown of law and order. They did not even cane the
mob, let alone resorting to tear gas or firing.
Emboldened by the police’s obvious reluctance to take any action
against miscreants, the mob at Rakab Ganj Gurdwara laid siege to it
for at least five hours, indulging in various forms of violence. It
pelted stones at the Sikhs inside the gurdwara. It flung burning
rags doused with petrol. Jumping over the compound wall, it
transgressed into the gurdwara again and again. On one occasion, it
tried to break the gurdwara’s main door and when that proved too
strong to break, it set the door on fire. On another occasion, the
mob attacked an employee’s house inside the complex and set it on
fire. In what was the worst of all its crimes on the spot, the mob
killed two Sikhs.
23
November 2007
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