Exact number of civilians killed during Operation Bluestar in Golden Temple complex in June 1984 still not released

 

 

Government must come out with exact number of casualties during Operation Bluestar

Ground Zero

Jagtar Singh

 

The Sikhs are the only native people who have ruled over the region from river Satluj to Khyber Pass in a period of about 500 years despite being about 13 per cent of the population at best of times and the Sikh Empire was the last to be annexed by the British in 1849. This nostalgia of being the rulers of the land nurtures the ambition to rule. The foundation of the Sikh Raj was laid by  Baba Banda Singh Bahadur, the warrior who had been deputed to Punjab by Guru Gobind Singh during his last days at Nanded in Maharasthra, with the conquest of Sirhind province in 1710 that was part of the Mughal Empire.

This nostalgic glory continues to sculpt the Sikh ambitions and aspirations even under the present fast changing geo-political situation. At another level, this is what can be called as the historical baggage that they carry. The Sikhs were the third entity after Hindus and Muslims in all the negotiations with the British government till partition. The Sikh leaders had been given the option to decide their political destiny during these negotiations.

Exact number of causalities not available:

Operation Bluestar in June 1984 was the biggest ‘peacetime’ operation by the Indian army since 1947 against the Indian people, in this case the Sikhs. However, this entre action continues to be shrouded in mystery that includes the total number of civilians including militants who were killed. The Punjab government refused to share the information sought under the Right to Information Act as to who signed the file requisitioning army for action in the Golden Temple complex.

No enumeration has ever been done of the victims of this deadly politics of violence.  The Akali Dal came into power in Punjab after Operation Bluestar first in 1985 and then in 1997, 2007 and 2012 but no such effort has ever been made even by this party’s government in this regard. The space to radical politics and legitimacy was provided by the Akali political discourse over the years. It was this party that had launched the struggle known as the Dharamyudh Morcha on August 4, 1982 on a 15-point demand charter that was practically taken over by Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale at the time when religio-political violence had already been introduced in Punjab. (Footnote: List of Akali Dal demands submitted to the government in October, 1981: Unconditional release of Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and judicial inquiry with regard to police action in connection with Delhi rally (September 7), Chowk Mehta and Chando Kalan, removal of alleged government highhandedness in the management of Delhi gurdwaras, holding of democratic elections after removal of forcible control by “one of the government stooges, restoration of the SGPC’s right to send pilgrim parties to Pakistan, permission to Sikhs travelling by air to wear kirpan on domestic and international flights,  All India Gurdwara Act, grant of holy city status to Amritsar, installation of “Harimandir Radio” at Golden Temple, Amritsar to relay kirtan, renaming Flying Mail as Harimandir Sahib Express,  autonomy on the basis of Anandpur Sahib resolution, merger of Punjabi speaking areas and Chandigarh into Punjab, handing over of dams and headworks in the state to Punjab and re-apportionment of river waters as per national and international rules, second language status to Punjabi language in Haryana, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan,  end to uprooting of Punjabi farmers from Terai area of Uttar Pradesh, setting up of a dry port at Amritsar, licence for starting a new bank in place of the Punjab and Sind Bank  under Sikh control and fixing of remunerative prices  for agricultural produce by linking to the industrial production index.)

The White Paper released by the union government in Parliament   on July 10, 1984 put the total number of civilians killed in the Golden Temple complex  in the 3-day operation in 1984 at 493 with 86 injured while in case of army, the comparative figures were 83 killed and 220 injured.  During the same period, 42 other shrines were raided all over the state resulting in the killing of 23 civilians and one army personnel. Thirty eight others were killed during curfew violations and search operations. These people were mainly those who tried to march to Amritsar from the nearby villages.

Record of deaths and postmortem missing:

Intriguingly, the entire record of post-mortems relating to the said period that included these dead bodies has been reported missing as also the record of cremations. Effort was made to procure record of the post-mortem reports conducted by the office of the Chief Medical Officer, Amritsar from June 3 to June 12 and also the total number of cremations during the same period in the city cremation grounds under the Right to Information Act. After several weeks, the CMO office replied under letter No. MRC/RTI/12/ 3129 dated October 31, 2012 that the said record was stolen in 2004 and the first information report No. 121 dated May 7, 2004 was lodged with the Civil Lines police station.  The government has not shared in the communication whether this record is available at any other level also or not.

The controversy about the number of the dead refuses to die down. The bodies of those who were killed in the Darbar Sahib Temple complex  were treated like that of the animals while being carried in garbage trucks for post mortem and then to the cremation ground near Gurdwara Shaheed Baba Deep Singh going by the pictures available.

The Akali Dal remains confined to Congress bashing during elections rather than addressing the basic issues when in power. This party repeated the promise to initiate judicial inquiry into the November 1984 massacre in its manifesto for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections “under a Supreme Court Judge to inquire into and expose those who hatched the conspiracy behind massacre; ditto for those who shielded the guilty”. The promise was subject to the BJP, its alliance partner, coming into power at the national level. Similar promise had been made in the 1985  manifesto and again in the 1997 Common Minimum Programme with the BJP. However, nothing ever materialised.

The party promised on page 3 of the manifesto for 2014 Lok Sabha elections:

“When NDA forms government at the centre, we will ensure the following to deal with the guilty of 1984 massacre:

-Fast track courts to try the on-going cases.

-Cases that have been closed are re-opened and challans presented in the fast track courts for disposal in a time bound manner.

-Complaints on which no action has been taken to be acted upon.

-A commission of inquiry under a judge of the Supreme Court to go into the entire conspiracy behind the massacre, to get at the original sinners. The commission will also go into the reported conspiracy under which the guilty has been shielded”. (Volume 2, Annexure 134).

It was the NDA that came into power at the centre  in 2014  with Narendra Modi as the Prime Minister.  Harsimrat Kaur Badal, wife of Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal, represented the Akali Dal as the cabinet minister in this government. Despite the Akali Dal being part of the NDA government, the promised judicial probe was never ordered.

Yet earlier promise made by the Akali Dal in manifesto for 1996 Lok Sabha election is important at another level too as this struggle has been described as Congress abetted ‘Terrorism’. It states: “Shiromani Akali Dal is for a probe by a Commission comprising Supreme Court judges to probe the role of the Congress in encouraging fissiparous and secessionist tendencies and terrorism  so that the misuse of the unbridled power, exploitation, loot and  excesses are put to an end forever.” (Volume 2, Annexure 110).

The Akali Dal used the term ‘terrorism’ as against earlier ‘militancy’ under the changed scenario when militancy was perceived to have been rooted out.

(From my book Rivers on Fire: Khalistan Struggle)