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)
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