November 84 Pogroms In Which Thousands of Sikhs Were Murdered All Over India

Although fifteen years have elapsed why have not the Guilty been punished?


Washington, D.C., Wednesday, November 03, 1999 - This week fifteen years ago (November 1984) thousands of Sikhs were murdered by the ruling Congress Party leaders and police, rampaging through Sikh localities of major Indian cities (Delhi, Calcutta, Madras and Lucknow, Cownpore, Patna, Bokaro, Jabalpur etc.,) raping, burning and killing just because unbeknown to the Sikh community two brave Sikhs had decided to take revenge for the June 1984 Indian army attack on the Sikh holiest of holies the Darbar Sahib, and 37 other shrines, which had been ordered by Mrs. Indira Gandhi as the Prime Minister of India.

The November 1984 pogrom, which followed her dispatch, and its aftermath draws attention to the state of the Indian state, and its so called rule of law, where after fifteen long years-except for a Performa half dozen punishments – the guilty have not been punished and hundreds of complaints by the Sikh victims, backed by affidavits, witnesses and evidence, have disappeared in the "black hole" of the Indian judicial system waiting for justice. Obviously the Brahmin ruling elite which rules Delhi, wants the delays to go on ad infinitum so that eventually there will be no witnesses left and the Sikh activists will have to forget about the over six thousand innocent men, women and children who were murdered in cold blood and the billion rupees of property which was burnt to the ground by Hindu mobs in the November 1984 week of terror. This is Justice Indian style!

As if the above is not bad enough, commentary on the Indian judicial system – a news item in the bigoted Chandigarh Tribune of November 1, 1999 gives an insight into the fascist Brahmin mind and mocks the memory of all those Sikhs who died for no reason, other than that they were Sikhs, just in the Delhi pogrom that fateful week of November 1984. The UNI New Delhi dateline story; "Expedite trial in riot cases-Sikh leaders’’ sarcastically states in the introductory paragraph that; "Sikh leaders are unhappy that a majority of persons held guilty in 1984 riots in the capital are yet to be punished even 15 years after the carnage that claimed nearly 3000 lives". "They feel," the report goes on, "that delayed justice in the killings of innocent Sikhs in the aftermath of the assassination of the Prime Minister Indira Gandhi led to further embittered community relations." This horrible dispatch makes mention only of Sikh leaders who are unhappy. Should one assume that the Hindu leaders are happy over the Sikh loss of life and property, as they are not mentioned?

The Tribune quoted a former central government standing counsel, H.S. Phoolkia who was also a member secretary of the advisory committee set up by the Delhi government to suggest steps to; "expeditiously punish the guilty of the November 1984 killings in Delhi." Mr. Phoolkia, who was also a member of the "Citizen’s Justice Committee" comprising eminent jurists, assigned to prepare a non-official report on the November 1984 riots, said so far; "only six guilty have been convicted." Besides this, cases against around nearly 200 accused were pending in various courts. Only four politicians were charge sheeted and tried in the riot cases. While Mr. Jagdish Tytler has been exonerated by the CBI, former Union minister H.K.L Bhagat, and Sajjan Kumar –a former MP are facing trial in courts."

The attitude of India’s majority community, whether they are from the Congress or the BJP makes no difference, can be measured from the fact that an Akali Dal member of parliament moved a private bill in the 12th Lok Sabha seeking a condolence resolution on the November 1984 pogrom. The member withdrew the bill as the ruling BJP would not give support for such a harmless resolution despite the fact that the condolence would not effect the BJP and would only embarrass the Congress Party which was the ruling party at the time of the November killings. This experience should educate the Sikhs that our 21 million strong community has no place in India. We Sikhs must carve an independent sovereign buffer state of Khalistan stretching from the Jumna River in the East border on the West.