November 1, 2010.... 25 years into.... what?How many of us know what exactly happened on 31st October 1984? Followed by horrible incidents on November 1 and 2 of 1984. It was a day to which people still mourn. The scars of that horrible night still remains in the minds of thousands of people.
Cutting it short, I am talking about anti-sikh riots that took place on November 1, 1984. And for those of you wondering what was it, I will brief a little about it.
On November 1, 1984, large mobs descended on eastern and central Delhi.The mobs carried iron rods, knives, clubs, and combustible material, including kerosene. They used voters' lists, allegedly provided, by the Congress Party politicians themselves, to identify houses and business establishments owned by Sikhs. The mobs swarmed into Sikh neighborhoods, arbitrarily killing any Sikh men they could find. Their shops and houses were ransacked and burned. In other incidents, armed mobs stopped buses and trains, in and around Delhi, pulling out Sikh passengers to be lynched or doused with kerosene and burnt.
Sounds very ordinary stuff to our ear? Well, ask those people whose families were destroyed in one night. Their fathers, husbands, borthers were burnt infront of them.
Indira Gandhi, first women prime minister of India, is considered as one of the greatest leader India has witnessed, but is that a fact or fiction? I am not an expert to talk about that. But the night she was killed the whole of Gandhi family was sad and in grief. At the same time angry also, so they along with the whole Congress party politicians invoked these riots. And few days later her son remarked "Some riots took place in the country following the murder of Indiraji. We know the people were very angry and for a few days it seemed that India had been shaken. But, when a mighty tree falls, it is only natural that the earth around it does shake a little". Were there any more questions in the minds of people?
Many committees were setup but there are allegations that the government destroyed evidence and shielded the guilty. The Asian Age front page story called the government actions "the Mother of all Cover-ups"]There are allegations that the violence was led and often perpetrated by Indian National Congress activists and sympathizers during the riots. The government, then led by the Congress, was widely criticized for doing very little at the time, possibly acting as a conspirator. The conspiracy theory is supported by the fact that voting lists were used to identify Sikh families. Some years back, Sonia again apologized for year 1984, but is a mere apology enough? People killed cannot be brought back but we can atleast do something for their families. All they want now is justice. I was reading the newspaper today and felt sad and laughed at the same time. Sad because of what people have suffered and laughed because they want justice. Don't they know how things are working in India right now, justice is not what they should look for. And not to forget, right now it is congress which is in rule, so they won't do anything which will cause any harm to their past image. After all it is just the name of some great personalities associates with them, that makes them survive and claim to be whatever they are.
This is one of the many things that we are ashamed of have happened in our country. And the sad part is nothing has been done about it till now. And i doubt that anything will be also. All that we can do is to bring about a change so that we have more achievements to brag about than to be ashamed of.
