Indias Incomplete democracy | Operation Blue Star, as the generals called it, is for Sikhs an event on a level with the Roman army sacking the temple at Jerusalem. The Indian state, under the leadership of the Congress Party and Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, ordered the operation to dislodge Sikh militants occupying the sacred compound. Documents recently released in Britain have forced the British government to confirm its advisory role in planning such an attack several months before Blue Star. The Indian government has always disputed the number of people killed, but according to Ensaaf, a nonprofit organization working to end impunity in Indian state crimes, no fewer than 4,000 innocent pilgrims died, on top of hundreds of militants and army personnel. This was not the end of it. In what was seen as an act of payback, Gandhi was assassinated by her two Sikh bodyguards. Anti-Sikh pogroms, which followed this assassination in the fall of 1984, saw Sikhs raped and killed throughout Indias urban centers. The Amritsar massacre also touched off a decade of disappearances in which the Indian government waged more counterinsurgency efforts in the state of Punjab. Several more thousands of Sikhs were tortured, killed and disappeared through brutal police crackdowns. The Sikh community was founded when Guru Nanak received what Sikhs believe to be a series of original divine revelations that gave rise to their scripture. Sikhs are a distinct community in the diverse milieu of India religions, but they have enough in common with Christians, Hindus and Muslims that there is no reason there cannot be peace among them. Human rights organizations continue to press for the killers of Sikhs to be prosecuted, but many of the guilty now serve as leaders of the Congress Party in the halls of the Indian Parliament. Justice continues to be thwarted as the architects of Operation Blue Star, anti-Sikh pogroms and the brutal wave of counterinsurgency remain free. latimes/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-gill-sikh-india-modi-election-20140616-story.html
Posted on: Tue, 08 Jul 2014 09:03:55 +0000
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