www.sacw.net | 15 August 2005
1984 REVISITED - TIME FOR A NATIONAL AUDIT
Personal Reflections
by Lalita Ramdas
August 2005 - the Report of the Nanavati Commission of Inquiry into the 1984 slaughter of thousands of innocent Sikhs - [the ninth such appointed by a succession of governments], was eventually tabled and made public. The last two days have seen mayhem and Hungama in Parliament - statements by the Prime Minister - self-righteous speeches by opposition politicians, resignations of Ministers amid protests of innocence - angry demonstrations on the streets -- calls for Khalistan - and sensational headlines.
The events of the week in parliament and on the streets pushes my thoughts inexorably back to New Delhi - October 31 1984 . . . . .like so many, I too have been guilty of keeping that particular compartment locked away. But today I feel impelled to speak up again.
I was among those who watched with horror and disbelief the slaughter of thousands of innocent Sikhs following the assassination of Indira Gandhi on October 31st. It did not take much intelligence for even the most naïve of us to realize that we were witnessing something that went beyond a mere spontaneous outpouring of grief and anger at the death of a leader. From across the city the reports were the same: mobs on the rampage - Sikhs in cars and scooters being attacked; fires and smoke across Delhi. Instinctively, many of us broke curfew, stepped out of our relatively secure homes , and made our way to the areas which were burning and to which police was already blocking access. Trilok Puri - Mongol Puri - Sultan Puri - Lajpat Nagar - Bhogal - the names have gone down in grisly historical memory. And within those first 24 to 48 hours, those of us who were able to venture out into some of the worst hit areas, were witness to the unspeakable acts of deliberate identification, hunting down and brutal killings. Much of this has been recorded in the thousands of recorded statements by those fleeing from their homes who certainly had no time to 'manufacture evidence'. The names of those who were perceived to be behind the attacks - often perpetrated by poorer communities in their own neighbourhood - Dharamdas Shastri, HKL Bhagat, Lalit Maken, Jagdish Tytler, Sajjan Kumar, and many others, were already common knowledge and surfaced in statement after statement. I have personally recorded hundreds of testimonies from broken and distraught women who had seen sons, husbands, brothers and fathers hacked, burned alive or tortured before their eyes. It is these images that come back today to haunt us all.
NAGRIK EKTA MANCH, a people's initiative - was born spontaneously, as much out of the enormous outpouring of outrage at the genocidal killings, as of a desire to provide some form of succour and relief. NEM became the hub of one of the most amazing, well organized, non-governmental relief and rehabilitation efforts in recent times. For three years, the quest to unravel the truth about 1984, bringing the guilty to justice, and securing basic relief and rehabilitation and justice to the victims, crowded out all else. Our small NGO - ANKUR, prioritized this issue above all else and also evolved into a more politically aware group through this experience.
In my capacity as co-ordinator at Nanaksar Relief Camp, I testified before the Justice Ranganath Mishra Commission - and foolishly hoped that justice would be done. Young and old alike put their lives on hold for varying periods of time. Clearly we were no match for the staying power of the State - and one by one - we too fell by the way side, and went on to deal with ongoing work and newer crises of which there was no dearth. But we bore direct witness to the communalization of politics.
I was living in one of the better known colonies of Lutyens Imperial city - Lodi Estate - across the road from the India International Centre, and home to senior serving officers from the top civil and military echelons in the country. My husband - then a serving Admiral in the Indian Navy, was based in Visakhapatnam, where he was commanding the Eastern Fleet. We knew we had his support for using our home as the impromptu camp office to a motley group of us - academics, activists, housewives, students and others, who would spend the days at Nanaksar, Farsh Bazaar and other far flung locations where the initial relief camps were set up. Returning home late, we would spend most of the night systematically documenting and tabulating the data gathered during the day. Similar scenes were enacted in several parts of the city. It was the syntheses of all our reports and eyewitness accounts which went to make up one of the seminal reports on the 1984 massacres [they cannot be termed RIOTS] - entitled WHO ARE THE GUILTY?
When we were not in the camps - we were either rescuing friends from mobs in far away places - or taking out Peace Marches in areas where vulnerable Sikhs cowered in their homes - terrified to come out and be seen. It was during the 'Peace March' through Bhogal that we came face to face with the already organized shape of militant Hindutva - a mob of youngsters - all male who were ready to use their Trishuls and iron rods against us. It was a close call indeed - with us women and a saffron robed swami to the rescue.
In my own neighbourhood - yes, the posh locality where the genteel folks lived - we were the main links to the outside world - and for providing daily necessities to an Army general, a Navy Commander and their families, who dared not stir out of their homes. Thanks to sympathetic individuals and a service jeep, I was able to rescue another friend, a Sikh Naval officer and his family from their trans Yamuna home, hidden under a camouflage of gunny sacks and razais. Imagine his feelings.
Door to door appeals for medicines and clothing , were more often than not greeted with the words 'they deserved it' and doors slammed in the faces of the kids who volunteered to go around collecting. More reality bytes - what values had our education system in secular India actually taught us? Clearly secularism was skin deep.
We were all in a state of shock. Could this really be happening in the capital city of 'free, democratic and secular' India? What had happened to all the constitutional assurances, our vision and dreams of a plural, diverse, tolerant society ? All that was dealt a mortal blow in November 1984 and the script was already being written for Godhra, Gujarat. Criminalisation and communalization increasingly became the warp and weft of our political structure used to good effect in both 1984 and in 2002 to turn neighbours against each other.
Soon India will celebrate yet another Independence Day. The familiar rituals will be re-enacted from the ramparts of the Red Fort, and we will in all probability revert to business as usual. If this is to change and if the nation is to introspect, then it is time to cry halt to the blame game and to point out that the Emperors - be they green, blue, red or saffron, truly have no clothes . The Nanavati Commission report - inadequate as it is - provides us with an invaluable opportunity to introspect, and to begin to put right the terribly flawed electoral, legal and political systems which have been allowed to flourish and proliferate.
It is time for a rigorous national audit - of our institutions, our structures, our educational, political, judicial and other systems. The collapse of Mumbai in the recent rains, was just one dramatic instance of the many fronts on which governments have failed to deliver. This is the challenge we face - it is time for 'we the people' of India to stand up and be counted. Our failure to do so at this time can carry serious consequences for our common futures.
[Lalita Ramdas has worked for over three decades in the field of education with deprived groups, minorities and women through a range of organizations. She has been active together with her husband, Admiral L. Ramdas, in the Indo Pak Peace process and the Movement for Nuclear Disarmament. Recently she has featured as one of the 91 Indian nominees, among the 1000 Women for the Nobel Peace Prize 2005. She lives and works out of a village near Alibag in the Konkan region.]
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