By IANS
New Delhi : Nearly a quarter century after horrific anti-Sikh violence in the national capital left 2,733 innocents dead, just 13 people have been punished in half a dozen murder cases, says a new book.
“In all other cases, either the police have closed the file or the courts have acquitted the accused. Symbolism assumes greater significance, given the gap between the rhetoric and reality of the rule of law in India,” said the book, “When a Tree Shook Delhi” (Roli). The book hit the stores this week.
“In a larger perspective, this shows that for all the material progress made by India, its legal culture is still far from developed,” the book said.
“If the struggle for justice could not secure the conviction of a single political leader or police officer; if so many institutions collapsed during and after the 1984 carnage; if Delhi set a precedent for mass killings in Gujarat, the civil society cannot escape blame for lack of ‘due diligence’, and for neglecting the duty of ‘eternal vigilance’,” it added.
Authored by journalist Manoj Mitta and advocate H.S. Phoolka, the book takes an overview of the butchery that took place on the streets of New Delhi and elsewhere in the country’s north following the Oct 31, 1984, assassination of prime minister Indira Gandhi at the hands of two of her Sikh bodyguards.
The book is based mainly on the wealth of evidence that emerged in the course of the Justice G.T. Nanavati Commission of inquiry into the 1984 violence. The report was made public in 2005.
Besides a journalist’s reconstruction of the terrible killings and destruction of Sikh property in Delhi after Indira Gandhi’s assassination, the book also has a first person account of the struggle for justice by victims of the violence.
The book praises Maxwell Pereira, who then was deputy head of the Delhi Police north district unit, for ably controlling the violence that erupted outside the Sis Ganj gurudwara on Chandni Chowk in the city’s old quarters, despite having few men with him.
“Unlike his counterparts in other parts of Delhi, Pereira did not disarm the Sikhs and leave them at the mercy of the mobs. Instead, he persuaded them to go inside the gurudwara by promising to provide them security. He kept his word and dealt with the mobs sternly despite having a meagre force at his command.
“It took a lot of courage and ingenuity to do so. Once he got the Sikhs to go indoors, the mobs from both directions were emboldened to pelt stones with greater vigour. All that Pereira and his men could do in return was threaten to fire with their revolvers.
“In a gritty display of policing, they managed to keep the crowd at a safe distance from the gurdwara till a small reinforcement came along with tear smoke ammunition.”
When the officer saw a mob looting a watch shop owned by a Sikh at Chandni Chowk, he ordered his men to fire at the miscreants. A constable fired three rounds, killing one rioter instantly.
“Driving home the rule of law, Pereira announced then and there a reward of Rs. 200 to the constable, making sure the reward was heard by everyone as he announced it on a loud hailer. The firing and the reward had the desired – and expected – effect. Sis Ganj Gurudwara was saved as the mobs melted away.”
The book refers to the apology to the Sikh community and the nation Prime Minister Manmohan Singh tendered in parliament over the 1984 violence.
“It is no credit, however, to the Indian democracy that it took so long for the government to apologise in the parliament for a massacre of Sikhs and that it finally took a Sikh prime minister to do so.
“Whatever the circumstances, the symbolic value of Manmohan Singh’s apology cannot be underestimated. It is in keeping with the spirit of ‘truth and reconciliation’ catching on in the world.”