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Does Manmohan Represent Retribution for Sikh Killings?

By ANIL THAKRANEY

Mid-Day, Jun. 13, 2004

1984 Sikh massacres

I keep hearing of how excited the Sikhs are, on one of their own becoming a Congress government-led P.M. . . . about how they can't stop balle-balloing [cheering] at Sonia's choice . . . about how they see this as an apology for the 1984 riots, when over 3,000 (that's the official figure) innocent Sikhs were bludgeoned to death, only because a couple of turbaned bodyguards shot Indira Gandhi. (I was quite young at the time . . . a college student . . . still do vividly recall fervently praying, when the news first broke, that the killers weren't Sindhis . . . such is the pitiful mind-set that prevails in this country.)

Get this right: There can be no forgiveness for 1984. Just as there can be no forgiveness for 2002. There can be no forgiveness for organised pogroms. There can be no forgiveness for attacks on innocent people. There can be no forgiveness for people like Jagdish Tytler and H.K.L. Bhagat. Just as there can be no forgiveness for people like Narendra Modi. There can be no forgiveness for people like Rajiv Gandhi, who chose to look the other way. Just as there can be no forgiveness for people like Vajpayee, who did the same. There are some crimes that haunt you forever, ones that you carry with you to the grave.

(P.S.: The ONLY reason Sonia hit on the Sardar to occupy the P.M.'s gaddi [chair], is that he is both, efficient and non-controversial. And he happens to be the ONLY person with those sort of credentials in her party. Period.)