CHANDIGARH: Senior Congress leader and parliamentary party chairperson Sonia Gandhi, in her memoir, Belonging: A Journey of Love, released on Tuesday, acknowledged that more than four decades have passed since the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, but justice has been hard to come by for the victims despite four commissions, nine committees and two special investigation teams.
She also admitted that Congress workers were among those accused of instigating or directing the violence following former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s assassination.
She says the riots remain a "tragic and shameful" chapter in the country's history, asserting that while her husband, Rajiv Gandhi, had no bigotry or rancour in his heart, he was thrust into a moment in history when effective governance had foundered and barbaric acts followed.
The 544-page memoir also reveals an alleged plot to kill the entire Gandhi family during Diwali celebrations a week before Indira’s assassination on October 31, 1984, and Sonia’s desperate attempt to prevent Rajiv Gandhi from becoming Prime Minister, fearing that he would be the next target.
She recalls that news of Indira Gandhi's killing spread rapidly and that many in Punjab and other parts of the country had earlier welcomed the end of (Jarnail Singh) Bhindranwale and his cohorts, who had been set on breaking up the country with weapons of terror and murder.
“But now many were enraged at their prime minister's assassination, and the mood was turning ugly. By the afternoon, rioting had broken out in different parts of the city and beyond. Brutal acts of violence were committed against innocent Sikhs. More than 2,000 lost their lives in the capital alone, in the most cruel and cold-blooded manner,” she says in the book.
Many of their shops and homes were looted or burnt down, she added, pointing out that that very night, Rajiv appeared on national television to appeal for peace, virtually his first public act after being sworn in as Prime Minister.
“He visited areas of the city racked with tension and members of his staff went out to look for their Sikh colleagues and make sure they were safe,” she recalls. She added that on November 1, Rajiv again went out to meet people, urging them not to seek revenge. The following day, he issued another nationwide television appeal condemning arson, looting and murder.
“When I think back on those nights of agony in the aftermath of the assassination, I find little clarity. Scarcely anything registered with me then beyond the shock and horror of my mother-in-law's killing, and fear for Rajiv's and our children's lives. One thing I am certain of: Rajiv himself, just and compassionate to his core, could not in any way have authorised those heinous acts on innocent men, women and children. His instinctive, immediate response at a moment of extreme personal affliction bears that out,” she says.
“But while his heart held no bigotry or rancour, there is no denying that he was thrust into a moment of the country's history when effective governance had foundered and barbaric acts followed,” she writes in the book.
Revisiting one of the darkest chapters in independent India’s history, Sonia writes that several individuals, many of them Congress members, faced criminal proceedings for allegedly instigating or directing the violence. Cases were also registered against RSS members who participated in the killings, she says.
“Of the hundreds of FIRs recording a cognisable offence and setting in motion the process of criminal justice that were registered with the police, four or five led to the arrest of Congress workers, of whom one is still serving his sentence. Even after four commissions, nine committees and two special investigation teams, cases continue to drag on in the courts. Justice has been hard to come by for the victims,” she says.
She said that even after successive inquiries, many cases continued to drag on in courts and acknowledged that the failure to punish those responsible for communal violence has been a systemic problem that successive governments have been unable to resolve. She also maintains that the massacre did not reflect any deep-rooted hostility between the Congress and the Sikh community, pointing to the party’s subsequent electoral victories in Punjab.
“It has to be admitted that delivery of justice in our country has been a systemic failing, one that successive governments have not succeeded in redressing,” she adds.
Her memoir offers an account of the delay in deploying the Army, a question that has remained central to the debate over the 1984 riots. She writes that Army chief General AS Vaidya received orders on the night of Indira’s assassination, but the family subsequently heard that he had decided against immediately mobilising nearby Army units because they were manned by Sikh soldiers. This was against the backdrop of sporadic mutinies involving Sikh soldiers after Operation Blue Star in Gurdaspur, Ramgarh, Pune and Jammu.
Sonia claims that instead, Army units were ordered to move from Dehradun. The troops began entering Delhi on the night of November 1 and were positioned in affected areas by noon on November 2. Curfew and shoot-at-sight orders were imposed, while civil society groups established relief camps for survivors.
Sonia also recalls that several Sikh families fleeing the violence found refuge in the Gandhi household. Some had already experienced the trauma of Partition, having fled Pakistan to rebuild their lives in India.
Shiromani Akali Dal hits back at Sonia
Shiromani Akali Dal chief spokesperson Arshdeep Singh Kler hit back at Sonia. He said that Sonia had written in her book that Indira Gandhi was upset after seeing photographs of Operation Blue Star.
“I want to ask Sonia that Indira was just upset seeing the photographs. It was a planned attack on the Golden Temple and Akal Takht as per her conspiracy. Many Sikhs were killed in that attack. She says that Indira Gandhi knew she would die. It is right that she had attacked the holy shrine, and that is why the fear was eating her way inside,” he said.
Kler said Sonia had written that Indira told them what to do after she was no more.
“I want to ask Sonia what Indira told her to do after her death. Did she tell her to massacre the Sikhs and then Rajiv saying, ‘As a big tree falls, the earth shakes’? I also want to ask her whether the Gandhi family has ever publicly apologised for the Sikh riots. No. Congress is responsible for all this. By giving emotional speeches and writing about it, those wounds cannot be healed,” he said.
