DING, DONG, THE WITCH IS DEAD!!

DING, DONG, THE WITCH IS DEAD,

Which old witch?  The wicked witch!

Ding, dong the wicked witch is dead!

She’s gone to where the goblins go,

Below, below, below!

Sing it high!  Sing it low!

Let them know the wicked witch is dead!
                                  From :  The Wizard of Oz 

Had Indira Gandhi not been killed on 31 October 1984,  you would probably not be reading this blog because your author would have been killed in Operation Shanti, beginning on 8 November 1984.  Read on, dear readers.


Twenty-six years ago today, Indira Gandhi, Prime Minister of India, Architect of the Bluestar Massacre, enemy of the Sikh people, was executed by Shaheed Beant Singh and Shaheed Satwant Singh, inspired and encouraged by the uncle Shaheed Kehar Singh.  Let us drop any hypocrisy we may be harbouring about this person.  She knew that in attacking Darbar Sahib (Amritsar) she would earn the lasting enmity of the Sikh Quam and go down in Sikh history next to Aurangzeb.  She was evil, but she wasn't stupid.  She surely knew that it was suicidal to keep Sikh bodyguards after desecrating Harmandir Sahib.  Or was she so far gone in her megalomania that she thought she was invincible?  Or did she believe she could implement Operation Shanti before anyone would take action against her?  In any case, her nefarious plans were thwarted by her own action in not reassigning them. 

I was in Delhi at a family gathering when we got the news that she had been shot.  Dead silence followed by, “Well, I hope the bitch is dead!”  She was, of course.  When we later heard that her Sikh bodyguards had shot her, a cheer went up.  None of us was surprised.  The older members quickly sobered up.  “Glad she’s gotten rid of, but there’s going to be hell to pay.”  

Of course there was.  Rajiv Gandhi screamed for revenge.  Amitabh Bachhan came on TV screaming "KHOON KA BADLA KHOON!"   (Blood for blood!)”  Blood for blood there was, indeed.  The mobs were given the addresses of Sikh families, paid in liquor and kerosene and ran off to the joy of the slaughter.  By the time the bloodbath ended, thousands of Sikhs were dead, thousands widowed and tens of thousands orphaned.  The financial losses pale next to the toll of human life, but they were also devastating to the Sikh community.

Consider the situation from our Sikh point of view.  Not only was she responsible for invading and shooting up our holiest site, she also destroyed much of our history in the burning of the Akal Takht and the Sikh History Library.  This was followed by Operation Woodrose, a pretty name for a diabolical action rounding up and murdering Amritdhari males in Punjab.

It is widely believed that she had concocted a larger genocidal plan called Operation Shanti (Peace) to virtually wipe out the Sikhs of India.  This was to be carried out in the second week of November during the celebration of the birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev ji.

Indira drew a diabolical plan, named Operation Shanti, to carry out a general massacre of the Sikhs, of genocidal proportions, around November 8, when the Sikhs would assemble in various Gurdwaras for Guru Nanak's birthday celebrations. According to the plan, large-scale skirmishes virtually amounting to a war were to take place all along the India-Pakistan borders. And, it was to be given out that the Sikhs had risen in revolt in Punjab and joined hands with Pakistani armed forces which had made considerable advances into the Indian Territory. The Sikhs all over Punjab, especially in Gurdaspur, Amritsar, Ferozepur, Kapurthala and Jalandhar districts were to be subjected to massive aerial bombardment, apart from being slaughtered by army and para military forces. The Sikhs all over India were to be subjected to mass scale massacre, loot, arson and incendiarism by lumpen elements organized by Youth Congress(I) activists. Elaborate preparations were made by Youth Congress (I) network all over India; they were to await a coded signal to start mayhem.  Operation Shanti, Sikhwiki.

 Large scale Sikh genocide was being planned by the top layers of government including Gandhi herself. The plan, known as Operation Shanti, was to take place around November 8, as was a surprise attack on Pakistan. Beant Singh, the man who assassinated Gandhi, heard of Operation Shanti from R. K. Dhawan, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister and decided to kill Gandhi. [source: The Sikhs in History by Sangat Singh]  from  SikhLionz .

I try to be nice, really I do.  I just can't find it in me to be nice about this monster.  Had she not died when she did, who knows what havoc would have been wreaked upon us by the Mad Dog of Delhi, the Wicked Witch of the East, Indira (Nehru) Gandhi?  

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HAPPY HALLOWEEN, indeed.

THE KILLING FIELDS OF INDIA 1984

I did not write this; I do not know who did. It came to me through IHRO from the British Sikh Federation with a message. PLEASE FORWARD. I ask you to do the same:


PLEASE FORWARD

PLEASE FORWARD -

E NEVER FORGET 1984 E

The Killing Fields Of India In 1984

In the killing fields of India in '84
We were massacred for being different
We were massacred for asking for our rights
We had our places of worship destroyed
All this in the killing fields of India.

In the killing fields of India in '84
Gandhi was killed for her crimes against us
She went to hell-but hell came to us in the shadow of the Congress
Hell came to us in the killing fields of India.

In the killing fields of India in '84
We were to be taught a lesson for being different. To be singled out and massacred.
While the world looked on-the killings went on
In the killing fields of India.

In the killing fields of India in '84
Be it in the streets of Delhi or Calcutta
Be it in the streets of Punjab
Be it in our own homes-the plan was the same
To wipe us out in the killing fields of India.

In the killing fields of India in '84
The authorities, the army, the police and officials did their utmost
In our killing-in the killing fields
Be it our sisters, be it our daughters, be it our mothers
All were shown no mercy
In the killing fields of India.

The kara and the turban were hunted down
They surrounded us, they beat us and they burnt us alive and
These devils from hell
They danced in joy around the smell of our burning flesh-
All this in the killing fields of India

We were hunted down for four days and four nights
Whilst the evil Gandhi was being cremated
We were being burnt alive, we were being raped
No mercy was shown to us in
The killing fields of India.

In the killing fields of India in '84
We were betrayed after giving so much,
to so many-in a land we thought was ours
It was our day of reckoning
It was our betrayal
In the killing fields of India.

In the killing fields of India in '84
We were shot at point blank range-
With our hands tied behind our backs
No one cared how we died
No one cared how many of us died
In the killing fields of India.

In the killing fields of India in '84
they wanted to wipe us out
We have survived many holocausts in the past
But the killing fields of India in '84
Have taught us to seek self-determination
Through the destruction of India and its killing fields
Will be born a new state
Our State

--
WHY TRY TO FIT IN? YOU WERE BORN TO STAND OUT!

We Will Never Forget

For a couple of years, I have been thinking about this twenty-fifth anniversary of the carnage of 1984. I have been fervently hoping that the Sikh community would wake up the world about the atrocities of that year in India, in fact the atrocities that seem to be a part of everyday life in that country, that legal fiction doomed ultimately to failure. I have been hoping we could awaken the masses of oppressed people especially in India and stir them to action. I have been looking forward to the chance of using this year as a springboard to accomplishment, a big step toward the establishment of our homeland from the rubble of what was India.

And I still am.

Imagine what we could accomplish if the various oppressed groups who cope with discrimination on a daily basis - the Dalits, the Tribals, the Christians, the Muslims, the Hindu Widows...I could go on and on...and, of course us Sikhs - imagine that we all worked together to end the injustices meted out to us by the corrupt Republic of India. It almost boggles the mind. India will disintegrate one day. The only question is, how will Bharata Mata fall? Will it be peaceful, as in the old Soviet Union, or will it be by horrible bloodshed as it was at the time of Partition when the Raj was divided and our Punjab was torn into two bloody pieces? Time will tell.

What I had not anticipated was the emotional toll that reliving, on a daily basis, the horrors of that time would have on me. Those events are so much a part of me, with me 24/7/365 that it is rather like being a woman; I am a woman, of course, it's always there, always a part of who I am, but I don't sit thinking about it all the time. I don't relive the oppression wrought upon my sisters throughout the ages, the oppression that continues even now, in both obvious and subtle ways. In the same way, I generally don't sit and relive all that happened. It's just there. Now, however, it has become very immediate to me. Looking at the old pictures, the candidacies of Tytler and Sajjan Kumar, remaking the pictures of the burnt Akal Takht, over and over, is taking its toll on me. I hope it doesn't show too much. And I most fervently hope that it will prove worth the effort and pain involved. I have great faith that the efforts of all of us survivors who have taken this burden on ourselves will be richly rewarded.

And now, yet another petition, an important one from the good folks at the 1984 Accountability Project. This one calls for a full international investigation into the role of that rascal rajiv gandhi as well as the culpability of the congress party in the slaughter of Sikhs in November 1984. If you care about the sacrifices of our shaheeds at that time, as well as the well-being of us survivors, please take a minute to sign this petition.

SOLIDARITY FOREVER!

http://www.nov1984.org/

The November 1984 Accountability Project seeks to obtain justice for the thousands of innocent Sikhs who were murdered, tortured, raped, beaten, and burnt alive during the massacres in Delhi and throughout India in November, 1984. During this carnage, Sikhs were burnt alive with petroleum in the streets, women were gang raped, some by police, and infants were put to death. To date, the people responsible for organizing this carnage are yet to be brought to justice.

We seek and an independent international inquiry into former Indian Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi's and the Congress party's role in planning, organizing and executing the November 1984 anti-Sikh pogroms in New Delhi, India and the immediate removal of Rajiv Gandhi's name from all public monuments, airports, roads, stadia, parks, sports awards, and professorships.

Join the quest for justice. Sign the petition http://www.nov1984.org/petition/#Signdemanding justice for the victims of the 1984 pogroms.
November 1984 Accountability Petition Demands

• An independent international inquiry into Rajiv Gandhi's and the Congress party's role in planning, organizing and executing the November 1984 anti-Sikh pogroms in New Delhi, India and
• The immediate removal of the name of former Indian Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi, from all public monuments, airports, roads, stadia, parks, sports awards, and professorships.
  

"The blackened, stiff corpses lay against the walls… with their eyes open. The burn victims were Sikhs, identifiable only by the steel bracelets worn on their wrists."
(Washington Post, Nov. 3, 1984)

"Like being a Jew in Czarist Russia or Nazi Germany" Violence makes Sikhs fear for their future in India."
(New York Times, Nov. 11, 1984)

"When the history is written of the horrors that followed the assassination of Indira Gandhi, the 32nd block of Trilokpuri Colony will be remembered as a place where civilization disintegrated."
(LA Times, Nov. 6, 1984)

******************************

Petition

To: Justice Navanetham Pillay, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
Cc: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, India
Cc: President Barack Obama, United States of America
Cc: President Hans-Gert Pöttering, European Parliament
Cc: Louis Moreno-Ocampo, Prosecutor, International Criminal Court

Respected Justice Pillay,

We, the undersigned, call for

An independent international inquiry into Rajiv Gandhi's and the Congress party's role in planning, organizing and executing the November 1984 anti-Sikh pogroms in New Delhi, India

and the immediate removal of the name of former Indian Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi, from all public monuments, airports, roads, stadia, parks, sports awards, and professorships.

By conservative estimates, 4000 Sikhs were killed in the first week of November 1984 on the streets of India's capital. Organized armed groups, equipped with lists of Sikh households, overtook the city, as a curfew was imposed, and law enforcement was either absent or facilitated the atrocities.

These organized massacres followed the assassination of Rajiv's mother, the Indian Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, by two Sikh bodyguards, who were avenging the attacks against Sikh shrines in June, 1984. On June 4, 1984, a major Sikh religious holiday, Indira Gandhi had ordered Indian troops to storm the holiest of the Sikh gurdwaras, Darbar Sahib, and 31 other gurdwaras, resulting in the brutal deaths of thousands of innocent pilgrims.

Rajiv had been sworn-in as the new Prime Minister immediately after the assassination, and very soon thereafter, the carnage against Sikhs ensued. For four days following this, Sikhs were killed with complete impunity in New Delhi under express orders from many prominent politicians such as H.K.L. Bhagat, Sajjan Kumar, and Jagdish Tytler – of Rajiv's political party.

In the April 26^th, 2009 edition of the Indian Express, an eye-witness quotes Tytler as telling a crowd, "I had assured you that you kill Sikhs and nothing will happen to you. I had given a promise to the Centre. Despite this, by killing least number of Sikhs, you have lowered my prestige." This on-the-spot involvement of high ranking party members, and inaction and worse on the part of the police, complete with names of perpetrators in many cases, was first documented by a group of human rights activists (all non-Sikh) in the report, "Who Are the Guilty?," within a month of this massacre.

Shortly afterwards, Rajiv commented at a rally, "But, when a mighty tree falls, it is only natural that the earth around it does shake a little." Not only that, Rajiv promoted politician Bhagat to the rank of cabinet minister, and rewarded Tytler with an appointment as minister of state. The assiduous efforts made ever since then by the Indian state to shield the guilty of 1984 are now fully documented in the book, "When a Tree Shook Delhi," by Manoj Mitta and H. S. Phoolka. We submit that such an extensive and intensive cover-up, which still continues as the Indian Express article of April 26, 2009 cited above clearly shows, would have been impossible to initiate, and sustain for so long, unless Rajiv was deeply implicated in these mass murders from the very beginning.

International criminal law recognizes the primacy of holding the one with the maximum responsibility most guilty in order to break cycles of impunity. "Command responsibility" holds a superior legally responsible for human rights violations by subordinates if the official knew or should have known about these violations but failed to prevent them or punish those who committed them.

We therefore call for an inquiry into Rajiv Gandhi and the Congress party's responsibility for the November 1984 massacres. The dozen odd kangaroo courts and commissions set up by the Indian government over the past 25 years have served to do nothing more than insult the intelligence of the Sikh community in general, and the surviving relatives of the victims in particular, who still continue to suffer due to the carnage that was unleashed on the streets of Delhi. This partisan record of Indian courts and the inaction by the government in the past 25 years necessitates that such an inquiry be held by an international body, one that is acceptable to Sikhs world-wide.

We also call for the immediate removal of Rajiv Gandhi's name from all buildings, awards, monuments, etc. This rampant and tasteless glorification of a very doubtful political character is a constant daily re-victimization of the Sikhs, and a reminder to them of the justice that has almost totally eluded them so far.

That "history repeats itself" couldn't be more true than in the parallel between the Sikh massacres of 1984 under the Congress party leadership and the Muslim massacres of 2002 under the Bhartiya Janta Party leadership. Narendra Modi should similarly be indicted and tried for his instigation and planning of ostensible pogroms that left thousands of Muslims dead. We call for justice to all, regardless of which Indian party is in control, and regardless of the faith or class of the victims.

Rajiv Gandhi's heirs are deluding themselves if they think that they can make the Sikhs forget the facts about 1984. At the very least, they should have desisted from naming even small-town parks in the Punjab after him. Unless their objective in so doing was not to let the Sikhs forget 1984? For, they are only succeeding in constantly reminding the Sikhs of their humiliation, by confronting them, day in and day out, with the name, and often the picture, of the person whom the Sikhs hold the most culpable.

MUMBAI - AND DELHI

I have not written about the terrorist attack on Mumbai for a very good - to me - reason. Fire has been coming out of my mouth and smoke from my ear, from absolutely furious anger. One aspect of this whole affair, as an aspect vital to us Sikhs, seems to have been completely overlooked - or purposely ignored.

I have not trusted myself to say anything reasonable or lucid. So I have been silent.

Now someone else has written what I would like to say. In fact two people have. First, the Sikhtoon, then a link to the blogpost.

I am a regular reader of Sidhusaaheb's blog, I, Me, Myself. He has a incisive political sense (sometimes at odds with my ideas, though), a great sense of humour, and he's a Sikh. What more could anyone ask for?

To read his post, please go to my post about Mumbai on sometimes - 2. It's worth the click, I promise.