How, why Dr Singh rewrote a lot of the past this week

How easy or how difficult it was for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to apologise to the Sikh community and to the nation this week for the 19...

3 min readNew DelhiAug 14, 2005 12:00 AM IST First published on: Aug 14, 2005 at 02:03 AM IST

How easy or how difficult it was for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to apologise to the Sikh community and to the nation this week for the 1984 massacre may never be known.

But one thing is clear: Records from that time show how Singh’s Thursday speech forces the Congress and his government to look at the riots in a way they have never done in 21 years.

For, on January 17, 1985, two days after Parliament met for the first time following the massacre—the Rajiv Gandhi government in place—both Houses passed a resolution condoling the death of Indira Gandhi. Not one word was for spoken for the victims of the massacre.

Not just that, the next day, both Houses observed a one-minute silence as a mark of respect for the victims of the Union Carbide disaster in Bhopal. No such symbolism for the Sikh riot victims.

To get a sense of how Singh has broken from his party’s tradition, consider how the party and the government reacted to the massacre after the landslide victory in the Lok Sabha elections:

8226; December 31, 1984: Rajiv government sworn in; Jagdish Tytler became a minister for the first time and H K L Bhagat promoted to Cabinet rank. By then, several citizens’ groups had named these two for their alleged complicity in the riots.

8226; January 15, 1985: Parliament meets first time since carnage. Manmohan Singh takes over as Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission.

8226; January 17: Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha pass identical resolutions condoling the death of Indira Gandhi. No mention of the carnage.

8226; Same day, President Giani Zail Singh addresses the two Houses and devotes one para on the incident. Praising the government’s role in tackling the attacks, he made no mention of Sikhs being targeted: ‘‘Disturbances and violence in Delhi and in some other parts of the country following Indira Gandhi’s assassination resulted in loss of life and property. Stern and effective action was taken to control the situation within the shortest possible time. My Government extends them deepest sympathy to the families which suffered during the violence. Rehabilitation is a priority task..’’

8226; January 18: Members in both Houses stood in silence as a mark of respect to the memory of those killed in the Bhopal gas tragedy of December 1984. Again, no mention of Sikh riot victims.

Having reaped an electoral harvest in the Lok Sabha polls of December 1984, the Rajiv Gandhi government remained insensitive to growing public outrage. And it was only after the Assembly elections in March 1985 that the Centre accepted the demand for a judicial inquiry into the carnage to pave the way for the Punjab accord. Ironically, that one-man commission, headed by Justic Ranganath Misra, gave the party and even its local leaders a complete clean chit.

4000 death toll: It’s now official

	nbsp;	8226; Manmohan Singh said in his Rajya Sabha speech that 4,000 people were killed. 8226; Official toll, as per Rajiv Gandhi Government’s figures: 2,733. This was on basis of a survey in August 1987 by then Home Secretary of Delhi Administration, R K Ahooja. 8226; First figure given out by the Government by then Home Minister P V Narasimha Rao to a parliamentary committee: only 800. 8226; Estimate by Citizens’ Justice Committee before the Misra Commission: 3,949. This has now got the PM’s stamp of approval	nbsp;