Is Rahul Riding the Khalistan Tiger?

By: Balbir Punj

Has the irrepressible Rahul Gandhi stoked the very fire that consumed his grandmother, Indira Gandhi, on October 31, 1984, singed the country for decades and turned Punjab into a petri- dish of terror?  Mrs Gandhi uncorked the genie of Sikh radicalism in the 1980s and couldn't bottle it back. She engineered the rise of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, pushed Punjab into the vortex of violence, ordered Army action in the Golden Temple to clear the mess she had created, hurt the Sikh psyche irretrievably in the process and finally paid with life for her misadventure. Isn't Congress leader Rahul Gandhi following in her footsteps?

Addressing a meeting in Washington, D.C., during his three-day US visit, Rahul said, “The fight is about whether he as a Sikh is going to be allowed to wear his turban in India and he, as a Sikh is going to be allowed to wear a Kada in India, or he as a Sikh is going to be able to go to a Gurudwara, that’s what the fight is about and not just for him, for all religion.”

Rahul’s remarks bear no relation to the reality in India. He has issued such an untenable statement desperately to further his political agenda. The idea is to tarnish PM Modi’s image in the global arena and to garner support for himself from all those disparate sections who hate India.

To what extent Rahul’s irresponsible remarks would serve his political ends is difficult to guess, but two consequences would undoubtedly follow. One, his rants would be used by the anti-India pack, including Pakistan ’s ISI and its proxies, to besmirch India’s image globally. It would also provide impetus to the Khalistan movement, which has little base within the country.

It's in this context one has to see the statement made by the US-Canada-based Khalistani leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun. The Khalistan leader said, “… Rahul Gandhi justified SFJ's global Khalistan Referendum campaign.…Rahul's statement on “existential threat to Sikhs in India” is not only bold and pioneering but is also firmly grounded in the factual history of what Sikhs have been facing under successive regimes in India since 1947 and also corroborates SFJ's stance on the justification for Punjab Independence Referendum to establish Sikh homeland Khalistan.”

Pannun is the poster boy of the Khalistan movement, particularly in the USA and Canada. He co-founded the banned outfit Sikhs for Justice (SFJ). He has been declared a terrorist in India and is charged with sedition and secessionism. He happily announces that Rahul’s statement resonates with his Khalistan agenda.

To repeat an adage, ‘Those who don’t learn history are doomed to repeat it.’ The tragic assassination of Mrs. Indira Gandhi was the culmination of a disastrous chain of events she had set in motion to achieve her petty political ends. This sordid story is convincingly narrated by G.B.S Sandhu in his deftly researched work, “The Khalistan Conspiracy: A Former R&AW Officer Unravels The Path To 1984”.

Sidhu, a former police officer, is the son-in-law of Sardar Swaran Singh, a veteran Congress leader. He is an insider and, thus, a credible witness to the conspiracy that set Punjab ablaze. He was a Special Secretary of India’s external intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW).

According to him, the genesis of the Khalistan problem can be traced to 1978, “when former chief minister of Punjab Giani Zail Singh advised Indira Gandhi’s younger son, Sanjay Gandhi, that the Akali Dal-Janata Party coalition government in Punjab could be destabilised if the moderate policies followed by the senior Akali Dal leadership ...  could come under constant attack by a suitable Sikh Sant... the moderate Akali leaders would be forced to adopt an uncompromising stance on issues of Sikh interest to retain their following”.

Sidhu further reveals, “With Indira Gandhi’s approval, Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale of Gurudwara Darshan Prakash at Chowk Mehta was chosen as the sant who would do their bidding in Punjab ”.

What led to the sudden spurt in pro-Khalistan activities in Punjab and abroad only after the Congress came to power in January 1980? Siddhu answers, “The real reason was a conscious decision taken by some senior Congress leaders, soon after Indira Gandhi returned to power in January 1980, to win the next elections (due before January 1985) by first creating and then solving the Khalistan issue through the use of Bhindranwale.”

How was Bhindranwale elevated to the status of a top Sikh leader, and by whom? According to Sidhu, “…Despite the ban imposed by the Punjab government on possession of arms, not only was Bhindranwale openly moving around in Punjab with a posse of armed men, he also visited Delhi in the first week of April 1982 at the invitation of Santokh Singh, president of the Congress -controlled DSGMC. Bhindranwale was accompanied by two busloads of his followers, who were seen in the capital with armed men sitting on the roof of a bus.”

Such brazen contempt for the system by Bhindrawale and his capacity to successfully defy the law naturally raised his stature to that of an invincible, fearless cult leader among the Sikh masses.

Do Sikhs suffer from any discrimination in India? Sikhs constitute about two per cent of India’s population but have had the highest number of offices in the Republic. India had a Sikh Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, for two consecutive terms and a Sikh President in Giani Zail Singh (1982-1987).

However, the Congress party has at times used Sikhs as pawns in its mad pursuit of power. Following Mrs Gandhi’s tragic assassination in 1984, thousands of innocent Sikhs became victims of a pogrom unleashed by marauding mobs led by some Congress leaders.

Rajiv Gandhi went as far as to justify the pogrom, saying at a public gathering: “…We know that the hearts of the Indian people were full of anger, and for a few days, people felt India was shaking. When a big tree falls, the earth shakes”. The Congress 1984 Lok Sabha poll campaign was based on the demonisation of the Sikh community.

It's a settled fact that the ogre of Khalistan was created by Indira Gandhi and her two sons— Sanjay and Rajiv, with help from Giani Zail Singh and some other side-kicks to win Punjab for Congress . Is Rahul carrying on the squalid family legacy? Isn't he riding a tiger, too?  

(The columnist is a former Chairman of the Indian Institute of Mass Communications punjbalbir@gmail.com)