Remarkable! That's the least one can say about Dr Manmohan Singh's espousal of the wisdom of 'forgive and forget' in connection with the anti-Sikh riots of 1984 which saw over 3,000 people killed in Delhi alone. Speaking at Toronto, after paying homage to the victims of 1985 Kanishka bombing, the PM, while admitting that the anti-Sikh riots should have never happened, advised the Sikh community to "move on"! Dr. Singh's counsel has caused great consternation amongst people and groups who have been crusading for justice for the victims of the 1984 carnage. Wonder where to Dr Singh is asking the victims to move on to? Move on from the hope that the culprits will ever be brought to book? Move on from the fact that 26 years have lapsed and not a single accused has been punished? Move on from the faith that justice, as in the case of Bhopal victims, will ever rise above party politics?
Does the PM realise that he is inadvertently using time as a ruse to deny justice to the Sikhs and in the process giving his political opponents enough reasons to use the "move on" refrain to justify the man slaughter in Godhra? Does it occur to the PM that he is leaving the people of his country with festering sores of rage and hatered forevermore? Does it strike him that in doing so he is creating new communal fissures in an already fragmented society thereby providing a new playing field to politics of religion and region? Why is the PM trivialising the pain and loss of the victims of 1984 by asking them to compromise on justice? The answers perhaps will come - politically correct, insipid and worthless.
Going by the the PM's logic even the families of Kanishka bombing victims should have been advised to move on, but guess, the suggestion was witheld considering it was the Canadian government's head that was on the anvil.
Strange country and stranger still it's leaders who value so little that which means so much to their people. However,it's indeed the time to move on Dr Singh from being the representative of a political party to being the PM of the people of India.
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It is very strange to hear such a comment from the leader. Since there does not appear to have been much noise about it (at least in the papers) maybe the context was different.
ReplyDeleteThe noise depends on the page on which it was published. Often times such comments are buried on the inside pages. There has been very strong reaction from prominent members of the Sikh community, including KPS Gill. Anyhow, the fact remains that so far the 1984 riots have never seen single indictment despite the fact that the brutality perpetrated against the Sikhs, following Mrs Gandhi's assassination, was unprecedented.
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