Chandigarh: Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh has once again attempted to shield his political masters in relation to 1984 Sikh genocide. In a written statement issued today (copy available with Sikh Siyasat News), Capt. Amarinder Singh maintained that the Gandhi family was innocent in relation to 1984 killings of the Sikhs. He further maintained that in 1984 Sikh genocide (Amarinder Singh used term “1984 riot”) “only a few individual Congress leaders were involved without any support, covert or overt, by the party leadership”.
Amarinder Singh’s Statement – A Document of Denial:
According to genocide studies scholar Gregory H. Stanton, every genocide is followed by denial. Stanton has termed denial as eighth stage of genocide which, he says, may continue indefinitely. In his research titled “Eight Stages of Genocide”, he has illustrated that every genocide is followed by denial, and the perpetrators and their propagandist may adopt numerous tactics to forward their policy of denial.
Punjab CM Capt. Amarinder Singh [File Photo]
Today’s statement by Capt. Amarinder Singh is yet another document of denial as in this statement he was denied the fact of 1984 Sikh genocide. He has used absolutely improper term of “1984 riots” to refer to the brutal massacres of Sikhs throughout Indian subcontinent. Besides using term “1984 riots” in first paragraph of the statement (reproduced above) Amarinder Singh did not make any direct reference to the events of the 1984 Sikh genocide in whole statement which means he has given marginal space to the primary issue of 1984 Sikh Genocide.
Acts of “Individuals” or the “Crimes Against Humanity … engineered by political actors with the assistance of the law enforcement agencies”:
In this statement Punjab CM claims that the crimes in November 1984 were committed by some “individuals” who acted on their own as they were criminal, and criminals do not hold any political affiliation, and criminal do not belong to any religion.
“Criminals have no religion and are not affiliated to any political party”, said Amarinder Singh in this statement.
Notably, this is issued just three days after the decision of Delhi High Court in Sajjan Kumar’s Case in which the Indian court has admitted to the facts that the crimes committed in 1984 against were organised mass crimes.
“The Court would like to note that cases of the present kind are indeed extraordinary and require a different approach to be adopted by the Courts. The mass killings of Sikhs between 1st and 4th November 1984 in Delhi and the rest of the country, engineered by political actors with the assistance of the law enforcement agencies, answer the description of “crimes against humanity”, the judgement reads.
On the one hand the High Court is making a special mention that the 1984 genocidal violence against the Sikhs was “extraordinary” and it was “engineered by political actors with the assistance of the law enforcement agencies”, and it “answer the description of “crimes against humanity””; and on the other hand Amarinder Singh is saying that it was “riot” and were acts done by “individuals” having no political affiliation. Whether Amarinder Singh pretending that he was not aware of the judgement of the Delhi High Court, or he wants to say that the High Court is not able to see what Amarinder Singh sees, or he is knowingly making wrongful assertions? Given the position of Amarinder Singh the it is safe to say that the later assumption is applicable in this case.
FULL TEXT of AMARINDER SINGH’s STATEMENT:
Full text of written statement of Punjab CM Amarinder Singh is shared below for the information of readers of the Sikh Siyasat News (SSN): –
CHIEF MINISTER’S OFFICE, PUNJAB
CAPT AMARINDER RIDICULES SUKHBIR FOR TRYING TO DRAG RAHUL, GANDHI FAMILY INTO 1984 RIOTS CASE
· SAYS NEITHER CONGRESS NOR GANDHIS HAD ANY ROLE IN THE RIOTS & INDIVIDUAL PARTY LEADERS INVOLVED WOULD BE PUNISHED
Chandigarh, December 20: Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh has lashed out at Sukhbir Singh Badal for trying once again to drag the innocent Gandhi family into the 1984 riots case, in which only a few individual Congress leaders were involved without any support, covert or overt, by the party leadership.
Ridiculing the SAD president’s frustrated attempts to undermine Rahul Gandhi’s leadership, under which the Congress has recently swept to victory in the Assembly elections in three major states, the Chief Minister said it was evident that Sukhbir was desperately trying to grab at straws to fight back into the electoral game ahead of the parliamentary polls.
Lambasting the Akalis for exploiting religious sensitivities to garner electoral support, Captain Amarinder Singh asked Sukhbir to stop politicizing such a sensitive issue. Misusing religion for political gains will not yield any dividends for the SAD and would backfire on the party in the Lok Sabha elections, as it had done in the 2017 Assembly polls.
The Chief Minister reiterated his stance that while individuals who had any role to play in spreading mayhem against the Sikh community deserved to be punished and should pay for their crimes, it was irrational to try and drag the Congress party as a whole, or the Gandhis, into the case. Rahul was a school-going child and Rajeev Gandhi was away in West Bengal at the time of the violence, Captain Amarinder Singh pointed out, lambasting Sukhbir for trying to exploit the religious sentiments of the Sikhs for petty political gains.
Criminals have no religion and are not affiliated to any political party, said Captain Amarinder Singh, adding that all those responsible for perpetrating the violence in the wake of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s assassination will pay for their crimes. The courts have already set a precedent in the case by sentencing Sajjan Kumar to life term, said the Chief Minister, expressing the confidence that others guilty of the heinous crime will also pay in the same coin.
If Sukhbir was really concerned about punishing the guilty, why had he never raised the issue of the 22 RSS/BJP workers named in the FIR registered in the case at Tughlaq Road police station, questioned the Chief Minister, adding that the entire hullaballoo being raised by the Akalis was nothing but politically motivated agenda to divert attention from their own wrongdoings and misdeeds. The Congress, including Rahul Gandhi, had never raised this issue as they believed that criminals had no political ideologies or affiliations, said the Chief Minister.
The Chief Minister pointed out that he had been consistently maintaining that Sajjan Kumar was named by the victims whom he had visited in the refugee camps following the riots. The names of other Congress leaders whom Sukhbir was trying persistently to drag into the case were never mentioned, said Captain Amarinder Singh.
It was up to the judiciary, however, to nail and award punishment to the culprits, and neither Sukhbir nor any other Akali or BJP leader had any locus standii in the matter, said the Chief Minister, asking the SAD president to stop trying to take political mileage out of the issue ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
Captain Amarinder Singh said every case against any individual involved in the rioting would be taken to its logical conclusion by the courts, which did not need Sukhbir’s guidance in the matter.