Call of Lok Raj Sangathan, Dharna at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi, November 1, 2013, 11 AM
Let us not give up until the guilty of 1984 genocide are punished!
In 1984, right in the capital of our country, organized mobs led by the top leaders of the ruling Congress party, most savagely killed an estimated 7000 innocent people of the Sikh faith in the wake of the death of Indira Gandhi. They carried out mass kidnapping and rape of hundreds of women and girls. Enquiry Commission have pointed out that the police from top to bottom, with very few honourable exceptions, disarmed the Sikhs, and actively encouraged the massacre. The then Prime Minister of India, late Rajiv Gandhi, justified this genocide at a mass rally in Delhi two weeks later, saying "When a big tree falls, the earth shakes".
In these 29 years since that genocide was committed, none of the guilty who planned and organized it at the highest level has been punished by the judicial system. Justice has been denied and all investigations seem to have been “fixed” to make sure that the truth does not come out. The Home Minister in the Rajiv Gandhi government in 1984, Shri Narasimha Rao, was the Prime Minister in 1992 -1993 when the Babri Masjid was demolished, followed by large scale communal massacres in Surat, Mumbai and other places. BJP was in power in UP at that time, and it was in command in Gujarat during the anti-Muslim genocide of 2002.
In the past 30 years alone we have witnessed repeated genocides in Assam, from Nellie in 1983 to the massacre in 2012 in Kokrajhar. There has been sectarian violence against Tamils in Bengaluru and against Christian tribals in Orissa. The recent organized communal violence in Muzzafarnagar in UP, in which hundreds of people were killed, is a testimony to the fact that organizing communal violence continues to be a preferred weapon in the hands of the ruling elite to keep the people divided and use them as vote banks by playing on their fears during elections.
In the run-up to the Delhi elections, the leaders of the Congress Party are accusing those of the BJP of organizing the demolition of the Babri Masjid, and the Gujarat genocide, while the leaders of the BJP are in-turn accusing the Congress of organizing the genocide of Sikhs. Both are telling the horrible truth! But they are using this truth not with the aim of punishing the guilty, but to threaten the people with more genocides depending on who comes to power.
Lok Raj Sangathan has been consistently opposing all forms of state terrorism and communal persecution, demanding severe punishment for those guilty of organizing sectarian violence for narrow partisan ends, as well for those guilty of dereliction of responsibility to protect people’s lives. We have always believed that if the guilty of 1984 had been punished promptly and severely, it would have acted as a strong deterrent against subsequent genocides.
It is also our firm belief that increasing criminalization of politics in our country stems from the fact that the present system marginalizes people from political power. This is why Lok Raj Sangathan has been persistently fighting for a new political system and process wherein people will be empowered, political parties will be required to enable the people to rule; and parties that commit crimes against the people will have no space to exist.
On this solemn day, in remembrance of the victims of the 1984 genocide, Lok Raj Sangathan calls on all justice-loving people, organizations and political forces to continue their struggle to ensure punishment for those guilty of organising communal and sectarian violence, and for those in responsible command positions who participated in it or allowed it to happen. Let us advance our struggle for justice with the perspective of creating a new political process, where the people will be empowered to set the agenda and run the affairs of society.
For further information, contact: 9818575435, email:lokrajsangathan@yahoo.com, www.lokraj.org.in
