This is with regards to the opinion piece by Dilpreet Singh Sahota titled “India: The world’s largest hypocrisy.” As a citizen of India, I take strong exception to the title as well as the false assertions made in the piece. It appears that the writer has used selective, one-sided perspectives of limited events to paint the world’s largest democracy in this light.

He has made Operation Blue Star out to be a pogrom initiated to target innocent people at a religious place. It was, in fact, an operation to flush out terrorists who had made the holy shrine their hideout and were committing all kinds of atrocities from within. To put the entire event in perspective, I would like to quote a recent piece by Mark Tully, who covered the tumultuous events at that time as a BBC correspondent and has also written a book on it. On the reasons why the attack itself took place, he writes:

“Back in 1984, as the BBC’s Delhi correspondent, I had been in Amritsar for the four days leading up to the Indian army’s attack. The atmosphere was tense. There had been a spate of murders by Bhindranwale’s supporters and now they were threatening to disrupt the supply of food throughout the Punjab. For six years, Bhindranwale had been telling Sikhs that they had become slaves of the majority Hindu population in India. His young supporters had mounted a reign of terror and murder in Punjab, attacking police, terrifying villagers and extorting money.”

Dilpreet in his piece gives the impression that it was a one-sided attack by an army in which innocent bystanders were killed. This is what Tully writes:

“Young Sikhs emerged from manholes, opened fire or hurled grenades, and dropped down to secret underground passages before the soldiers could return fire. Bhindranwale’s defence of the complex had been brilliantly planned by a retired Indian army officer, Shabeg Singh, who bore a grudge because he had been dismissed for alleged corruption. He was commanding the battle from the Akal Takht.”

Operation Blue Star was a regrettable finale of almost a decade of armed militancy and terrorism in Punjab. It was fueled by a few religious and political leaders who instigated a section of youth, citing nonexistent grievances to take to the gun. Punjab, in fact, was the most prosperous state in India and was regarded as the breadbasket of the country because of its high agricultural output. The price of the prolonged terrorism is still being paid by the present generation in Punjab, because it was accompanied by drug smuggling as one of the means to finance the movement. Drug addiction continues to be a huge problem among youth even today.

Dilpreet has also cited the arrest of Jagtar Singh Johal as an episode in the “systematic injustices that have targeted Sikhs in India.” In this, he has falsely made what is essentially a law and order issue into one of targeting of minorities, i.e. Sikhs. The fact is that Johal was arrested by Punjab police, which is under the Chief Minister of the state, who himself is a Sikh. He is not even from the party in power at the centre, which, as per Dilpreet, is “pro-Hindu,” but from the opposition Congress party.

The fact is that despite its diverse population, India is an inclusive democracy, and any incidents of violence along ethnic or religious lines that do take place are aberrations which are strictly and swiftly dealt with by the law and order machinery, as in any democracy. Indian inclusiveness can be seen from the fact that we have had several presidents from minority communities. Coincidentally, the president at the time of Operation Blue Star, Giani Zail Singh, was himself a Sikh. So was Dr. Manmohan Singh, who headed the government as prime minister for 10 years from 2004-14. The Indian Army has had two Sikh officers as its chief, while the Indian Air Force is even currently headed by a Sikh officer.

Dilpreet’s fears and assertions are therefore unfounded and false, and he should come travel in India to see for himself how wrong his impressions are about the country of his origin.

Signed,

Rohit Agarwal
New Delhi, India

Contact Rohit Agarwal at aggi74 ‘at’ gmail.com.