The leg­endary hu­man rights cham­pion Jus­tice Ajit Singh Bains passed away on 11 Feb­ru­ary 2022, two months short of 100 years of ex­em­plary life. Through­out his lifes­pan, es­pe­cially post-re­tire­ment from be­ing a judge of the Pun­jab and Haryana High Court, he de­fended hu­man rights in word and deed. Founder of the Pun­jab Hu­man Rights Or­gan­i­sa­tion with other se­nior cit­i­zen ac­tivists, he chron­i­cled the dif­fi­cult times post-June 1984, much to the cha­grin of the In­dian state.  The can­did ob­ser­va­tions of Jus­tice Bains are rel­e­vant even to­day. Many sound as if this piece was writ­ten hours be­fore his demise. WSN pre­sents the first of his ar­ti­cles that he fear­lessly wrote call­ing a spade a spade.

THE IN­VA­SION OF THE GOLDEN TEM­PLE COM­PLEX IN JUNE 1984  by the In­dian Armed Forces alien­ated the peo­ple of Sikh faith be­yond re­pair. The day cho­sen for the at­tack was not with­out sig­nif­i­cance. It was the mar­tyr­dom of Guru Ai­jun Dev Ji, the fifth Guru and builder of the Golden Tem­ple.

If the idea be­hind the at­tack was to en­rage the whole com­mu­nity, it was metic­u­lously planned and ex­e­cuted to per­fec­tion for the ef­fect. It ac­tu­ally en­raged and an­gered the Sikhs to the point of alien­ation. It was the fifth Guru who com­piled the Guru Granth Sahib -the holy Sikh scrip­ture and en­sured its con­tin­u­ous recita­tion in the Golden Tem­ple.

Je­hangir had as­sumed in 1605 that the killing of Guru Ar­jun Dev will fin­ish the Sikh faith, but it turned out oth­er­wise. Guru Har­gob­ind then turned saints into sol­diers and ac­cepted the chal­lenge of the op­pres­sive rulers by es­tab­lish­ing Akal Takht op­po­site Dar­bar Sahib, an in­sti­tu­tion of de­fi­ance against state power. He fought many bat­tles and was even im­pris­oned in the Gwalior Fort. All de­ci­sions to fight against an un­just state were used to be taken at ‘Akal Takht’ dur­ing the 18th cen­tury till the Mughal op­pres­sion lasted.

Every gov­ern­ment there­after tried its best to in­ter­fere in the af­fairs of the Akal Takht and, at times, even oc­cu­pied the com­plex. But each time, the state failed to fin­ish the Sikh faith. Massa Ran­gar, who oc­cu­pied the Golden Tem­ple dur­ing 1730, was be­headed by Bhai Sukha Singh and Bhai Mehtab Singh and the tem­ple was lib­er­ated.

Ahmed Shah Ab­dali, the in­vader from Afghanistan also ran­sacked Dar­bar Sahib. He was re­sisted by Baba Gur­bax Singh and his 40 com­rades, who laid down their lives for its de­fence. Ahmed Shah Ab­dali suc­cumbed to in­juries suf­fered by him at the Dar­bar Sahib and could not visit In­dia again. Ahmed Shah was asked by a Sufi Faqir as to why he de­stroyed a place of re­li­gion. His re­ply is sig­nif­i­cant. ‘The Sikhs hide in the tem­ple and they get in­spi­ra­tion from it.”

The ear­lier at­tacks were launched by the for­eign in­vaders, but the in­va­sion in 1984 was by In­di­a’s own rulers. It is rare in any coun­try to use the might of its armed forces for hurt­ing a whole com­mu­nity by de­mol­ish­ing its most vis­i­ble sym­bol of ho­li­ness – which sears the soul.

Cu­ri­ously enough sim­i­lar rea­sons were ad­vanced in the White Pa­per pub­lished by the Gov­ern­ment of In­dia, jus­ti­fy­ing Op­er­a­tion Blues­tar. Trag­i­cally, how­ever, Blues­tar was the blood­i­est of all pre­vi­ous as­saults on the Golden Tem­ple. The ear­lier at­tacks were launched by the for­eign in­vaders, but the in­va­sion in 1984 was by In­di­a’s own rulers. It is rare in any coun­try to use the might of its armed forces for hurt­ing a whole com­mu­nity by de­mol­ish­ing its most vis­i­ble sym­bol of ho­li­ness – which sears the soul.

In the process, hun­dreds, maybe thou­sands were mas­sa­cred. Sant Jar­nail Singh Bhin­dran­wale, Gen­eral Shabeg Singh and Bhai Am­rik Singh, with their re­sis­tance group, re-en­acted the fight put up by Baba Gur­bax Singh and his com­pan­ions. Ex­cept for three lead­ers, the dead bod­ies of the rest of the San­gat were not iden­ti­fied. They were thus not given to their rel­a­tives. The in­jured were not taken to hos­pi­tal and were left to die. The Sikh Ref­er­ence Li­brary, Tosha Khana -the Sikh Re­serves, Mu­seum and SGPC of­fices were de­stroyed.

It is now ad­mit­ted by the Gen­er­als who have writ­ten their mem­oirs that tanks were in fact used, which was any­way pub­lic knowl­edge in those days. Other his­tor­i­cal Sikh Gu­rud­waras were also in­vaded si­mul­ta­ne­ously like that at Muk­t­sar, Anand­pur Sahib and Dukh Ni­varan Sahib, Pa­tiala. The whole of Pun­jab was put un­der siege and cur­few, in a mas­sive op­er­a­tion to ter­ror­ize the pop­u­la­tion.

Op­er­a­tion Blues­tar thus an­gered and hurt the whole Sikh com­mu­nity wher­ever its mem­bers were. Con­trast it with the Jal­lian­wala Bagh mas­sacre in 1919.

Jodh­pur be­came, for the Sikhs, a name that in­vokes in­jus­tice rather than a serene place of beauty in the desert. Such ter­ror en­sured that those who can will try to es­cape. Thus many es­caped to for­eign coun­tries to save their lives.

This ar­ti­cle was pub­lished in The Sikh Re­view in Au­gust 1995. This ar­ti­cle was re­trieved from the archives of the Pan­jab Dig­i­tal Li­brary.

There, the bod­ies were iden­ti­fied and handed over to their rel­a­tives. The Hunter Com­mis­sion of En­quiry was ap­pointed and com­pen­sa­tion awarded to the in­jured and the next of kin of those killed af­ter the com­mis­sion held that fir­ing was not jus­ti­fied. Noth­ing of this kind hap­pened for the at­tack on Dar­bar Sahib.

And this was our own gov­ern­ment! That was a for­eign gov­ern­ment. The bul­let marks at Jal­lian­wala Bagh are still in­tact and can be seen. The marks of tank shells, ma­chine guns and mor­tar on the Golden Tem­ple and the Akal Takht have how­ever been oblit­er­ated by the elected body of the Sikhs. The scars linger in the mem­ory of this gen­er­a­tion only and may be­come a fairy tale for the com­ing gen­er­a­tions.

Thou­sands of Sikhs were ar­rested, tor­tured and sent to jails. Jodh­pur be­came, for the Sikhs, a name that in­vokes in­jus­tice rather than a serene place of beauty in the desert. Such ter­ror en­sured that those who can will try to es­cape. Thus many es­caped to for­eign coun­tries to save their lives.

It was ev­i­dent from the be­gin­ning that it was an op­er­a­tion that had back­fired. But noth­ing was done to heal the wounds of 1984. It was fol­lowed by a sin­is­ter op­er­a­tion co­de­named “Woodrose” – a sys­tem­atic cam­paign to kill and tor­ture all Am­rit­d­hari Sikhs.

But there are two sets of laws, one for the In­di­ans and an­other for the Sikhs.

1984 also saw the end of In­dira Gandhi and the fear­ful state-spon­sored break­down of law and or­der. It was noth­ing short of a geno­cide of the Sikhs. No case, no FIR, to trial and no pun­ish­ment for the guilty. Mur­der and may­hem have been doc­u­mented by hu­man rights bod­ies, which ought to have been done by the po­lice. But there are two sets of laws, one for the In­di­ans and an­other for the Sikhs.

Ra­jiv Gandhi, as it turned out, was merely a son rather than a Prime Min­is­ter. The pre­sent Prime Min­is­ter was the Home Min­is­ter in No­vem­ber 1984 when Sikhs were mas­sa­cred all over North In­dia. The door to jus­tice is thus closed for the Sikhs even to­day. Every year the Sikhs re­mem­ber the dead of 1984. Their faith is shaken that they are the right­ful cit­i­zens of this coun­try where the Con­sti­tu­tion promises each cit­i­zen -equal­ity of jus­tice.

In re­spect of Pun­jab, cen­tral gov­ern­ment is be­hav­ing like the old colo­nial em­pire. For them, the only prob­lem is to main­tain or­der with the help of brute force. Or­der, in ac­cor­dance with law and jus­tice, they do not un­der­stand. Be it Babari Masjid or Chrar Sharief, or North East, the law has not been up­held. The only re­sponse is force. Every po­lit­i­cal de­mand has been re­duced into a prob­lem of law and or­der, to which re­sponse is force, yet more force.

For Sikhs, Golden Tem­ple is not merely a place of wor­ship. It is also a place of re­sis­tance against in­jus­tice and tyranny. It is not merely a con­struc­tion of bricks and mor­tar but a shrine hal­lowed by the blood of the mar­tyrs.

There was no need for Op­er­a­tion Blues­tar. If mil­i­tants were hid­ing there, surely there were more hon­est and wiser ways of catch­ing them. A prob­lem has been cre­ated in the heart and soul of Pun­jab which per­haps the next gen­er­a­tion can scarcely com­pre­hend.

For Sikhs, Golden Tem­ple is not merely a place of wor­ship. It is also a place of re­sis­tance against in­jus­tice and tyranny. It is not merely a con­struc­tion of bricks and mor­tar but a shrine hal­lowed by the blood of the mar­tyrs.

Golden Tem­ple ex­ists in de­fi­ance of all earthly kings, be it Je­hangir, Au­rangzeb, Ahmed Shah, In­dira Gandhi or Narasimha Rao.

Jus­tice Ajit Singh Bains passed away on 11 Feb­ru­ary 2022. He was a hu­man rights cham­pion through­out his life.