The Ontario Provincial Parliament accepting a motion moved by MPP Harinder Kaur Malhi, calling the November 1984 Sikh killings as genocide has bestirred the Sikh world and understandably upset the guilty state of India

Harinder Kaur Malhi -the Member of the Provincial Parliament of Ontario from Brampton-Springdale constituency, the daughter of the first turbaned Sikh Member Parliament of Canada -Gurbax Singh Malhi, has succeeded in correcting a huge historical wrong heaved on the Sikhs 33 years ago.  Supported by her Sikh colleagues Jagmeet Singh, Harinder Takhar and Vic Dhillon, she has achieved this with a 34-5 majority, with many of the members not present in Parliament and with the Indian diplomats and the foreign ministry of India crying foul from the rooftops.

What has she done? Ponder over this:

• Officially 2733 Sikhs killed on the streets of Delhi alone on 1-2-3 November 1984. Unofficial statistics touch  5000 and more.
• No senior police officer or politician convicted for the genocidal killings
• No non-Sikh was harassed, attacked or killed.
• Sikhs were attacked and killed in 115 towns and cities as also on buses and trains.

What would you call this? Riots? Massacre? Genocide?

The first three days of November will forever be etched in the minds of the Sikhs and whatever they may say or do will continue to haunt those who have a conscience in India. On those days, in full public play, the turban and beard on the body of male Sikhs, the dupatta as a head covering for Sikh women, became outward symbols for attack.

Men were hounded and killed in homes, offices, on the streets and in trains. Scores of women were sexually assaulted. Hundreds of homes, offices and buildings owned by Sikhs and clearly earmarked, were destroyed and property looted.  The marauding lumpens consciously chosen and trained by the Congress party and others including the BJP,  had a field day, the police and other agencies supported the killers, disarmed Sikh police personnel and those who had licensed arms, well planned physical attacks on poor Sikhs and destruction of property of rich Sikhs in posh colonies. The conspirators in the Congress government and party, identified by PUCL and PUDR in their landmark report –Who are the Guilty?, were protected and kept beyond the realm of law.

The Congress party and other parties took time to accept and recognise that something huge had happened. The Prime Minister of the day, Rajiv Gandhi, in his reaction to the killings of the Sikhs, euphemistically declared, “Once a mighty tree falls, it is only natural that the earth around it shakes.”

Ironically, two decades later, the first Sikh-face Prime Minister of India -Manmohan Singh apologized in the Indian Parliament. He said, “I have no hesitation in apologising not only to the Sikh community but the whole Indian nation because what took place in 1984 is the negation of the concept of nationhood and what is enshrined in our Constitution.” It is another story that he too failed short of accepting the guilt of the Congress party.

In 2014, the India Home Minister, Rajnath Singh speaking at a function had said, “It was not riot, it was genocide instead. Hundreds of innocent people were killed. The pain of the kin of riot victims cannot be compensated by even paying crores of rupees.” I think that he too did not mean genocide, perhaps only mass killings.

The motion no. 47 moved by Harinder Kaur Malhi and adopted by the Ontario Provincial Assembly reads, “..condemn all forms of communal violence, hatred, hostility, prejudice, racism and intolerance in India and anywhere else in the world, including the 1984 Genocide perpetrated against the Sikhs throughout India, and call on all sides to embrace truth, justice and reconciliation.”

The government of India, always abrasive of any efforts to internationalise conflicts and disputes in India which it conceives as law and order problems only, has reacted with the external affairs ministry spokesperson saying, “we reject this misguided motion which is based on a limited understanding of India, its constitution, society, ethos, rule of law and the judicial process.” My foot.

The high sounding official verbosity is meaningless. 2733 Sikhs were killed within 72 hours in broad daylight in the capital city of Delhi. The whole nation slept like a log with leaders hounding the Sikhs and even then India had its constitution, society, ethos, rule of law with the highest seats of political and judicial power in Delhi.

India’s consul general in Toronto Dinesh Bhatia, for once in a quandary ran helter-skelter to stall the motion and is now threatening breakdown in bilateral relations. By the way, the defense minister of Canada -Harjit Singh Sajjan would be soon on a bilateral visit to India early next week. Pro-Indian outfits like the Canada-India Foundation, Panorama India and the India Canada Chamber of Commerce had to eat humble pie.

Not surprisingly, even while reporting this news story from Ontario, the Indian media has chosen to call it riots and a handful have graduated to call it as mass killings.

WSO president, Mukhbir Singh said, “For years, the term 1984 anti-Sikh riots was used to describe events of November 1984 which was a distortion and wrongly implied unorganized communal violence. Recognizing the state-sponsored violence that targeted Sikhs across India in 1984 is an important and historic step towards justice, accountability and reconciliation, which we hope will be an example to other governments.”

Sikh organisations worldwide have welcomed this step which has provided solace to the community and victim families. Jathedar Akal Takht Sahib, Dal Khalsa, the SGPC, All India Sikh Students Federation (AISSF), Sikhs for Justice, the Aam Aadmi Party and even the Badal-led Shiromani Akali Dal have chided the government of India’s reaction as childish and sought reversal of the same. In a deliberate twist reeking of obfuscation, Sukhbir Singh Badal in his statement has tried to blame only the Congress forgetting the eulogising of Indira Gandhi by the BJP after the attack on Darbar Sahib in June 1984 and the total silence of the BJP till recent years. Factually, many BJP workers and leaders were part of the team leading the attacks on Sikhs in Black November 1984.

Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne who had visited India sometime back, has had the last laugh. Thank you Harinder Kaur Malhi. Thank you to Jagmeet Singh, Harinder Thakar and Vic Dhillon. Thank you to Sikh-Canadians. Thank you Premier Kathleen Wynne. Thank you Ontario. Thank you Canada.

In November 1984, the concept of India as a country of diverse people died. India shook aside from civilization -and plunged deep to become an uncivilized society. Is it civil today?