A two-judge bench of Delhi High Court, while handing life term till death to a political leader in Delhi for his involvement in the anti-Sikh violence of 1984, observed, Neither ‘crimes against humanity’ nor ‘genocide’ is part of our domestic law of crime. The court stressed, ‘Political patronage to mass killings’ needs to be addressed urgently.
The bench of Justices S Muralidhar and Vinod Goel, recalling mass killing incidents of 1947, the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, the 1993 Mumbai and 2002 Gujarat massacre, the 2008 anti-Christian Kandhamal riots and the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots targeting the minority community, underlined that the common pattern in all such crimes has been “targeting of minorities and attacks spearheaded by the dominant political actors, facilitated by the law enforcement agencies” and “the criminals responsible for the mass crimes enjoyed political patronage and so managed to evade prosecution and punishment.”
Highlighting the urgent need to bring criminals of such crimes to the book, the court put stress upon the need of streamlining and strengthening the legal system. It observed, “Neither ‘crimes against humanity’ nor ‘genocide’ is part of our domestic law of crime. This loophole needs to be addressed urgently.”
CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY DEFINED
Defining the ‘crimes against humanity’, the judges noted, “Crimes against humanity” are globally understood as “inhumane acts” that are part of a “systematic or widespread attack against any civilian population on national, political, ethnic, racial or religious grounds.”
Article 7 of International Statute for Criminal Court defined “crime against humanity” as “the act of killing, raping, injuring physically or otherwise, when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against the civilian population, with the knowledge of the attack…the perpetrator must be aware that he is contributing to a widespread or systematic attack against civilians.”
The court noted that the killings of 1984 were planned and systematic. “What happened in the aftermath of the assassination of Mrs Indira Gandhi was the carnage of unbelievable proportions,” it said. “There was a two-pronged strategy adopted by the attackers. The first was to liquidate Sikh males and the other to destroy their business and residential houses leaving the women and children utterly destitute,” observed the Court.
The judgment mentions a few incidents of the likes. The actual list of such mass killing incidents in India, which fit in the category of “crime against humanity”, “targeted mass murders” and “genocide”, is quite long. India that is Bharat after Independence has witnessed over five thousand communal frenzies targeting in particular the Muslim community with an open agenda to wipe them out entirely either physically or by divesting them from their religious and cultural identities and heritage.
INCIDENTS FORGOTTEN AND COVERED
At the top of the list is the Nellie massacre. It was the morning of 18th February 1983, when a well-organised armed mob of several thousands, attacked 14 hutments in Central Assam’s Nellie region of Nagaon district and butchered 2,191 helpless poor Bengali speaking natives. The unofficial figure of dead is over 10,000. The victims were descendants of the Muslims who had settled down in Assam under the direct patronage of the then Assam Government of British India in the first decade of the 20th century.
The probe report by official ‘Tiwari Commission’ is still a closely guarded secret which was presented to State Government in 1984. The police filed 688 criminal cases, of which 378 were closed before trial, citing “lack of evidence”. Remaining 310 were dropped as a part of the 1985 Assam Accord signed by Rajiv Gandhi Government with ASGP. As a result, not a single participant of the crime got punished. Not a single victim got any relief. And we easily forget the shameless act of “crime against humanity”, “targeted mass murders” and “genocide”.
Among the crimes against humanity worldwide the Nellie massacre is highly heinous as it was perpetuated by political actors in the State and covered by the State shamelessly. That had happened two years before the 1984 anti-Sikh violence and forgotten because the victims were poor and illiterate and they did not have an H.S. Phoolka-like advocate to plead for them.
The list of such mass murders in India is long. Next at the top is Bhagalpur 1989, where more than 1,000 people were brutally killed. A bus full of women, children and old persons, being extradited from the riot-hit area, was torched and all killed. Bhiwandi-1984, killing 278, Ahmedabad-1985, killing 275, Hashimpura-Meerut-1987, killing 346, Hyderabad-1990, killing over 200 are other remarkable cases in which political leaders involved have escaped. We need not remind that in the 2002 pogrom of Gujarat under the patronage of political leadership, with sheer dereliction of duty of the police and the civil administration, over 1400 civilians were killed, burnt alive and women raped in the open. There are hundreds of other incidents. The most shocking aspect of this phenomenon is that perpetrators used the violence for gaining political mileage and grabbing power. The leaders of the government gave them fillip by promoting them as Ministers, etc.
THE 1984 KILLINGS
The 1984 incident of Sikh killings happened after the murder of the then Prime Minister of India, Mrs Indira Gandhi on 31 October 1984, by her Sikh guards. She was advised against Sikhs armed personnel around her after Operation Blue Star (OBS), but she did not relent. From 1-4 November 3,350 Sikhs were killed all over the country, including 2,733 in Delhi alone, as per official figures.
OBS entailed the violent movement by fire-brand Sikh leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, in support of Anandpur Sahib Resolutions. A mix of far-reaching political and religious demands, the resolution was adopted by Akali Dal after the party defeat in 1972 elections to earn popularity. Among the long list of demands, one was for complete autonomy to the state of Punjab with some special rights for Sikhs. The other was for granting Sikhism the status of separate religion other than Hinduism. Delhi was not agreeable.
Bhindranwale soon became a rival force to Akali Dal, thanks to his high pitched movement favouring the demands. His faction was also allegedly involved in killing incidents of Nirankaris, Hindus and some Sikhs. Ignoring rule-book and the dangers of an extremist movement in the bordering State, he was said to have earned tacit support of the ruling party in Delhi in opposition to Akali Dal. The situation soon went out of hands and efforts to arrest him failed. He, with his heavily armed followers, had taken shelter in the basement of Harmandir Saheb in Amritsar. The government under Mrs Indira Gandhi then opted for military action called OBS from June 1-4, 1984. The main building was heavily damaged which deeply hurt the religious sentiments of the community. Mrs Gandhi’s killing was the upshot of this anguish and anger.
It is unfortunate that the politicians forget that dialogue with the spirit of give and take is the only option to settle the issues in a constitutional democratic setup. Invoking religious sentiments to earn popularity and using violent tactics is a fatal and futile option. In this case, which is still lingering, the State did put the rule book aside and used tit of tat tactics to destroy detractors. In the process, we forget the services of the Sikh community in the security and development of the country. Unfortunately, it happened when a Sikh stalwart like Giani Zail Singh was the President of India, and Delhi had many Sikh officers including Kiran Bedi, as DSP North. Nobody could help the hapless poor Sikhs.
P.M. REACTION
This is a landmark judgment. All cases, which fall in the category of “crimes against humanity”, should be dealt with the same vigour and spirit of the law. Giving political colour to the judgment is unfair. There is no political outfit which does not have the same stains on its hands. The Prime Minister is reported to have said, “Four years ago, nobody ever thought of Congress leaders getting convicted in the 1984 Sikh massacre and that people (victims) would get justice.” Let us recall that justice to other victims is still neglected. Nothing had been done in the last four years. We humbly encourage the Prime Minister to show guts and remove the hurdles in the path of justice for the victims of Nellie, Ahmedabad, Mumbai and also Gujarat of 2002. Selective justice cannot cover injustice with others and a political leader cannot take credit until the process of implementation of law is made transparent and universal for all. Each citizen is equal in the eyes of law. Enforcing agencies and the administration should not show any bias against anyone on the basis of his cast or religion.
[The contributor is a Civil Rights activist, based in Delhi. He can be reached at [email protected]]