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1984 Commemorative Articles Operation Bluestar
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<blockquote data-quote="spnadmin" data-source="post: 147374" data-attributes="member: 35"><p><strong><strong>Attack on Darbar Sahib (Part 3)</strong></strong></p><p><strong><strong>By Harjinder Singh Dilgeer · 2 minutes ago</strong></strong></p><p><strong><strong>From 'Sikhs: Past & Present' journal of Sikh Studies.</strong></strong></p><p> <strong><strong></strong></strong></p><p><strong><strong>For further details, read: SIKH HISTORY in 10 Volumes by Dr Harjinder Singh Dilgeer (It is in volume 7).</strong></strong></p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p><strong>Attack on Darbar Sahib (Part 3)</strong></p><p> </p><p>Angry Sikh folks march towards Amritsar, hundreds killed</p><p> As there was complete curfew in the whole of the Punab since thenight of the 3rd of June, telephone lines were dead, the publication of the newspapers remained suspended (no paper was printed for more than a week), the AIR did not say any word till for the first two days of the invasion; and on the third day of battle, on the 6th of June, the first news people received was the Government propaganda telling that the Army had attacked Darbar Sahib and had ‘accomplished’ mission; it broadcast the news of some three hundred casualties and, moreover, it did not mention the destruction of Akal Takht. The broadcast was made in such a style that it should rather impress the people that the Army had done some noble cause without resorting to any extreme action.</p><p></p><p> But, even this could not silence the Sikhs and hearing the news of attack on Darbar Sahib, every Sikh got enraged; from every nook and corner, especially in the districts of Amritsar, Gurdaspur, Firozpur and Kapurthala, thousands of Sikhs marched towards Amritsar; there was mass upsurge everywhere, in the villages and the towns alike. The Army helicopters flying over in several kilometres around Amritsar spotted hundreds and thousand of Sikhs gathering in many places; and soon they began marching towards Amritsar. The Army helicopters spotted three major points, at Gohalwar village (about twenty kilometres on Amritsar- Taran taran Road on the western side of the city), at Raja Sansi and Heir villages (about fifteen kilometres from Amritsar on the eastern side of the city), in villages around Batala and at many other places; at al these places Sikhs in thousands, between ten and thirty thousands each, were spotted marching towards Amritsar; and the crowds were swelling as more and more Sikhs from the village on route too continued joining them.</p><p></p><p> The Army had taken positions on all the routes to the city of Amritsar but to stop the marching columns from proceeding towards the city, the Army helicopters began bombing these crowds; when people began running for safety, the Army machine guns burst upon them killing several and wounding a very large number of the Sikhs; among the klled was also Gurbachan Singh Tur, a former M.P. The number of casualties at the above-mentioned three places was very high, according to villagers more than five hundred protesters were killed only at Gohalwar village; Chellany, a journalist, got partial information about these killings: “From my three military sources, I gathered that 106 people had been killed between 4 and 10 June by army firing on crowds of Sikh villagers trying to march to the Golden Temple.”[1]</p><p> </p><p>The Rebellions in the Army</p><p> The attack on Darbar Sahib hurt every Sikh, the farmers, shopkeepers, workers, students, teachers, soldiers, NRIs all; though the reactions were different with different persons but one thing was common that every Sikh took it as assault on the whole nation. In 1965 and in 1971, the Sikh soldiers had fought for India whole-heartedly; in 1971, it was the Sikh army officers like Subeg Singh and Jagjit Singh Arora who had led India to victory; in 1965 the Into-Pak War was won only by the Sikh soldiers; in 1965, when the Hindu Generals of the India Army had decided to withdraw the Indian Army to the easters side of river Beas; it were the Sikh Generals who swore to save Amritsar because there was Darbar Sahib in this city, founded by Gurus. Now, in 1984, it was the Indian Army which had destroyed Darbar Sahib, it was sure to hurt them and they were supposed to fight for the honour of their Darbar and Guru’s city; hence the Sikh soldiers in different units of the Army rebelled and left their barracks and marched towards Amritsar; and the Sikh soldiers rebelled in ten cantonements;[2] the soldiers’ rebellion was not an organised action, they had acted just sentimentally without being aware of the consequences of desertions to their lives, their career and their families.</p><p></p><p> The first to rebel were the soldiers of the 9th Batallion of the Sikh Regiment; on the 7th of June 1984, about six hundred Sikh soldiers broke into the regimental armoury, took away weapons and after having a round of the streets of Ganganagar, left for Amritsar.[3] When this news reached Delhi, the soldiers of the Rajputana Rifles were sent to chase the Sikh soldiers; after some hours most of these soldiers were rounded up and brought back; however, some of them crossed to Pakistan, and till today, there is no information about their whereabouts; no one known whether they were detained as prisoners or were, later, used for armed actions in the Punjab.</p><p></p><p> The maximum desertion took place at Ramgarh (Bihar) where 1461 soldiers of the Sikh Regimental Centre killed their Commanding Officer S.C. Puri, took away a large quantity of arms and ammunition, forcibly took away some private trucks from the city and began their march towards Amritsar; they were chased by 21st Mechanised Infantry Regiment which surrounded them near Shakeshgarh railway station (about 190 kilometres from Ramgarh); in spite of this siege some trucks still escaped and continued their march; they too were chased by the 20th Infantry; here a battle was fought in which 25 Sikh soldiers were killed; the rest were, however, arrested and taken back to Ramgarh; hence none of them could reach Amritsar.[4]</p><p></p><p> The other major desertions took place at Jammu, Pune, Bombay, U.P. and Chandimandir etc;[5] some of the deserters at Jammu too crossed to Pakistan whose fate is still unknown. Though all these rebellions were suppressed but it shook the Indian administration and jolted the international community.</p><p></p><p> Later, on the 27th of November 1984, the Indian Government revealed that 2337 Sikh soldiers had rebelled; out of these 67 had been killed and all the rest, barring 31 soldiers who were tntraceable (they might have crossed to Pakistan) were arrested; all the arrested were tried under Army Laws; for most of them Summary Trails were held but 98 were tried under different Laws; summary trial of 2239 rebel soldiers was held and they were court-martialled and dismissed; and most of them were given varied sentences, some of them were give life imprisonmens too.</p><p></p><p> It is noteworthy that these soldiers, who were employees of the Indian Government and were performing their duties to earn for their families, rebelled when the Darbar Sahib was attacked; on the other hand, the Nihangs, who calim themselves as ‘Guru Di Fauj’ (literally: army of the Guru) did nothing; their soul (dead soul?) did not ***** them; sacrilege of Darbar Sahib and destruction of Akal Takht did not hurt them; they continued enjoying bhang (cannabis) and reading Chandi Di Vaar (and also perhaps Charitropakhayan) and remained living as parasites; nor did the deredaars (cult leaders) react to attack on the Sikh nation and they remained busy in eating luxury food and cohabiting with idiot female devotees; they behaved as being with deal souls.</p><p> </p><p>Zail Singh visits Darbar Sahib</p><p> On the 8th of June 1984, Zail Singh, the President of India, was brought to Darbar Sahib to show him the condition of the Complex after the accomplishment of the ‘mission’ by the Indian Army. Zail Singh, wearing (even in extreme summer) spotless white achikan (long coat) and churidar pyjama and a rose flower decorating the long coat (as if he was attending some marriage party) was taken to the central part of the Darbar Sahib only; however, when he entered this central hall, Bhai Surinder Singh Patna,[6] who was performing keertan, sung a poem written by Bhai Gurdas which said ‘when a dog is seated on throne he does not give up his meanness’;[7] this poem was a severe attack on Zail Singh but it did not affect him as he had been openly calling himself as ‘scavanger of Nehru family; every ready even to sweep the house of Indira Gandhi’; he must have seen tanks in parkarma; he must have smelt the stink smitted by the blood and flesh of the deadbodies of the Sikhs; he must have seen the horrible scene of blood-stained parkarma of Darbar Sahib from where he must have entered into and come out of the central hall; he must have seen in the Amritsar sarovar (pool) signs of blood and pieces of flesh of the dead Sikhs; he must have had a look of the building of Akal Takht, then in rubbles; he must have seen debris of the building of the Takht; he must have notices bullet marks every where; he must have seen destruction of the buildings surrounding the Darbar Sahib Complex; but, his eyes did not shed tears at the devastation of the shrine, his heart did not ache at the desecration of the Guru’s place, his soul did not shudder at the colossal destruction and his conscious did not ***** him to protest and shriek. In fact he had sanctioned all that; he was telling lies when he tried to escape his responsibility when he said that he had not signthe ed orders for an attack on Darbar Sahib; even if he had not signed the orders he could have protested and resigned his office[8] which he did not and stuck to his office as a soul-less man with dead conscious, devoid of honour, and as a slave; he came to Amritsar, dressed as a monarch, had a tour around, got his photographs published in newspapers and went back as if nothing had happened; further he justified this attack in his ‘message to the nation’ on the 27th of June 1984; later, on the 10th of July 1985, he even decorated the invading officers of the Army with ‘gallantry’ awards (in fact awards for butchery and savagery).</p><p> </p><p>Sikh Personalities Return Indian Honours and Awards</p><p> The uncalled and unjust attack on Darbar Sahib pricked the soul of even intelligentsia and other elite, many of whom were even known as sychopants and yes-men of the Government of India; they returned Government honours and resigned their high paid offices. The first to react was a person like Khushwant Singh, who had always been a supporter of Indira Gandhi and was also a bitter critic of Bhindranwala; on the 8th of June, 1984 (the day Zail Singh had gone to Darbar Sahib to have alook at the ‘achievements’ of the Indian Army), he returned his Padam Bhushan Award against attack on Darbar Sahib;[9] the next to react were Captain Amrinder Singh (Patiala) and Davinder Singh Garcha (Ludhiana), the two M.P.s; on the 11th of June, 1984, they resigned from the Lok Sabha as well as the Congress Party;[10] though Buta Singh too had agreed to resign but later he backed out and rather reported the same to Indira Gandhi); the next to protest was Dr Ganda Singh Sikh historian who returned Padam Bhushan Award to the President of India on the 14th of June; and Sadhu Singh Hamdard and Dr Khushdeva Singh returned Padam Sri Awards on the 16th of June 1984.[11]Similarly, on the 18th of June 1984, Simranjit Singh Mann (former S.S.P. Faridkot), then Group Commandant C.I.S.F. (Home Ministry), wrote a letter (D.O. no. CISF/GHB/SSM/84) to the President of India, narrated how the Sikhs had been and were being persecuted by the India Army, resigned his job.; on the 22nd of June Harbhajan Singh Deol resigned from the membership of the Punjab Public Service Commission.[12]So many Sikh elite expressed their protest against the invasion of Darbar Sahib, however, Amrita Pritam (now she had changed her name to Amrita Imroz by adding name of her boy-friend Imroz as prefix of her name), who claimed to be a poet of people, proved as a dead soul; savage killings at darbar Sahib did not her conscious and she remained as unconcerned as a pig.</p><p></p><p> Commenting on the return of the Awards and Honours by these Sikhs, the Sunday Times (London) wrote: “Historical parallels may be dangerous but the last week’s killings in the Golden Temple and the Amritsar Massacre of 1919 have some remarkable similarities. Only a few hundred yards separate the sites; the official number of the dead is (so far)[13] roughly the same. In 1919, the poet Tagore handed back his knighthood to the British. In 1984, many prominent and outraged Sikhs have turned over Indian honours to India’s President (who happens to be a Sikh).”[14]</p><p></p><p> “The 1984 battle of the Golden Temple, like the 1919 Amritsar (Jallianwala Bagh) marks the beginning of a new potentially turbulent chapter in the Indian history. The chapter which opened with the 1919 massacre ended with the departure of the British. The new one is only ten days old, and, no one can say how it will end.”[15]</p><p> </p><p>Protests by the Sikhs around the World</p><p> To protest against attack on Darbar Sahib, throughout the world the Sikhs held protest marches; big processionswere taken out at London, Washington, New York, Vancouver, Toronot, Oslo and in several other towns in various parts of the world. On the 10th of June, the procession in London was joined by more than 25000 Sikhs; the Washington, New York, Vancouver and Toronto processions too were in several thousands; at Oslo which had a Sikh population of just two thousands, the Sikh procession was joined by almost everyone including women and children.</p><p> </p><p>Indira Gandhi visits Darbar Sahib</p><p> When Indira Gandhi observed reactions of the Sikhs world-wide and return of Awards and Honours by the Sikh personalities, she realised that the Congress had lost the Sikh nation forever. So, to play a drama in the name of making obeisance and for exhibition, she visited Darbar Sahib on the 23rd of June 1984. When Indira Gandhi visited, Kirpal Singh and Sahib Singh, the priest of Akal Takht and Darbar Sahib, ‘welcomed’ her like cheap sychopanths.</p><p></p><p>[1] Chellany, Brahma, An Eye Aco****, in Samuiddin, Abida, op. cit., p. a82.</p><p>[2] Tully, Mark, op. cit., pp. 194-95, Harminder Kaur, op. cit., p. 49.</p><p>[3] Ibid.</p><p>[4] Indian Express, dated 13.6.1986.</p><p>[5] Punjab Times, Lodon, dated 15 and 22.6.1984.</p><p>[6] Surinder Singh was, later, tortured by the Army.</p><p>[7] Kutta raaj bahaliei fir chakki chattay (Bhai Gurdas, Vaar 35, Pauri 1).</p><p>[8] On the other hand, several Sikhs returned Government honours to him (in his capacity as the President) but he never felt ashamed of even getting back those Awards.</p><p>[9] Indian Express, dated 9.6.1984.</p><p>[10] Ibid, dated 12.6.1984.</p><p>[11] Ibid, dated 17.6.1984.</p><p>[12] Ibid, dated 23.6.1984.</p><p>[13] At that time, the Indian Government had lied that only 493 Sikhs had been killed (in fact the number was about five thousand).</p><p>[14] The Sunday Times, dated 15.6.1984.</p><p>[15] The Observer (London), dated 17.6.1984.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="spnadmin, post: 147374, member: 35"] [B][B]Attack on Darbar Sahib (Part 3) By Harjinder Singh Dilgeer · 2 minutes ago From 'Sikhs: Past & Present' journal of Sikh Studies. For further details, read: SIKH HISTORY in 10 Volumes by Dr Harjinder Singh Dilgeer (It is in volume 7).[/B][/B] [B]Attack on Darbar Sahib (Part 3)[/B] Angry Sikh folks march towards Amritsar, hundreds killed As there was complete curfew in the whole of the Punab since thenight of the 3rd of June, telephone lines were dead, the publication of the newspapers remained suspended (no paper was printed for more than a week), the AIR did not say any word till for the first two days of the invasion; and on the third day of battle, on the 6th of June, the first news people received was the Government propaganda telling that the Army had attacked Darbar Sahib and had ‘accomplished’ mission; it broadcast the news of some three hundred casualties and, moreover, it did not mention the destruction of Akal Takht. The broadcast was made in such a style that it should rather impress the people that the Army had done some noble cause without resorting to any extreme action. But, even this could not silence the Sikhs and hearing the news of attack on Darbar Sahib, every Sikh got enraged; from every nook and corner, especially in the districts of Amritsar, Gurdaspur, Firozpur and Kapurthala, thousands of Sikhs marched towards Amritsar; there was mass upsurge everywhere, in the villages and the towns alike. The Army helicopters flying over in several kilometres around Amritsar spotted hundreds and thousand of Sikhs gathering in many places; and soon they began marching towards Amritsar. The Army helicopters spotted three major points, at Gohalwar village (about twenty kilometres on Amritsar- Taran taran Road on the western side of the city), at Raja Sansi and Heir villages (about fifteen kilometres from Amritsar on the eastern side of the city), in villages around Batala and at many other places; at al these places Sikhs in thousands, between ten and thirty thousands each, were spotted marching towards Amritsar; and the crowds were swelling as more and more Sikhs from the village on route too continued joining them. The Army had taken positions on all the routes to the city of Amritsar but to stop the marching columns from proceeding towards the city, the Army helicopters began bombing these crowds; when people began running for safety, the Army machine guns burst upon them killing several and wounding a very large number of the Sikhs; among the klled was also Gurbachan Singh Tur, a former M.P. The number of casualties at the above-mentioned three places was very high, according to villagers more than five hundred protesters were killed only at Gohalwar village; Chellany, a journalist, got partial information about these killings: “From my three military sources, I gathered that 106 people had been killed between 4 and 10 June by army firing on crowds of Sikh villagers trying to march to the Golden Temple.”[1] The Rebellions in the Army The attack on Darbar Sahib hurt every Sikh, the farmers, shopkeepers, workers, students, teachers, soldiers, NRIs all; though the reactions were different with different persons but one thing was common that every Sikh took it as assault on the whole nation. In 1965 and in 1971, the Sikh soldiers had fought for India whole-heartedly; in 1971, it was the Sikh army officers like Subeg Singh and Jagjit Singh Arora who had led India to victory; in 1965 the Into-Pak War was won only by the Sikh soldiers; in 1965, when the Hindu Generals of the India Army had decided to withdraw the Indian Army to the easters side of river Beas; it were the Sikh Generals who swore to save Amritsar because there was Darbar Sahib in this city, founded by Gurus. Now, in 1984, it was the Indian Army which had destroyed Darbar Sahib, it was sure to hurt them and they were supposed to fight for the honour of their Darbar and Guru’s city; hence the Sikh soldiers in different units of the Army rebelled and left their barracks and marched towards Amritsar; and the Sikh soldiers rebelled in ten cantonements;[2] the soldiers’ rebellion was not an organised action, they had acted just sentimentally without being aware of the consequences of desertions to their lives, their career and their families. The first to rebel were the soldiers of the 9th Batallion of the Sikh Regiment; on the 7th of June 1984, about six hundred Sikh soldiers broke into the regimental armoury, took away weapons and after having a round of the streets of Ganganagar, left for Amritsar.[3] When this news reached Delhi, the soldiers of the Rajputana Rifles were sent to chase the Sikh soldiers; after some hours most of these soldiers were rounded up and brought back; however, some of them crossed to Pakistan, and till today, there is no information about their whereabouts; no one known whether they were detained as prisoners or were, later, used for armed actions in the Punjab. The maximum desertion took place at Ramgarh (Bihar) where 1461 soldiers of the Sikh Regimental Centre killed their Commanding Officer S.C. Puri, took away a large quantity of arms and ammunition, forcibly took away some private trucks from the city and began their march towards Amritsar; they were chased by 21st Mechanised Infantry Regiment which surrounded them near Shakeshgarh railway station (about 190 kilometres from Ramgarh); in spite of this siege some trucks still escaped and continued their march; they too were chased by the 20th Infantry; here a battle was fought in which 25 Sikh soldiers were killed; the rest were, however, arrested and taken back to Ramgarh; hence none of them could reach Amritsar.[4] The other major desertions took place at Jammu, Pune, Bombay, U.P. and Chandimandir etc;[5] some of the deserters at Jammu too crossed to Pakistan whose fate is still unknown. Though all these rebellions were suppressed but it shook the Indian administration and jolted the international community. Later, on the 27th of November 1984, the Indian Government revealed that 2337 Sikh soldiers had rebelled; out of these 67 had been killed and all the rest, barring 31 soldiers who were tntraceable (they might have crossed to Pakistan) were arrested; all the arrested were tried under Army Laws; for most of them Summary Trails were held but 98 were tried under different Laws; summary trial of 2239 rebel soldiers was held and they were court-martialled and dismissed; and most of them were given varied sentences, some of them were give life imprisonmens too. It is noteworthy that these soldiers, who were employees of the Indian Government and were performing their duties to earn for their families, rebelled when the Darbar Sahib was attacked; on the other hand, the Nihangs, who calim themselves as ‘Guru Di Fauj’ (literally: army of the Guru) did nothing; their soul (dead soul?) did not ***** them; sacrilege of Darbar Sahib and destruction of Akal Takht did not hurt them; they continued enjoying bhang (cannabis) and reading Chandi Di Vaar (and also perhaps Charitropakhayan) and remained living as parasites; nor did the deredaars (cult leaders) react to attack on the Sikh nation and they remained busy in eating luxury food and cohabiting with idiot female devotees; they behaved as being with deal souls. Zail Singh visits Darbar Sahib On the 8th of June 1984, Zail Singh, the President of India, was brought to Darbar Sahib to show him the condition of the Complex after the accomplishment of the ‘mission’ by the Indian Army. Zail Singh, wearing (even in extreme summer) spotless white achikan (long coat) and churidar pyjama and a rose flower decorating the long coat (as if he was attending some marriage party) was taken to the central part of the Darbar Sahib only; however, when he entered this central hall, Bhai Surinder Singh Patna,[6] who was performing keertan, sung a poem written by Bhai Gurdas which said ‘when a dog is seated on throne he does not give up his meanness’;[7] this poem was a severe attack on Zail Singh but it did not affect him as he had been openly calling himself as ‘scavanger of Nehru family; every ready even to sweep the house of Indira Gandhi’; he must have seen tanks in parkarma; he must have smelt the stink smitted by the blood and flesh of the deadbodies of the Sikhs; he must have seen the horrible scene of blood-stained parkarma of Darbar Sahib from where he must have entered into and come out of the central hall; he must have seen in the Amritsar sarovar (pool) signs of blood and pieces of flesh of the dead Sikhs; he must have had a look of the building of Akal Takht, then in rubbles; he must have seen debris of the building of the Takht; he must have notices bullet marks every where; he must have seen destruction of the buildings surrounding the Darbar Sahib Complex; but, his eyes did not shed tears at the devastation of the shrine, his heart did not ache at the desecration of the Guru’s place, his soul did not shudder at the colossal destruction and his conscious did not ***** him to protest and shriek. In fact he had sanctioned all that; he was telling lies when he tried to escape his responsibility when he said that he had not signthe ed orders for an attack on Darbar Sahib; even if he had not signed the orders he could have protested and resigned his office[8] which he did not and stuck to his office as a soul-less man with dead conscious, devoid of honour, and as a slave; he came to Amritsar, dressed as a monarch, had a tour around, got his photographs published in newspapers and went back as if nothing had happened; further he justified this attack in his ‘message to the nation’ on the 27th of June 1984; later, on the 10th of July 1985, he even decorated the invading officers of the Army with ‘gallantry’ awards (in fact awards for butchery and savagery). Sikh Personalities Return Indian Honours and Awards The uncalled and unjust attack on Darbar Sahib pricked the soul of even intelligentsia and other elite, many of whom were even known as sychopants and yes-men of the Government of India; they returned Government honours and resigned their high paid offices. The first to react was a person like Khushwant Singh, who had always been a supporter of Indira Gandhi and was also a bitter critic of Bhindranwala; on the 8th of June, 1984 (the day Zail Singh had gone to Darbar Sahib to have alook at the ‘achievements’ of the Indian Army), he returned his Padam Bhushan Award against attack on Darbar Sahib;[9] the next to react were Captain Amrinder Singh (Patiala) and Davinder Singh Garcha (Ludhiana), the two M.P.s; on the 11th of June, 1984, they resigned from the Lok Sabha as well as the Congress Party;[10] though Buta Singh too had agreed to resign but later he backed out and rather reported the same to Indira Gandhi); the next to protest was Dr Ganda Singh Sikh historian who returned Padam Bhushan Award to the President of India on the 14th of June; and Sadhu Singh Hamdard and Dr Khushdeva Singh returned Padam Sri Awards on the 16th of June 1984.[11]Similarly, on the 18th of June 1984, Simranjit Singh Mann (former S.S.P. Faridkot), then Group Commandant C.I.S.F. (Home Ministry), wrote a letter (D.O. no. CISF/GHB/SSM/84) to the President of India, narrated how the Sikhs had been and were being persecuted by the India Army, resigned his job.; on the 22nd of June Harbhajan Singh Deol resigned from the membership of the Punjab Public Service Commission.[12]So many Sikh elite expressed their protest against the invasion of Darbar Sahib, however, Amrita Pritam (now she had changed her name to Amrita Imroz by adding name of her boy-friend Imroz as prefix of her name), who claimed to be a poet of people, proved as a dead soul; savage killings at darbar Sahib did not her conscious and she remained as unconcerned as a pig. Commenting on the return of the Awards and Honours by these Sikhs, the Sunday Times (London) wrote: “Historical parallels may be dangerous but the last week’s killings in the Golden Temple and the Amritsar Massacre of 1919 have some remarkable similarities. Only a few hundred yards separate the sites; the official number of the dead is (so far)[13] roughly the same. In 1919, the poet Tagore handed back his knighthood to the British. In 1984, many prominent and outraged Sikhs have turned over Indian honours to India’s President (who happens to be a Sikh).”[14] “The 1984 battle of the Golden Temple, like the 1919 Amritsar (Jallianwala Bagh) marks the beginning of a new potentially turbulent chapter in the Indian history. The chapter which opened with the 1919 massacre ended with the departure of the British. The new one is only ten days old, and, no one can say how it will end.”[15] Protests by the Sikhs around the World To protest against attack on Darbar Sahib, throughout the world the Sikhs held protest marches; big processionswere taken out at London, Washington, New York, Vancouver, Toronot, Oslo and in several other towns in various parts of the world. On the 10th of June, the procession in London was joined by more than 25000 Sikhs; the Washington, New York, Vancouver and Toronto processions too were in several thousands; at Oslo which had a Sikh population of just two thousands, the Sikh procession was joined by almost everyone including women and children. Indira Gandhi visits Darbar Sahib When Indira Gandhi observed reactions of the Sikhs world-wide and return of Awards and Honours by the Sikh personalities, she realised that the Congress had lost the Sikh nation forever. So, to play a drama in the name of making obeisance and for exhibition, she visited Darbar Sahib on the 23rd of June 1984. When Indira Gandhi visited, Kirpal Singh and Sahib Singh, the priest of Akal Takht and Darbar Sahib, ‘welcomed’ her like cheap sychopanths. [1] Chellany, Brahma, An Eye Aco****, in Samuiddin, Abida, op. cit., p. a82. [2] Tully, Mark, op. cit., pp. 194-95, Harminder Kaur, op. cit., p. 49. [3] Ibid. [4] Indian Express, dated 13.6.1986. [5] Punjab Times, Lodon, dated 15 and 22.6.1984. [6] Surinder Singh was, later, tortured by the Army. [7] Kutta raaj bahaliei fir chakki chattay (Bhai Gurdas, Vaar 35, Pauri 1). [8] On the other hand, several Sikhs returned Government honours to him (in his capacity as the President) but he never felt ashamed of even getting back those Awards. [9] Indian Express, dated 9.6.1984. [10] Ibid, dated 12.6.1984. [11] Ibid, dated 17.6.1984. [12] Ibid, dated 23.6.1984. [13] At that time, the Indian Government had lied that only 493 Sikhs had been killed (in fact the number was about five thousand). [14] The Sunday Times, dated 15.6.1984. [15] The Observer (London), dated 17.6.1984. [/QUOTE]
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