“Rivers on Fire: Khalistan Struggle” traces roots of violence as tool of political expression

Chandigarh, August 7, 2020: More than a decade long militancy in Punjab was finally confronted and defeated by evolving the strategy of democratic mandate to kill involving the political forces and the security agencies.

The guns fell silent by the end of 1995 after free for all for about four years when the violence peaked and Punjab turned into a vast killing field.

The book “Rivers on Fire: Khalistan Struggle” by Chandigarh based senior journalist Jagtar Singh is the first such endeavour to trace the roots of violence as a tool of political expression and its dynamics at the grassroots in this border state  beginning with the first people who took up the guns.

In the process, this book questions the perception that the use of weapons as conflict management in the religio-political domain was introduced by Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale. He was just one of the players in the beginning.

This book would go on sale within the next 10 days.

This is the second book on Punjab militancy by Jagtar Singh who has covered this state for more than two decades. The first book was “Khalistan Struggle: A Non-movement”.

The second book is based upon extensive interviews with the players in the politico-militant domain and those from the government. Effort has been made to cross-check every bit of information.

The Dhilwan bus killing on October 5, 1983 changed the entire dynamics of the militant struggle. One of the three militants who carried out that operation is alive. He provided the first-hand account in a recorded interview. The Akali Dal struggle had sympathisers at the national level till then. The situation changed overnight.

The book states: “While the militant struggle got criminalised, the security people too turned terrorists with mandate to kill.  Unlike the militants, the security forces are supposed to function under the law but every law was violated with impunity in Punjab with the one objective: to restore peace and normalcy. The security forces succeeded but it was the peace of the graveyard”.

According to the date quoted in the book, the monthly average killing of civilians that was 216 in 1991 came down to 127 in 1992 and four in 1993 while the police encounters during 1992 were the highest ever at 1330 followed by 570 in 1993. January 1994 witnessed zero killing of civilians.

“The security forces were given what can be termed as the democratic mandate to kill by facilitating Congress into power by engineering boycott by the mainstream Akali factions of Assembly elections held on February 20, 1992. The Congress government headed by Beant Singh that took over gave free hand to the security forces. This free hand was the license to kill. The policy was simple: take no prisoners. The face of the Indian state in this battle was Director General of Police KPS Gill who subsequently claimed that the boycott was his design”.

On the surface, however, this boycott was dictated by the militants. The boycott story has thus two sides. The poll boycott was the one issue on which the interests of a major section of the Sikh militants and the Indian government converged, though for different reason.

This study was supervised by Dr Pramod Kumar, Director, Institute for Development and Communication.

As per this study, the installation of the Congress government was the design of the Indian government as part of the strategy to confront Sikh radicals using boycott as a tool. The dominant pro-boycott lobby among the radicals walked straight into the trap.

The militancy in Punjab that was the volcanic eruption of the religio-political dynamics of this border state, was triggered by the Sikh-Nirankari clash in Amritsar on the Baisakhi of 1978 and consumed about 50,000 lives, is still to witness closure. This latest work is based upon field work combined with the actual events of the time.

The book throws new light on the issues like assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, the bombing of Air India Kanishka, the bus killings with special reference to the Dhilwan killings, the assassination of Chief Minister Beant Singh and the dynamics of Assembly elections boycott.

The first evidence based book provides clinical details of the origin and subsequent dynamics of militancy that rocked India claiming the lives of both the main players – Indira Gandhi and Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale.

Did she become a victim of the politics of the very person who was painted as her creation? The aspect of Sant Bhindrnawale of being the creation of the Congress has been discussed logically. Both Indira Gandhi and her son Sanjay Gandhi were fighting for their own survival after having been thrown out of power when Sant Bhindranwale took over as the chief of Damdami Taksal.

For the first time, Punjab militancy has been studied by categorising it into three phases with first phase ending with the assassination of Indira Gandhi to avenge Operation Bluestar, the second phase till Operation Black Thunder and the post 1988 being the third phase. The dynamics of politics of militancy is still to witness closure.

Title of Jagtar Singh's first book : Khalistan Struggle : A Non-movement 

 

This is for the first time that the inter-state river waters dispute has been dissected on the basis of the documented evidence

. The apportionment of river waters entered the dynamics of militancy after a stage when it was decided to take up the issues concerning the exploitation of the peasantry in Punjab. 

This study shatters certain myths about the water sharing on the basis of official records and writings of those who were directly involved. The river waters dispute is the saga of traitors and political traders.

The dispute should be revisited in the context of ground based reality and technological advances in the field of water harvesting. The government at the Centre and the Supreme Court should take a pragmatic view rather than raising emotions of the people in the region. It should be taken out from the realm of vote bank politics. It is high time to douse the flames of the river waters.

Another subject that have been dealt in details are the signing of the ‘Rajiv-Longowal Accord’.

For the first time, the militant struggle has been reviewed in the context of the earlier most peaceful struggle in the country by the Sikhs. That struggle was for the liberation of gurdwaras.

The study leads to the conclusion that the struggle carried out by the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee was not for the enactment of the Sikh Gurdwara Act, 1925 but this legislation was its by-product. The government laid down the condition of ratification of this legislation by the Akali leaders who were in detention. Those who refused were released only in 1926. The Sikhs made sacrifices during the struggle not for the formation of the SGPC under the Act but for the liberation of the shrines. The SGPC was formed by the Sikhs in November 1920 that acquired statutory status under the 1925 legislation passed by the Punjab legislative council.

The conclusions have been drawn based upon the available facts rather than fitting the same in some pre-conceived framework. This work is the beginning of the effort to go into the events rather than fitting the events in some ideological parameters.

IDC is the co-publisher of the book published by Aakar Books, Delhi.

Jagtar Singh is a journalist and columnist with a career spanning more than four decades. He has worked with Chandigarh centre of The Indian Express for about two and a half decades covering religio-political dynamics and economy of Punjab. He joined this profession after doing post-graduation in Economics from the Punjabi University, Patiala.

The professional career of the author as a journalist and the rise of radical politics and militancy in Punjab are co-terminus. The author joined The Indian Express in Chandigarh in 1978 and was transferred to Amritsar in early 1979. That was the period when the radical political discourse  was getting shaped up. The author has the distinction of being the eyewitness from the very beginning of this fight for the Sikh homeland. Even after return to Chandigarh, the author covered almost every major event in Amritsar including Operation Bluestar.

 

Author can be contacted at

 jagtarsingh201@gmail.com        +91-9779711201