Wikiquote

1984 anti-Sikh riots

Genocide in India

The 1984 anti-Sikh Riots, also known as the 1984 Sikh Massacre, was a series of pogroms against Sikhs in India by anti-Sikh mobs (notably Congress Party members) in response to the assassination of Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards.

When a big tree falls, the earth shakes. ~ Rajiv Gandhi
It was the Congress leaders who instigated mobs in 1984 and got more than 3000 people killed. I must give due credit to RSS and the BJP for showing courage and protecting helpless Sikhs during those difficult days. No less a person than Atal Bihari Vajpayee himself intervened at a couple of places to help poor taxi drivers. ~ Khushwant Singh


Quotes

edit

G

edit
  • Despite numerous credible eye-witness accounts that identified many of those involved in the violence, including police and politicians, in the months following the killings, the government sought no prosecutions or indictments of any persons, including officials, accused in any case of murder, rape or arson.
    • Patricia Gossman 1991 Patricia Gossman (1991), Punjab in Crisis, Human Rights Watch, retrieved on 4 November 2010 

H

edit
  • Christians are not the only minority to be targeted by the Sangh Parivar. Violence against Sikhs in northern India in 1984… also stemmed from the activities and hate propaganda of these groups.
    • Human Rights Watch. 1999 HRW: POLITICS BY OTHER MEANS: Attacks Against Christians in India October 1999 [1]. Quoted in Politics By Other Means: An Analysis of Human Rights Watch Reports on India, SAAG, Arvin Bahl (South Asia Analysis Group) SAAG, 2004

K

edit
  • The killings of Sikhs in November 1984, under Congress rule in Delhi and other cities of North India, can be accurately described as a pogrom or massacre because the killings were totally one-sided. It was not a Hindu-Sikh riot. In fact, the Hindu community was as stunned by the murderous mobs, as were the Sikhs. Congress Party had hired goons who pretended frenzy and butchered over 3,000 Sikhs in Delhi alone. Many more thousands were killed or burnt alive in several North Indian cities. The dead were all Sikhs; only Sikh women were raped. There was not a single incident of Sikhs having killed Hindus or abducted women of any community in retaliation. Sikhs are not a helpless community in ordinary times, nor are they an oppressed religious minority. However, since Congress Party politicians are known to have led murderous mobs and the top leadership of the Congress Party is known to have deliberately immobilised the law and order machinery, the killing brigades and arsonists got a free hand for three–four days.
    Even though the army was ready at hand in Delhi Cantonment, it was not called for three long days till the worst was over. The police did not fire a single shot at the murderous mobs. They were asked to look the other way or actively assist the killer mobs. There wasn’t even an instance of lathi charge to disperse mobs. There were no arrests of arsonists during those days. It was uncontrolled mayhem from October 31, 1984 to November 3, 1984. The loss of property was also one-sided. Only Sikh homes were set on fire; the mobs looted only Sikh business establishments and houses. No Sikh went on a looting spree.
    • Kishwar, Madhu (2014). Modi, Muslims and media: Voices from Narendra Modi's Gujarat. p. 212

L

edit

M

edit
  • The attacks on members of the Sikh Community in Delhi and its suburbs during the period, far from being a spontaneous expression of "madness" and of popular "grief and anger" at Mrs. Gandhi's assassination as made out to be by the authorities, were the outcome of a well organised plan marked by acts of both deliberate commissions and omissions by important politicians of the Congress (I) at the top and by authorities in the administration.
    • Mukhoty, Gobinda; Kothari, Rajni (1984), Who are the Guilty ?, People's Union for Civil Liberties
  • You did not send those who are accused in the anti-Sikh riots to jails. Not just that, you also made someone who has allegations of instigating anti-Sikh riots, a Chief Minister.
    • PM Modi as he indirectly attacked Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath.
    • You made someone who instigated anti-Sikh riots, a Chief Minister: PM Modi exposes Congress, MP CM Kamal Nath in Parliament [2] pic.twitter.com/drO4SXJ6ia — ANI (@ANI) February 6, 2020
  • Reminiscing the 1984 Sikh Massacre, the Prime Minister asserted, “Entire Punjab has witnessed that we formed SIT to investigate the 1984 Sikh riots, helped its victims. But Congress has always done the work of sprinkling salt on their wounds by giving big positions to the accused of riots.”

P

edit
  • (Rahul Gandhi's) current Guru Number 1, Sam Pitroda, added to Congress problems by making one of the most thoughtless, offensive remarks I have ever heard. Accosted by TV reporters last week and asked about the 1984 pogrom against the Sikhs, he said, “OK 1984 happened, so what?”
    • Sam Pitroda, Quoted from Tavleen Singh, May 12, 2019, If Modi becomes PM again, it will have a lot to do with Congress misjudging the national mood [4]

S

edit
  • The attack on Sikhs and their property in our locality appeared to be an extremely organized affair ... There were also some young men on motorcycles, who were instructing the mobs and supplying them with kerosene oil from time to time. On more than a few occasions we saw auto-rickshaw arriving with several tins of kerosene oil and other inflammable material, such as jute sacks.
  • It was the Congress leaders who instigated mobs in 1984 and got more than 3000 people killed. I must give due credit to RSS and the BJP for showing courage and protecting helpless Sikhs during those difficult days. No less a person than Atal Bihari Vajpayee himself intervened at a couple of places to help poor taxi drivers.
    • Khushwant Singh: 'Congress (I) is the Most Communal Party', Publik Asia, 16-11-1989., quoted in Elst, Koenraad (2002). Who is a Hindu?: Hindu revivalist views of Animism, Buddhism, Sikhism, and other offshoots of Hinduism. ISBN 978-8185990743
  • The RSS and Sikhs have always fought shoulder to shoulder. Sikhs can never forget how RSS activists protected them during the partition and the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. This is lie, RSS was part of the crowd that was responsible for Sikh Genocide.
    • National Commission for Minorities chairman Tarlochan Singh. Addressing a condolence meeting for late RSS chief Rajendra Singh, popularly known as Rajju Bhaiyya, he said. Minorities panel chief lauds RSS, 2003
edit
 
Wikipedia
Wikipedia has an article about:
Retrieved from "https://en.wikiquote.org/w/index.php?title=1984_anti-Sikh_riots&oldid=3597643"