The Silence of the Many

Title: The Silence of the Many – The Fallout of Operation Blue Star

Author: Plavelil George Eapen

Publisher: Viva Books, 2015 (First)

ISBN: 9788130931005

Pages: 254

India is supposed to be a secular nation in which the government neither interferes in religious affairs not does it discriminate people along religious lines. The practice falls much shorter than profession, however. Most of the time, communal and appeasing elements exert strong influence on the regime. Vested interests in major communities are unnecessarily pampered. Democratically elected politicians appease the disgruntled elements in religious orthodoxy to score one up against their party mates. Unscrupulous elements quickly grow from strength to strength until their former patrons are no longer able to rein them in. Indira Gandhi was said to be a very insecure person, probably as a result of a disturbed childhood. She drove her detractors out of the party. In order to have her say in Punjab in the face of the growing base of the Sikh party of Akali Dal, she openly sided with a hardcore religious teacher, Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale. She could of course claim some short term gains, with the assistance of the extremist. But Bhindranwale had his own agenda. He set up his machinery inside Akal Takht, Sikhism’s seat of temporal power and ran his parallel rule from inside the temple. He used extortion, kidnapping and murder to obtain what he wanted. The government was afraid to touch him. Gradually, Bhindranwale became bolder and wanted to establish an independent state for the Sikhs called Khalistan. Indira ordered troops inside the Golden Temple to flush out terrorists. In a pitched battle in which hundreds from both sides lost their lives, he and his colleagues were killed. But the attack on the temple had already ignited Sikh sentiments. Four months later, Indira Gandhi was shot dead by her own bodyguards. A massive riot was engendered in the assassination’s wake by the Congress party in which thousands of innocent Sikh lives were lost. Very few perpetrators were convicted on account of government apathy. George Eapen, who was an army man, reminisces about the incidents related to Sikh militancy and Delhi riots. The title of the book has its inspiration from Martin Luther King’s famous quote that ‘the ultimate tragedy of mankind is not the brutality of the few, but the silence of the many’, which in this case refers to the passive attitude of the silent majority being shown to victims in communal conflagrations.

Eapen provides a good account of Operation Blue Star. Being a member of the armed forces serving in Punjab at the time and who was later assigned the task of security of the Golden Temple in the aftermath of military operations, the author’s blow by blow account of the three days that it took for Indian army to assert the rule of law is refreshingly original. Rarely do we find an account penned by a soldier. No self-respecting society could have ignored the dictatorial parallel government run by Bhindranwale and his associates and his contemptuous disregard of people following other religions. The Sikhs have every right to be outraged for the sacrilegious act of the military entering the holy complex with lethal weapons and killing people harboured there. But, shouldn’t it be felt equally outrageous to them that a bunch of terrorists were allowed entry into the holy place and allowed to perpetrate the most heinous atrocities inside the temple for years on end? The author records that the army had found an arms factory inside the precincts and people were kidnapped and held hostage in its labyrinthine rooms. Hardcore criminals were lodged in its hostels, but what the high priest of Harmandir Sahib had to complain about was that the army entered the parikrama with shoes on, with helmets instead of with covered heads, smoking cigarettes and using the water of the pool for washing. He also mentions that the priests who withheld the handing over of saropa (robe of honour) to visiting Indian government dignitaries had no compunction in 1919 on gifting it to Reginald Dyer, who ordered the massacre of Jalianwala Bagh, immediately after the shooting. The heinous incident, in which hundreds of peaceful protestors were killed, took place within earshot of the temple at Amritsar, but that didn’t deter the high priests from making Dyer an honorary member of the Khalsa. In 1984, things were really at the point of getting out of hands, as retired army veterans assisted Bhindranwale in organizing defense and fortifying the positions, one such was retired Major General Shabagh Singh of the Bangladesh war fame. Many Sikh battalions of the Indian army mutinied after Blue Star, killing fellow soldiers and looting the civilian population. They were caught and handed long prison sentences. Eapen presents an amusing legend that all the attackers of the Golden Temple lived exactly 153 days only, after the event. They were, Masa Rangad, Jahiya Khan, Jahan Khan, Ahmed Shah Abdali and Indira Gandhi. They all died due to natural or unnatural causes, but none of them was alive on the 154^th morning. However, the author’s narrative of the military action leaves out the ordinary soldiers without naming, referring to them only as OR (other ranks). The book compares Operation Blue Star with Operation Black Thunder a few years later, in which the militants were flushed out by siege. But the second operation could succeed only because the first one was so sharp and effective and instilled fear among the terrorists that if they don’t surrender, the security forces would again come inside the temple.

After Blue Star, the book’s focus shifts to the assassination of Indira Gandhi by her own Sikh bodyguards, and the gruesome pogrom against Sikhs in Delhi that followed it. Indira had been foolhardy to ignore security warnings against continuing to employ radicalized Sikhs in her entourage and paid for it with her life. This may be likened in real life to a two-wheeler rider meeting his death in an accident while not wearing a helmet! But the horrendous retaliation against the entire Sikh community was organized by Congress party men with tacit approval from the highest echelons of the party as well as the government – which were one and the same thing in those days. For three continuous days, criminals killed, looted, raped, burnt and pillaged upon innocent Sikhs, while the police turned a blind eye. Whenever the Sikhs organized armed defence, the police was quick to arrest and disarm them, make them sitting ducks to assailants who roamed the streets of Delhi with impunity. The shock of 1984 riots is still a blot on the nation’s secular credentials. However, it was not a communal riot per se. Hindus helped their Sikh neighbours in many instances and Eapen records cases where Muslims were also among the attackers. It is also true that some Sikhs aggravated the situation by distributing sweets and indulging in ecstatic street dancing on the death of Indira. However, India must hang her head in shame at the fact that only a handful of the accused were ever convicted upon a total death toll of 2733 victims in the riots.

Indirect suggestions on the involvement of foreign security agencies behind the murder of Indira Gandhi may be discarded as an attempt at sensationalism. Absolutely no evidence or even motive is cited in its favour. Eapen has made an unnecessarily detailed description of the violence that took place during anti-Sikh riots. Such graphical description of murder and rape serve no use other than inciting passions among the descendants of victims when the embers had already gone cold. The unacceptable brutality of the assailants is already known and acknowledged as such by all, but the author’s attempt would only prolong the healing of the wounds. Also, the description of the rehabilitation efforts is rather mechanical, with details of the action-taken report filed by the government elucidated in detail and statistical figures of the compensation paid and houses rebuilt or repaired given in the text. The narrative on the violence is also based on personal interviews made by the author in the 2000s. But all the opinions expressed are not to be taken seriously, as some of the victims even suggested the involvement of CIA in the riots. The book includes the names of a few films and books which were based on the mindless violence of the riots, but spread the message of tolerance and love. The chapter on the author’s stint as the jailer of the military prison at Golconda that was set up to detain army deserters who were awarded light sentences treats the Sikh soldiers like children, who are easily offended by certain actions and whose goodwill can be managed by formulaic techniques. The long chapter on the bombing of Air India flight Kanishka over the Irish coast in 1985 is, strictly speaking, not linked to the salient theme of the book, but may be accepted on the need of providing a comprehensive picture of Sikh militancy. But, the particulars of the search for remains in the Atlantic Ocean including the names of the search vessels are irrelevant indeed.

Readers shouldn’t be confused about two things – the author’s political inclination and his desire to have an increased role for the armed forces in civilian life; during riots, to be precise. Eapen is all praise for the Communits in resisting terrorism in Punjab. But don’t make any mistakes – they resisted it by holding public meetings, rallies and sticking posters! On no less than three occasions do the communist party is unduly praised. Even the example of Bhagat Singh of freedom struggle is stirred up in propping up the communist party, which was practically non-existent in Punjab during the insurgency. As far as the role of the army, it may naturally be expected from a former soldier. He demands that the concurrence of a magistrate should not be held as a prerequisite to use force by an army unit during a riot in which they are called in. This is quite preposterous in a democracy. When there raises fervent calls to scrap the special powers devolved to the armed forces in terrorism-ridden states, Eapen is suggesting that the power be expanded to the entire nation! The final chapter on what to do to prevent the occurrence of riots is only a bunch of moral platitudes, urging the people to assimilate the good teachings of all religions and such pep talk.

The book is invested with a basic glossary of the Punjabi and Hindi terms used in it. The bibliography and a rudimentary index are laudable. However, the incessant series of prefaces and forewords are terrible. To be precise, the reader has to wade through two messages, foreword, prologue, preview and Insider’s view point before he can even touch the main text. The book is also riddled with too many printing errors, suggesting the pathetic quality of proof reading.

The book is highly recommended.

Rating: 2 Star