dna edit: Cases relating to 1984 anti-Sikh riots are not proceeding in Delhi’s trial courts

Rahul Gandhi’s baffling inability to apologise for the 1984 anti-Sikh riots despite his leader and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh having already done so, has once again trained the focus on the Congress’ culpability for the riots. The emotional response of the Sikhs protesting in Delhi cannot be simplistically described as Akali Dal or SGPC supporters leveraging the issue to put the Congress on the backfoot. Despite 442 rioters being convicted by Delhi courts for various offences in the past 30 years, the Sikh community cannot be faulted for harbouring a genuine grievance.
Witness accounts of the riots allege the active involvement of Delhi Congress leaders and party cadre in fanning the riots. The Congress cannot escape the blame for the inability of the criminal justice system to punish these leaders.

The failure of successive governments in investigating and prosecuting a majority of the 3,000 murders, committed over three days in Delhi, remains a blot on India’s human rights record. As many as 10 commissions and committees inquired into various aspects of the riots including the death toll, role of the police, the failure to register cases and record witness statements, and  identifying Congressmen, police officials and other civilians complicit in the riots. Between 1984 and 2005, the Marwah commission, Misra commission, Kapur-Mittal committee, Jain-Banerjee committee, Potti-Rosha committee, Jain-Aggarwal committee, Ahuja committee, Dhillon committee, Narula committee, and finally the Nanavati commission, inquired into the riots. Most of these inquiries were folded up before completion of their reports or their findings were rejected by the Rajiv Gandhi and the PV Narasimha Rao governments.

This is where Rahul Gandhi’s contention that the Congress government did not abet the 1984 rioting is on shaky ground. The party’s actions in the aftermath of the riots have only aided in the destruction of evidence, coercion of witnesses and the consequent weakening of cases. Among the Congress leaders who have been linked to the riots are Sajjan Kumar, Jagdish Tytler, HKL Bhagat and Lalit Maken. The miscarriage of justice on one hand has been vitiated by the repeated attempts of the Congress party to rehabilitate Sajjan and Tytler.  Their recent attempts to re-enter electoral politics have not fructified — not because of any show of contrition by the Congress, but because of the outrage that offering tickets to them generated. Rahul’s hesitant concession in the televised interview that “some Congressmen were probably involved”, only to recover his poise and lay the onus on the country’s legal system, typifies the Congress’ insensitivity to the riots.

When a country keeps travelling back in time to 1984 ever so often it is because the criminal justice system failed the Sikhs despite the sheer magnitude of the carnage. The Delhi Sessions court that acquitted Sajjan Kumar last year found the testimony of the witnesses — Jagdish Kaur, Jagsher Singh and Nirpreet Kaur — trustworthy while convicting five other co-accused. The court, however, was not inclined to believe the testimony of these three witnesses that they saw and heard Sajjan Kumar inciting mobs. Now, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has demanded the setting up of a Special Investigation Team to inquire into the riots. Many witnesses are dead and the living are unwilling to re-enter the legal cesspool again for fear of intimidation and disappointment. The SIT must have a specific mandate — investigating the role of senior Congress politicians; this could be the last chance before time wipes out all evidence.