Operation Bluestar anniversary: Celebrate-a-terrorist day in Punjab

Editor’s Note: This is an updated version of an article that has appeared previously on Firstpost. It’s Celebrate-A-Terrorist day in Punjab today. The excuse is the 28th anniversary of Operation Bluestar, the ill-advised, bloody siege of the Golden Temple which claimed countless innocent lives. This ought to be a moment of condolence and self-reflection. The Akal Takht has chosen instead to mark this anniversary by honouring Balwant Singh Rajoana — again. The Takht has already conferred the title of “living martyr” on the assassin of then Chief Minister Beant Singh; this is latest honour is clearly just an excuse for more Khalistan Zindabad-style antics. “We must look forward,” said the local Congress president Captain Amarinder Singh, condemning this terrorist-nostalgia that afflicts the state’s religious and political leadership (The BJP has maintained a studied silence on the issue). And yet Punjab remains ever eager to go back to the future. The initiation of kar sewa for an Operation Bluestar memorial last month offered confirmed the resurrection of King of Terror, Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale.  Writing in Open Magazine, Hartosh Singh Bal notes:

The karseva was started by Akal Takht Jathedar Gurbachan Singh and the head of the Damdami Taksal, Baba Harnam Singh Khalsa. For those who have forgotten Punjab’s recent history, the Damdami Taksal is the seminary once headed by Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale. For good measure, Ishar Singh, Bhindranwale’s son, also spoke on the occasion. No one will say this upfront but by its very nature, the memorial, whether we like it or not, will also be a tribute to Bhindranwale.

Even as Bhindranwale was being celebrated in the Golden Temple, the national media was doing its bit to whitewash his image in their reporting on the ceremony. Here’s the Hindustan Times describing Ishar in its story: “Ishar Singh, son of former Taksal chief Jarnail Singh Bhindrawale, who too was killed during the operation.” The Hindu framed him as a “firebrand leader,” careful to reference him as a “Sant” each time his name is invoked. India Today merely noted that he, “the head of Damdami Taksal,” was among the “Sikh separatist leaders” eulogized on the occasion. No inkling here of Bhindranwale’s true identity as a man who led and presided over a reign of violence, killing leaders, civilians, Sikhs and Hindus alike. We’ve become a nation of wilful amnesiacs. [caption id=“attachment_324986” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“AFP”]  [/caption] “Our memory is short and events less than 30 years old seem as if they belong to the distant past. Many Indians outside Punjab need to be reminded that Bhindranwale was the man who necessitated Operation Bluestar in the first place,” Bal writes. But more alarming is his evergreen appeal for certain sections of the Sikh community. A 2010 Tehelka report from Amritsar noted the rise of Bhindranwale as the “poster boy” of a new generation who flock to dedicated memorabilia shops to buy CDs, books, posters, calendars, T-shirts and stickers celebrating ‘Baba.’ “Babaji hamare sant hain. Aur agar yeh aaj hotey to sikhon ni itni bekadri na hoti.” (He was our saint. If he had been around, Sikhs would not be so neglected.)," a young man tells Tehelka. As Bal brilliantly puts it, Bhindranwale has become the new Che Guevara:

Much as the Left has never really bothered with the truth of Che Guevara, a lunatic who enjoyed shooting his opponents in cold blood, for many young Sikhs in Punjab, Canada, the UK and US, Bhindranwale has emerged as a symbol of self-assertion, and they accept the iconography around his name without question, without an understanding of the absurdity that this often represents. Today, in west Delhi, it is possible to find Afghani Sikhs, who have been given a home in India after fleeing the Taliban’s oppression, wearing Bhindranwale T-shirts.

Bal doesn’t get into the reasons for his appeal, but the older Tehelka story raises some possibilities: a generational passing of the insurgency baton, much as in Kashmir; unemployment; and, of course, the foreign hand. “These youths, with no jobs and no future, are easy targets for the recruiters. The situation is really bad along the border, where the use of drugs has wreaked havoc. All that the operator has to do is to listen to them, channelise their anger against India and give them some money and assurances," warns a senior police officer. Two years later, the drug epidemic in Punjab has reached gargantuan proportions : one in three college students are addicts, and up to 75 percent of the population has been exposed to drugs. The result is a time-bomb in search of trigger: unemployed youth, filled with rage and discontent, with easy access to drugs and weapons. “Nothing has changed since militancy was curbed in the 1990s. Close to a lakh people died but no solution emerged . Everything is still the same. We are sitting on a powder keg. All it would take is someone to ignite the fuse," says Khalsa Action Committee’s Mokham Singh. That “someone” may well be a man who has been dead for 28 years. The Operation Bluestar anniversary – and the planned memorial celebrating the “matryrdom” of Bhindranwale et al – marks the reintegration of extremists into the mainstream Punjab politics. And it bodes ill for the future.