1984 anti-Sikh riots

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

G

• When a big tree falls, the earth shakes.
  • Rajiv Gandhi, quoted in Hindustan Times "1984 anti-Sikh riots 'wrong', says Rahul Gandhi". Hindustan Times. 18 November 2008. Retrieved on 5 May 2012. 
• The fact of the matter is that innocent people died in 1984 and innocent people dying is a horrible thing and should not happen. The difference between Gujarat and 1984 was that the Government of Gujarat was involved in the riots. [...] I think that riots, as all riots, were a horrible event. Frankly I was not in operation in the Congress party.
  • Rahul Gandhi. Interview with Rahul Gandhi. Rahul Gandhi's first interview: Full text 27 January 2014.
• I have no confusion in my mind about that. It was a tragedy, it was a painful experience. You say that the Congress party was involved in that, I don’t agree with that. Certainly there was violence, certainly there was tragedy.
  • Rahul Gandhi, Congress not involved in 1984 anti-Sikh riots: Rahul Gandhi in London Hindustan Times Aug 25, 2018

• 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

• 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

• 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

• “I have data which shows who was responsible whenever violence incidents took place in the country... "The Congress talks of 1984 riots, I would like to tell them that they have forgotten that some accused are today on the position of CM.
  • CM means Chief Minister. The comment is reported to be a veiled attack on Kamal Nath.
  • Meenakshi Lekhi , 11 March, 2020 quoted in Some people have a history of setting things ablaze, 1984 riots accused are sitting as CM: Meenakshi Lekhi roars in Lok Sabha

M

• 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.”
  • PM Modi [3]

P

• (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

• 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.
  • Aseem Shrivastava, a graduate student at the w:Delhi School of Economics, describing the mobs' organised nature in an affidavit submitted to the Misra Commission Misra Commission Affidavit of Aseem Shrivastava. Retrieved on 3 August 2010.

• 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