The Telegraph (Calcutta) May 3 , 2013
Editorial
SICK REPORT
There are wounds that run deep. The pogrom against the Sikhs after the assassination of Indira Gandhi is one such so far as the Sikhs are concerned. For perfectly understandable reasons, it is difficult for them to erase the memory of squads, directed by some Congress leaders, roaming the streets of Delhi to kill innocent Sikhs. Those who survived the pogrom remember the men who directed those operations. One of those who were accused, Sajjan Kumar, has just been acquitted by a Delhi court on procedural grounds. The court said he was given the benefit of doubt. The point of the acquittal is not a legal one. It is to do with the political fallout for the Congress. It remains a fact that in spite of being an accused in a case that involved the death of hundreds of people, Mr Kumar was never disowned by the Congress. He was allowed to remain a member of the Congress. It is difficult to comprehend how this was allowed to happen. The president of the Congress made a Sikh the prime minister of India, thus indicating that the party and its first family had nothing against Sikhs. The party has also expressed its strong regret and disapproval regarding the involvement of some Congressmen in the anti-Sikh pogroms of 1984. Yet it could not summon up the moral will to remove someone like Mr Kumar from his primary membership of the Congress party.
Today, there is no doubt that the Congress will be forced to pay a very heavy price for this failure. Nothing but an indifference towards Sikh sentiments and complacency on the part of the Congress leadership allowed Mr Kumar and his ilk to continue their association with the Congress. What is also evident is that the Congress has no instrument to control the damage that has been inflicted. As the president of India’s oldest national party that continues to fly the flag of secularism, Sonia Gandhi will have to bear the responsibility of this state of affairs. It is difficult to believe that Mr Kumar is considered so indispensable for the party that he was not removed as soon as the shadow of the accusation fell on him. Ms Gandhi’s inactivity and her silence will cost the Congress dear in the forthcoming elections, certainly in Punjab and wherever the Sikhs form a substantial body of the electorate. It is also a comment on the double standards of Indian politics that no one seriously queries the secular credentials of the Congress given its track record.
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