Gandhi Meets 3 Demands of Restive Sikhs

In the face of mounting tension in Punjab state, homeland for India’s Sikh population, the government of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi agreed Thursday to three major demands of Sikh leaders, including a judicial inquiry into “incidents of organized violence” in New Delhi after the assassination of Indira Gandhi.

As Gandhi sat impassively on the next bench in the Lok Sabha, the lower house of Parliament, Home Minister S.B. Chavan also announced the lifting of the government ban on the All-India Sikh Students Federation. This group is blamed by government authorities for organizing and initiating terrorist attacks that precipitated the army’s storming of the sacred Sikh Golden Temple in Amritsar last June.

In a vaguely worded statement, Chavan also promised that more of the several hundred Sikhs in custody under the National Security Act will be released. A previous group, including several leaders in the Sikh Akali Dal political party, were released March 23 after months of imprisonment.

The government initiatives Thursday came amid mounting agitation and increasing acts of terrorism in Punjab. On Monday, a police official was fatally shot by terrorists in Jullundur. On the same day in Chandigarh, the city that serves as the capital for Punjab and Haryana states, the office of a High Court judge was visited by two Sikh gunmen who were chased off by the judge’s bodyguard.

Meanwhile, recently freed leaders in the Akali Dal party had called for a meeting today in Amritsar to plan demonstrations against the Gandhi government. Government leaders feared an outbreak of violence Saturday, the national Baisaki harvest festival that is particularly important to the Sikhs.

Throughout Sikh history, Baisaki has marked momentous, occasionally tragic occasions. In 1699, it was the day one of Sikhism’s most revered gurus, Gobind Singh, proclaimed the standards of khalsa that established Sikhs as a militant, martial people. In 1919, it was the day British-commanded troops in Amritsar opened fire on civilians at Jallianwalla Bagh, killing hundreds and giving the struggling independence movement its most dramatic rallying point.

While the Gandhi government was making its announcements before Parliament, an Amritsar district magistrate issued orders banning parades, meetings or assemblies of more than five people in that city. The magistrate said the directives were to ensure order during the Baisaki festival.

Foreign reporters are not permitted in Punjab. However, interviews this week with Sikh leaders and farmers in the Punjab capital at Chandigarh on the state’s eastern border, where foreign reporters are permitted to go, indicated that conditions in Punjab are dangerous but still controllable.

The state’s prosperous farmers said they have bumper wheat crops for the second year in a row, which has helped diminish political tensions there.

On the other hand, few of those interviewed believe that government moves to ease the Punjab crisis have been sufficient.

Another trend that alarms the Indian government has been the increasingly anti-government statements made by Akali Dal leaders, particularly party president Harchand Singh Longowal. In the last week, Longowal has consistently praised Sikh fundamentalist leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, who was killed in the army assault on the Golden Temple. He also has honored the families of the two accused assassins of Indira Gandhi, the mother of Rajiv.

In the face of such increases in tension, many felt that the Gandhi government needed to take a dramatic move before conditions deteriorated. The most consistent demand of virtually all Sikh groups, from the most strident to the most cautious, has been for a judicial inquiry into the killings that followed the Gandhi assasssination on Oct. 31.

In the next few days, at least 1,000 Sikhs were killed in New Delhi by roving mobs of Hindus seeking retaliation for the assassination, which was committed by two Sikhs from Gandhi’s house security staff.