‘Sad News’ Reverberates Across Southland’s Indian Community

“Sad news in India. Sad news in India,” was the refrain at the India Sweet House in West Los Angeles on Tuesday as patrons reacted to the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in southern India.

Jagdish Chillar, 42, the owner of the pastry shop, said that news of Gandhi’s death had been the talk of his customers since they heard the news. He predicted chaos in India.

“I spoke to people in India (by phone), and they say it’s tragic. The number of bad guys are increasing. It’s very tragic. His (Gandhi’s) brother, his mother, and now him.”

Rajiv Gandhi’s younger brother Sanjay was killed in an airplane crash in 1980, and his mother, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, was shot to death by her Sikh bodyguards in 1984.

Siri Singh Sahib Yogi Bhajan, a Sikh official in Los Angeles who said he is the leader of Sikhism in the Western Hemisphere, said it was a “very sad” day for India.

Noting that Sikhs were convicted of killing Indira Gandhi, he said: “We are very sure no Sikhs were involved today. It happened in the south, and we do not live there. For everything, we are blamed. If good sense prevails, India has to return to its own original form--that democracy is the only way they can rule.

“It is a very diverse country. It cannot become mob crazy.”

Raj Dutt, national president of the Indian-American Political Action Committee, said in Culver City that he was “devastated” by the assassination. Dutt, who estimated that there are 850,000 Indians living in the United States, said India is now “a country without a leader.”

“Usually, when this happens, it is followed by civil unrest,” he said.

Harshad Patel, the PAC’s local president, said in Los Angeles that India has lost “a great, great leader.” But he expressed hope about India’s future.

“In the past when such things took place, we have come back with more aggressive leaders,” Patel said. “We’ve come back bigger and better after such tragedies.”

In Glendale, officials of the Indo American Political Assn. voiced hopes that India would remain calm in the aftermath of the assassination.

“We urge our brethren in India not to settle their scores by violence and appeal to them to keep calm and let the electoral process take its course,” Dr. Parvin Syal, chairman of the association, said in a statement.