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New Delhi: Forty-one years after the 1984 anti-Sikh pogrom, the ghosts of that dark chapter continue to haunt India\u2019s so-called democracy \u2014 a stark reminder of state-sponsored violence and the enduring denial of justice.<\/p>\nNew Delhi: Forty-one years after the 1984 anti-Sikh pogrom, the ghosts of that dark chapter continue to haunt India\u2019s so-called democracy \u2014 a stark reminder of state-sponsored violence and the enduring denial of justice.<\/p>\n
According to Kashmir Media Service, rights groups, genocide survivors, activists, and political leaders gathered at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi to mark the anniversary of the 1984 anti-Sikh genocide \u2014 not merely as an act of remembrance but as a reminder of the Indian state\u2019s persistent failure to ensure accountability.<\/p>\n
The event, organised by Lok Raj Sangathan and allied organisations, displayed banners reading \u201cPunish the Organisers of the Sikh Genocide!\u201d and \u201cEnd State-Organised Communal Violence!\u201d \u2014 reflecting the anguish that continues to define India\u2019s broken promise of justice. \u201cJustice delayed is justice denied,\u201d read a banner fluttering against the Delhi sky.<\/p>\n
A Genocide, not a Riot
\n\u201cThis was no spontaneous outburst \u2014 it was a meticulously planned massacre,\u201d said S. Raghavan, President of Lok Raj Sangathan, citing evidence from various inquiry commissions that the killings were carried out with the tacit and active support of state machinery. \u201cMore than 10,000 Sikhs were killed. Yet, not a single orchestrator at the highest level of power has faced real punishment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Speakers stressed that what happened in 1984 was not an aberration but part of a recurring pattern of state-enabled communal violence \u2014 repeated in Gujarat in 2002, Muzaffarnagar in 2013, and Delhi in 2020. Despite changes in political leadership, the culture of impunity remains entrenched.<\/p>\n
A Nation Divided by Design
\nMohammad Salim Engineer of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind said the tragedy of 1984 was rooted in the communal politics fostered since Partition and exploited ever since. \u201cFrom the genocide of Sikhs then to the lynchings of Muslims today, the playbook remains unchanged \u2014 the guilty are protected, the victims forgotten,\u201d he observed.<\/p>\n
Other speakers drew parallels between past and present injustices \u2014 the disenfranchisement of marginalised communities through voter list purges, the criminalisation of dissent under draconian laws like the UAPA and NSA, and the targeting of Bengali-speaking Muslims through the CAA\u2013NRC. \u201cIt\u2019s all part of a deliberate strategy to divide the people and divert attention from real issues \u2014 unemployment, inflation, and social decay,\u201d said Sucharita of Lok Raj Sangathan.<\/p>\n
Democracy Under Siege
\n\u201cIndia\u2019s own philosophy teaches that the state must protect life and dignity,\u201d Raghavan reminded the gathering, \u201cyet our institutions have repeatedly failed this duty.\u201d The blatant violation of the legal principle of \u201cinnocent until proven guilty,\u201d with thousands jailed without trial, was cited as proof of India\u2019s authoritarian drift.<\/p>\n
For many, the commemoration was also a reckoning with the limits of electoral politics. \u201cElections alone won\u2019t change this system,\u201d said Comrade Sheomangal Siddhanthkar of CPIML\u2013New Proletarian. \u201cA political process that thrives on hate cannot be cured by ballots. It must be confronted through united people\u2019s resistance.\u201d<\/p>\n
Justice as a Collective Duty
\nSpeakers including Dr SQR Ilyas of the Welfare Party of India, Deepak Dholakia of Citizens for Democracy, and Birju Nayak of the Communist Ghadar Party, underscored the urgent need for unity across communities and movements. \u201cCommunal violence is a weapon of the ruling elite,\u201d Nayak declared. \u201cThe only way forward is to dismantle that power structure and uphold the right to conscience, dignity, and equality.\u201d<\/p>\n
The event concluded with a collective pledge to \u201cremember and resist\u201d \u2014 not merely to commemorate the victims of 1984, but to ensure that its lessons guide future struggles against state-orchestrated communal violence. As slogans of \u201cJustice for 1984!\u201d and \u201cEnd State Terror!\u201d echoed through Delhi\u2019s historic protest space, the message was clear: India cannot move forward without confronting the violence buried in its past \u2014 and the violence that continues in its present.<\/p>\n
Forty-one years later, the wait for justice endures. The participants\u2019 pledge to \u201ccarry forward the struggle\u201d was not a ritual close to an event, but a call to action \u2014 a warning that in forgetting 1984, India allows it to repeat itself in new and more insidious forms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
New Delhi: Forty-one years after the 1984 anti-Sikh pogrom, the ghosts of that dark chapter continue to haunt India\u2019s so-called democracy \u2014 a stark reminder of state-sponsored violence and the enduring denial of justice. According to Kashmir Media Service, rights groups, genocide survivors, activists, and political leaders gathered at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi to …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":187162,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[5],"class_list":["post-187161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sikh","tag-top-story"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/assests\/2025\/11\/mqdefault.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=187161"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187161\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":187163,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187161\/revisions\/187163"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/187162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=187161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=187161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=187161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}