Indira Gandhi Bunaam Bush!

The region is in turmoil. The law and order situation has broken down. The writ of the government does not run in the land. Changes in the government do not stop the situation from deteriorating. Particularly menacing is a turbaned religious militant who has holed himself up in a place considered to be the holiest of the holy by the majority of the people. The religious fanatic is not amenable to any reason or compromise and is bent upon humiliating the rulers. He and his small but growing and loyal band of followers are willing, indeed keen, to lay down their lives for their cause. The army troops have surrounded the holy place and it is facing the dilemma of whether or not to invade the holy place and capture or kill the leader and his followers holed up in the shrine.

The above describes the dilemma facing the US president, George W. Bush, in Najaf today where Muqtada Sadr and his armed followers are in the holy shrine of Imam Ali and defying Bush and his henchmen in Baghdad. Muqtada Sadr has refused to accept the terms of compromise offered by the interim government in Baghdad and insists that the US troops leave the holy city of Najaf. His followers are defying the US and British troops in Najaf, Basra and the suburbs of Baghdad. Bush has sent troops to Najaf to confront the fiery young cleric. The cleric has refused to bend and has challenged the Americans to make him a martyr. It looks like the Americans are seriously thinking of doing exactly that.

Before Bush decides to accept Sadr’s bait, he should seriously ask his advisers to take a look at what happened at Amritsar twenty years ago. This was also the dilemma faced by Indira Gandhi in Amritsar twenty years ago. Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale had become a major headache for the Indian government. He had turned the holiest of the Sikh shrines, Harmandar Sahib or the Golden Temple, into a fortress for his struggle for Khalistan. He and followers, including a former general of the Indian army, had holed themselves up in the temple and refused to surrender to the police authorities. His agitation had paralysed the state government and changes in Chief Ministers or the imposition of the President’s rule had not stopped the situation from deteriorating. Punjabi and Sikh politicians were afraid to speak out against the Sant. He had silenced militant rivals in the temple through ruthless killings of his opponents. The Sant’s writ had replaced government machinery and no bureaucrat had the courage to disobey the Sant’s orders. The Sant had said that the foundation of Khalistan would be laid the day the Indian army attacked the Golden Temple. Indira Gandhi could not resist the bait and her army attacked the Golden Temple. Jaranil Singh Bhindranwale and his followers were killed, along with hundreds of innocent pilgrims trapped inside the Temple. The Akal Takht, the seat of the Sikh temporal power, was badly damaged in the attack.

But the attack did not solve Indira Gandhi’s problems, only exacerbated them. Panjab erupted in flames as never before. Nationalist Sikhs, who until then had condemned Bhindranwale, often at the risk of losing their and their families’ lives, turned against Indira Gandhi. The majority of Sikhs who were appalled at the Sant’s antics but had remained quiet out of fear, were horrified at seeing their own army attacking their most sacred place. Many Sikhs both inside India and those settled abroad, who were against Khalistan but sympathized with the demand for greater provincial autonomy (Anandpur Saheb resolution) now became supporters of that movement.

The result was a full-scale insurgency in which thousands lost their lives and careers. Indira Gandhi herself paid for her folly with her life but India is still paying the price of that stupendous mistake. The Sikh alienation has not completely ended and the wounds have not completely healed even twenty years after that event.

Bush and his advisors should closely examine the events that followed the Indian army’s attack on the Golden Temple if they want to avoid a similar mistake. The repercussions of an attack on the shrine of Imam Ali will not be limited to Najaf or even Iraq. It will enflame the passions of all Muslims and the shock waves will be felt in the entire Muslim world, especially among the Shias.

The Khalistan movement was defeated in India because of the inherent strengths of a democracy. To the extent that the ruthless counter-terror of the state played a part in it, it was conducted by the Punjab police led by a fellow Sikh, and not the Indian army. To the extent that the Sikh wounds have healed, it is because of the close-knit and well-integrated lives of Sikhs in the socio-economic fabric of the Indian society and close ties of families and friendships with Punjabi Hindus in particular. There will be no such mitigating factors in the relationships between Muslims and the largely Christian American troops attacking Najaf.

There is a lot of talk in the US bureaucracy these days about “lessons learned”. Let us hope that the administration has the capacity to learn from other people’s mistakes instead of making their own and turn the Iraq misadventure into a bigger tragedy than it already is.