It was January 2010. I was visiting Calcutta for the first time. It’s a big Indian city located in the West Bengal state of India. I always wanted to see Comrade Jyoti Basu- the former Chief Minister of the state who was at the time of my visit battling for life at a hospital.
Image Courtesy: Outlookindia.com
Ninety-six year-old Basu was the towering leader of India’s Marxist Communist Party and had led the West Bengal state for many years before he retired. Though he was disliked by the Indian bourgeois for his land reforms, he was equally disliked by the revolutionary communists who parted ways with him to launch an armed resistance that came to be known as the Naxalite movement. The Naxals often accused Basu of not doing enough for the poor and marginalized and rather suppressing the rebels and voice of dissent.
But there is one aspect of Basu that makes him a real hero for the minority Sikh community in that region. In fact, during my visit to Calcutta I stayed with Sohan Singh Aitiana, a Sikh political activist associated with Basu’s party. He has been a staunch supporter of Basu like many other Sikhs in Calcutta.
Basu had played a significant role during November 1984 when the country witnessed anti-Sikh massacre engineered by the Indian state following the assassination of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards in New Delhi.
Gandhi was murdered in retaliation of the military attack on the Golden Temple Complex, the holiest Sikh shrine in Amritsar in June that year. The army invasion was ordered by Gandhi to flush out religious extremists led by a fiery Sikh preacher Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, who had fortified the place of worship. Bhindranwale was accused of running death squads from inside the temple. His supporters were behind many political murders, including that of Communists who were opposed to religious fanaticism.
The army operation had left many innocent pilgrims dead and several important buildings inside the complex heavily destroyed. Bhindranwale also died fighting against the army during the attack. This had enraged the Sikh community and under those circumstances Gandhi was murdered inside her official residence. The slain leader’s Congress party that claims to be secular organised mass violence against innocent Sikhs all over India.
Sensing danger in West Bengal, Basu displayed an exceptional leadership in his territory. He ordered the deployment of army and asked his party volunteers to come out in open and protect the Sikh community. While the entire country burnt leaving thousands of Sikhs dead, West Bengal remained largely peaceful with very few deaths. Since then the Sikhs in West Bengal always saw Basu as their saviour.
From Aitiana I learnt how Sikh community of his generation felt indebted to Basu who ensured that the Sikhs remained safe in his jurisdiction, whereas the community was hounded aggressively in the Congress ruled states where the police either sided with the mobs or looked the other way. Indira Gandhi’s son Rajiv Gandhi who succeeded her as the next Prime Minister drew maximum mileage from the bloodshed as he used the slogan of National Unity to win the next election with brute majority. Riding on the anti-Sikh wave famous Hollywood star Amitabh Bachchan also got elected as Congress MP. Bachchan was close to the Gandhi family and had remained with Rajiv Gandhi throughout the funeral of his mother.
While in Calcutta I kept trying to meet Basu at the hospital with the help of Aitiana but never succeeded. Nobody was allowed inside the Intensive Care Unit, except the close family members. The local Sikh community too kept visiting the hospital and prayed for the speedy recovery of their beloved leader. Then one evening when we stopped by at the hospital we saw heavy deployment of police and a huge crowd outside the building. We were told that Bachchan was visiting the ailing leader. After some time when Bachchan appeared there was a big cheer from the crowd that I realized had gathered not for Basu but to have a glimpse of Bachchan. Many were eager to take his picture on their mobile phones. That was the first time I saw Bachcha in person as he walked past.
There was a time when I too was a big fan of Big B, a term frequently used for Bachchan by media commentators. As a teenager I never missed a chance to watch his latest films. Supremo, a comic series based on him was my favourite. I kept checking with the bookstalls for it every month to get the newest edition of Supremo. I had sent a letter to Bachchan asking for his autograph on the mailing address I found either in Supremo or elsewhere. After some time when I got a postcard picture of him addressed to me with his autograph in the mail, I felt on top of the world. I loved to mimic his dialogues and sing his songs for my classmates and family. Collecting his posters also became my hobby. In 1982, when he got injured doing a stunt during shooting of film Coolie I too prayed for his long life. When he finally recovered I also thanked the almighty. I remember that when Coolie was released the Bachchan fans rushed to theatres to watch the particular scene that led to his injury. I still remember watching the caption appearing on the screen during that scene that announced it was here that Bachchan got injured.
All this however changed in 1984 after the massacre of Sikhs. Though I became an atheist as I grew older, being born in a Sikh family, I was carried away by the repression of my community at the age of 14. I was religious at that time and could not bear the loss of my compatriots. Although my family did not suffer during anti-Sikh violence as we lived in Punjab, we were very shaken by what happened to the people of our community in other states. I somehow started getting disinterested in Bollywood party because of growing sense of alienation within the Sikh community. When I learnt from someone that Bachchan was among those Congress supporters who had incited the mobs I couldn’t believe my ears. However, I do remember seeing him standing next to the body of Indira Gandhi lying in state on TV. During this time I remember having heard myself people chanting slogans, “Khoon ka badla khoon se lenge (we will avenge blood with blood)” on TV, but not sure if Bachchan was present at that particular moment or he also joined the chorus. There are some who claim that he did raise the slogan. US-based Sikhs For Justice had tried to get him summoned for inciting the anti-Sikh massacre. So much so, Bachchan had clarified to the Sikh clergy that he wasn’t involved in the violence. He continues to insist that he is proud of his partial Sikh heritage as his mother was a Sikh.
However, that does not help. Bachchan never uttered a word against the massacre and those who organised it. He rather got a privilege to get elected as Congress party MP. There is no doubt that the entire Congress machinery was involved in the massacre and for that reason Bachchan will always be seen as a complicit in the crime by the history. By remaining silent to the massacre of the Sikhs he did a great disservice to the humanity. The image of his being “an angry young man” who could fight single handed with goons on the silver screen gradually began receding in my memory. His actions on screen rather than his acting skills had influenced me at an impressionable age. Even as I kept watching some of his films during later years mainly due to peer pressure, I was left with no particular liking for him. The memories of 1984 kept coming back in waves whenever I used to see his image. I once thought of mailing back to him his autographed picture that I cherished so much along with a protest letter. Nevertheless, I never bothered about it and if I vaguely remember I threw it away in the garbage. Few months ago, I tried to confront him on Facebook when he was doing live posting, but he never answered my questions and kept responding to the greetings by those who joined.
The year 2002 became another watershed year for me. The state of Gujarat under Chief Minister Narendra Modi witnessed well organized massacre of Muslims. Those involved were the supporters of the Hindu nationalist Bharitya Janata Party (BJP). The violence followed the burning of a train carrying Hindu pilgrims. Over 50 passengers had died in the incident that was blamed on Muslim fundamentalists by the Modi government. The BJP supporters used similar techniques to target Muslims that were applied against Sikhs by the Congress in 1984. Following into the footsteps of Rajiv Gandhi, Modi too emerged victorious in the assembly election held after the violence.
Notably, Bachchan had acted in Dev, a powerful film based on Gujarat massacre. He played as a police officer who is determined to punish the guilty involved in the killings of Muslims. Yet, he chose to ignore all this in real life when he agreed to become brand ambassador for Gujarat state at the request of Modi. So much so, he tried to project Modi in a positive light before 2014 when Modi became the Prime Minister of India with a brute majority in the national election held that year. Much like his deafening silence over 1984 anti-Sikh violence, his quietness over the Gujarat massacre was very disheartening. This is despite the fact that he frequently tries to make statement on social issues. How can he therefore be so indifferent to such violent crimes against minorities in India?
His track record leaves little doubt that he isn’t the real hero we should be looking at with some hope. For one, being an elected politician in the past, he cannot claim to be politically naïve or neutral to distance himself from such episodes. Also, being a character of films like Dev, he cannot plead ignorance over such inconvenient truths.
If I have to choose between Bachchan and Basu, I would pick the later as real hero. It was Basu who swam against the current by taking a strong position against violence against a minority community, while Bachchan was a beneficiary. He has established beyond doubt that he lacks courage to stand up against majoritarianism both in relation to the violence in 1984 and 2002. I don’t even recall if he ever took any position against similar violent incidents that happened in between 1984-2002 or later. When many actors and cultural activists have come out against recent attacks on minorities under Modi government, Bachchan has remained mum. On the contrary, Basu took a great political risk for Sikhs who merely form two percent of the Indian population. He had also acknowledged in his memoir that his party lost heavily in the general election that followed the 1984 carnage, whereas the Congress gained by polarizing Hindu majority against the Sikhs by using Gandhi’s murder as a political weapon to get sympathy vote. He had also pointed out that the BJP supporters too had participated in the anti-Sikh violence. This isn’t surprising as the Congress supporters too had participated in the anti-Muslim violence in Gujarat as foot soldiers. Both parties have indulged in majoritarianism. The difference lies only in the brands. The BJP is an outright sectarian party that wants to transform India into a Hindu state, the Congress on the other hand tries to please Hindu majority under the garb of secularism. As against Basu, Bachchan failed to challenge both parties.
Basu was not a perfect politician. He he may have many limitations. But when he passed away on January 17 after I left without seeing him even once, he left behind a legacy of real secularism. This is the reason why the Sikhs in particular and minorities in general will always remember him as a statesman who continued to denounce religious intolerance. One striking thing I noticed during my trip to Calcutta was that a Sikh man who drove me around had a big sticker of Bhindranwale on the rear window of his car. In spite of his liking for Bhindranwale whose followers continue to hate communists for being agnostic this man said that he has always voted for Basu and his party and will continue to do so. I felt pity on those ordinary people who had gathered at the hospital where Basu was admitted to see Bachchan without realising that the actual hero was the one fighting for life inside and not the one they see in action on celluloid. Today when the minorities feel insecure under Modi government and the opposition lacks a strong leadership, Basu is even more relevant to get India out of the turmoil.