Why India Shouldn’t Criticize US on Sikh Shooting?

There is little question that the tragic killing of six Sikh worshippers at a Gurudwara in a Milwaukee suburb on Sunday was a depraved and reprehensible act. It also underscored the toxic brew produced by combining the United States’ lax gun control laws with the resurgence of racist ideology.

That being said, the official reaction of the Government of India to this horrific incident reeks of hypocrisy. The outrage expressed by the Indian National Congress, the principal component of the current ruling coalition, the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) is entirely insincere given that it has done little or nothing to bring the perpetrators of the 1984 pogrom against the Sikh population of New Delhi to justice. In this tragedy it should be emphasized that as many as 800 Sikhs were systematically slaughtered in the streets of the nation's capital.

The attacks took place in the wake of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s assassination by two of her Sikh bodyguards in 1984. The bodyguards were motivated by her decision to send Indian troops into the Golden temple in Amritsar, the holiest of Sikh shrines, after Sikh separatists had seized it. To ostensibly avenge her death, a host of street thugs, many of whom are believed to have been associated with the Congress Party, went on a rampage across much of the city attacking Sikh neighborhoods and killing many of those they came across.

As a number of independent assessments have shown, the city's police during this incident were merely bystanders to the carnage at best and tacit collaborators at worst. Today, even after no less than ten government-appointed commissions of inquiry, only a few insignificant persons have been convicted for their role in what could be described as India's first pogrom. Indeed, as Human Rights Watch put it in a 2011 report, “The [Indian] government has yet to prosecute those responsible for the mass killings of Sikhs that followed the 1984 assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards.”

With its track record of being either unable or unwilling to prosecute the key individuals who organized and directed the grotesque events, the Congress Party’s denouncements of the U.S. government ring hollow. Had Wade Michael Page, the individual accused of the heinous crime in Wisconsin on Sunday, not been fatally wounded by police after Wade had shot the first officer to arrive on the scene 8 or 9 times as the officer sought to care for the wounded, rest assure U.S.  Law would have certainly followed its course. Page would have faced the full weight of a fair trial and would have, in all likelihood, paid dearly for carrying out this cruel and wanton act.

Publicly upbraiding the United States for allowing individuals to have easy access to firearms and for the racist proclivities of an individual may well generate enthusiastic press coverage and electoral support for India’s politicians. However, it cannot wash away the stain from India's own flawed record in its abject failure to bring the guilty to justice for the terror that they had unleashed upon a segment of their hapless, innocent citizenry in the closing months of 1984.

Indian Army Gen V K Singh indoctrinating Army against Defense Ministry

Defense Ministry has launched a probe into a complaint which claimed that the Army chief had deployed interceptors for clandestinely listening to important phone conversations in resentment of reprisal of his age row controversy. 

On the other hand, adding insult to injury, our Army, without any proof, in a surprise reaction that made its internal strife public, had accused the former head of the Director General of Defense Intelligence Agency (DGDIA) of 'spreading stories' that General V.K. Singh was spying on defense minister A.K. Antony and other senior officials.

Moreover, the evil intentions of Gen V K Singh to malign Defense Ministry can be interpreted by his recent statement which stated that Indian Army has left with only two days stock of ammunition if waged in war whereas conversely, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri), in its report, said India accounted for 9% of all international arms imports between 2006-2010, making it the world`s largest weapons importer. (http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-03-14/india/28687498_1_largest-arms-sipri-arms-imports).

Massive Infighting between Indian Army HQ and Indian Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA)

NEW DELHI: Continuing to vehemently deny allegations of clandestinely tapping phones of senior defense ministry officials, the Army says strict action is being taken against the serving officers spreading such "fictitious, malicious and preposterous'' stories.
With a major-general and a colonel among other officers under the scanner in what has emerged as a bitter factional feud within the 1.13-million strong force, Army chief General V K Singh said, Necessary action will be taken against some of these officers. Our aim is that we come up with facts upfront and we don't hide them. Such fiction has to be countered.''
The raging controversy revolves around Army's alleged tapping of some sensitive phones in the national Capital through misuse of listening devices and "off-the-air interceptors'', especially during the recent tussle between the defence ministry and Gen Singh over the latter's date of birth.
The Army HQ has directly accused a former director general of Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA), Lt-Gen (retd) Tejinder Singh, and some other ``disgruntled'' serving and retired military intelligence officers of ``fabricating the fiction'' that a covert Army unit had spied on MoD officials during the prolonged stand-off.
It even accused Lt-Gen Tejinder Singh of offering bribes on behalf of a foreign military vehicle supplier that has a tie-up with a defence PSU. The retired DIA chief has dismissed the charges as ``ridiculous'' and even threatened to take the Army chief to court to clear his name.
This is just the latest in the unseemly controversies dogging the Army, which even saw Gen V K Singh drag the government to court over his age in the first-ever such move by a military chief. Apart from the Army itself being divided down the ranks, the controversies have sharpened the civil-military divide in South Block even further.Internal differences in Army units are aggravating the situation and adversaries are making one another scapegoat which is making everybody demented.

Gen V K Singh feuling Indian Army Against the Civil Government-Proofs Unvieled

The birth date controversy has been on the simmer for over a year. The Adjutant General's branch which deals with manpower has issued recorded General Singh's date of birth as May 10, 1951 but the Military Secretary's branch that deals with promotions and postings recorded it as May 10, 1950. General Singh insists 1951 is his correct date of birth and calls 1950 a clerical error but, after considering the stark response of Defense Ministry over his age controversy, Indian Army General V K Singh, in order to save his reputation, has come up with another gambit of a compromising formula for the Government with his recent assertions of terming it a battle for honor and not tenure. The suggestion is that he would resign on time if the ministry accepted 1951 as his year of birth. What a joke!!

Well, rumors swirling around the corridors of South Block say General Singh may resign ahead of his retirement date if he feels his battle is lost. But, clearly, the personal crusade has hobbled his options. In 1961, General K.S. Thimayya resigned as Army chief. Thimayya's reasons were never personal. He was dissatisfied with the Army's poor preparation against China and defense minister V.K. Krishna Menon's neglect of adequate equipment. General Thimayya was persuaded to withdraw his resignation by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. In the case of the present Army chief, however, things are different. "There is no interest in this case except self-interest," says a senior Army officer.

Whoever wins at the end of this bitter controversy, the outcome will have substantially diminished one of the nation's great institutions. It can lead to what the Army uses to describe a depleted war machine-hollowness.