In January 2023, Rahul Gandhi visited the Golden Temple in Amritsar wearing a saffron turban. The Congress party has used the photograph in its campaign material, suggesting a continued connection with the Sikh community. Gandhi has publicly distanced himself from the legacy of Operation Blue Star, the 1984 military operation that targeted the Sikh separatist headquarters at the temple. He has described his visit as a personal act of service and a time to listen to Gurbani. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has recently attempted to link the 1984 anti‑Sikh pogrom to the Gandhi family. In a statement attributed to former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, “When a big tree falls, the earth shakes,” the BJP has used the quote to highlight the violence that followed the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on 31 October 1984. Thousands of Sikhs were killed in the days that followed. During the Congress’s “Insaaf” rally in Sangrur, Rahul Gandhi criticized the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government for its “drunken” chief minister and for waging a war on drugs. He also suggested that Union Home Minister Amit Shah would not be able to fulfill a promise made for 2029. The rally was used by the Congress to emphasize its claim that it can govern Punjab independently of the central government, unlike the BJP and AAP. The relationship between the Congress and Punjab’s oldest regional party, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), has historically been fraught. The SAD demanded greater federal powers, a demand that Indira Gandhi viewed through a communal lens. The SAD opposed the Emergency (1975‑77) and sent more than 40,000 workers to jail during the “Save Democracy” movement. In July 1985, Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and SAD leader Sant Harchand Singh Longowal signed a peace accord that failed to deliver many of its promises but demonstrated a willingness to negotiate. Since the restoration of democratic governance in Punjab after periods of President’s Rule, the Congress has won the state assembly elections three times: in 1992, 2002, and 2017. The 1992 victory occurred amid militancy and an SAD boycott, and some observers question its democratic legitimacy. The party’s success in 2002 and 2017 was attributed to a desire among voters for a party that could restore normalcy, access the centre, and manage a fractured state. The Punjab unit of the Congress has produced its own leaders, drawing support from both rural and urban constituencies, and is often described as “a party of leaders” rather than a single charismatic figure. Punjab’s collective memory of 1984 remains vivid. A brother of Beant Singh, one of Indira Gandhi’s assassins, told The Indian Express that he had not been consulted about the plan, but that the assassination was a foregone conclusion. The community’s inability to forgive is also reflected in the remembrance of Udham Singh’s 1940 killing of Michael O’Dwyer in London. Yet Punjab’s politics are not solely driven by this moral universe. In 2004, then Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh opened the border for Pakistani visitors to watch the Indo‑Pak Punjab Games, and many residents in Chandigarh welcomed them into their homes, demonstrating a preference for nostalgia over hatred. The BJP’s argument that a party could win Punjab after 1984 and that memories of the farm agitation would not prevent a BJP victory assumes that collective memory fades uniformly. In the 2024 parliamentary elections, a group of villagers near Faridkot said they would vote for Sarabjit Singh Khalsa, the elder son of Beant Singh, despite his five previous electoral defeats. Sarabjit Khalsa, an independent candidate, won the seat, defeating high‑profile candidates from the AAP and BJP. The result highlighted the persistence of long‑buried emotions. On the eve of the Congress rally this week, a Mansa morcha saw Bhim Singh, father of late activist Parvinder Singh Jhota, urge that relatives of Indira Gandhi and former CM Beant Singh stay away from the agitation. Bhim Singh had hosted Amit Shah at his home two weeks earlier. The incident underscores the enduring complexity of the relationship between the Gandhi family and Punjab. The Gandhi family remains a contested symbol in Punjab: for some, they represent hurt; for others, they are negotiators of peace; and for many, they are leaders of a party that has repeatedly returned to power in the state. (Manraj Grewal Sharma, National Editor, North, The Indian Express)
Article source: Indian Express | Image credit: Indian Express