The man behind the camera that captured the bloodshed in the narrow lanes of block 32 in Trilokpuri during the anti-Sikh riots can still remember the horrific sight clearly…. After all, 30 years is not long enough to forget something “so frightening”.
As a 32-year-old, photojournalist Rahul Bedi had to tip-toe around blood, bodies, limbs and hair in the narrow lanes of block 32 on the afternoon of November 1, 1984, as the entire nation mourned the death of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
On cases pertaining to anti-Sikh riots still being “fought” in various courtrooms, the 62-year-old says: “I think we are disgraceful people and we are going to get worse”.
He shares how on the afternoon of November 1, 1984, a man named Mohan Singh came to his office. “He had somehow managed to escape from Trilokpuri. When he narrated how Sikhs were being killed, we could not believe him. He looked dazed. It was then that a colleague and I went to the spot, took photographs and told people what was happening.”
“What was shocking was that the then Lieutenant-Governor P.G. Gavai held a press conference and said only 15 people had been killed. I was at the press conference. I abused him right there and asked him to visit the spot to see that hundreds have been killed.”
Covering the riots was a horrifying experience for Mr. Bedi.
“It was such a narrow street. There were bodies, limbs and hair all over the street. We had to walk very carefully. There was no space to even place one foot on the ground. We made several trips to the site. It was so painful.”
The irony, he says, was that the Sikhs in Trilokpuri were not even Punjabi-speaking Sikhs. They were migrants from Rajasthan and were the lowest of the low engaged in weaving string cots, etc.
On being asked if as a journalist he was able to stay detached, he says: “We helped so many people and made many trips to and fro. It became a personal thing. Our cab driver objected saying he won’t drive if we kept taking people to hospitals. I told him to get lost. It was more of a human thing. It was painful at the level of humanity.”
“The riots were planned. See how after the riots, Rajiv Gandhi-led Congress won 404 seats [in the Lok Sabha]. The entire campaign was so vicious, so frightening. There were advertisements carrying photograph of a Sikh man saying ‘Do you trust this man?’ It was all a particular strategy decided by the State after the assassination of Mrs. Gandhi.”
He says nearly 2,713 people were killed in 72 hours. The unofficial death toll is twice the figure. After so many years, only eight or so people are doing time, and that too those from the bottom in the chain of people involved in it.
“Those were not riots, but a very well decided and thought out pogrom,” Mr. Bedi says.
“The death toll could have been much less if TV channels like today existed in 1984. The incident would have been shown extensively on TV and internationalised. Under so much pressure, the riots would have been controlled.”
Comparing the incident to the 2002 Gujarat riots, Mr. Bedi says: “Nearly 1,100 people were killed in eight to 10 weeks there. The conviction rate is also higher, with almost 200 people, even leaders, being jailed. TV played a big role there. In 1984, only Doordarshan existed and politics was paramount. The entire focus was on Mrs. Gandhi’s killing, her body kept in state, the entire bandobust, who was coming, who is going and the funeral.”
The police could have made a huge difference, but even they were under instructions, he added.
Justice delayed is justice denied, and nothing could be truer in the this case.
“The principal thing after 30 years is that I do not think anymore that justice can be done. It could only be symbolic now.”
