Air India: Truth Before Community

    The Air India trial was a tragedy and the bombing a terrorist act. Concentrating on interpretations of the Punjab crisis in 1984, it is dismaying that some commentators have taken the opportunity to defend the honor of their community, over-looking the suffering of the victims, on the CBC web-site dedicated to the trial (http://www.cbv.ca/news/viewpoint/yourspace/air_india.html).

    Gaining entry into Canada, Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri, the co-accused, speaks volumes about our immigration system. Unlike men of conviction, like Bhagvat Singh (a freedom fighter in the Indian Independence Movement), they did not take credit for their acts.

    Inspiring the Air India bombing was the Punjab crisis, in which separtists, like the co-accused, sought the creation of a Sikh theocracy, Khalistan. The Sikh scholar, Khuswant Singh remarked, in his epic two volume study, The History of the Sikhs, "Sikhism is about the rise, fulfillment, and collapse of Punjabi nationalism." Little remarked upon, more recently, is how many Sikhs have been killed, for opposing separation. Also overlook is that it was not the Indian Army (under the command of a Sikh, K. S. Brar) that invaded the Dhabar Shab (Golden Temple), but the Sikh militants. We cannot stockpile weapons in gudwara, madir, or church, in Canada or India, which was happening in the Dhabar Shab in 1984.

    As a Sikh merchant, in Amritsar (Amrit-sar, the pool of nectar), put it, "India is one." Instead of slicing India into smaller pieces, which only always benefited super-powers, it is confusing why militants do not work on the re-unification of West Punjab, which is more realistic than separating a small, historically diverse, land-locked state.

Further, there is no honor in defending community members, when they commit mass murder. "There are good and bad people in every community", a Sikh bus driver remarked, while I traveled in the Kashmir. The re-trial and conviction of Malik and Bagri is more likely than the separation of Punjab. It is not over, yet.