32 years on, victims of anti-Sikh riots in Gurgaon await justice

The victims of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in Gurgaon alleged that the incumbent government has even failed to act on the recommendations of the Justice (retd) TP Garg Commission.

The victims of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in Gurgaon have blamed the BJP-led Haryana government for failing to give them justice.

Parveen Kumar/HT Photo

The incumbent government, they alleged, has even failed to act on the recommendations of the Justice (retd) TP Garg Commission, constituted to look into the incidents of violence in the Pataudi and Gurgaon districts that submitted its report on April 29.

“I have been waiting for 32 years with a hope that justice would be served one day. Unfortunately, the day has not come yet. We don’t know why the present government is not implementing and making public the recommendations made by the one-member Justice (retd) TP Garg commission,” said eighty-one year old Santokh Singh Sawhney, president of Riots Action Committee that organised a meeting for raising the issue at the gurudwara on Sunday.

The previous state government had constituted the commission on March 5, 2011 to inquire into the killing of 32 Sikhs in Hond Chillarh village of Rewari district. Later the scope of the commission was extended to inquire into the anti-Sikh violence cases in Gurgaon and Pataudi districts.

The report of Hond Chillarh village was submitted to the state government in March 2015. The Gurgaon victims grudge is that if the compensation, as recommended by the commission, was given to Hond Chillarh victims 15 days after the report was submitted, why are they not been compensated.

“There are around 10,000 Sikh families in Gurgaon who have been directly or indirectly affected by the 1984 riots. Not only lives but businesses and houses were lost,” said JP Singh Sahni, the vice-present of the committee.

The victims have once again written to chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar seeking his intervention in the matter so that the Garg Commission recommendations are implemented.

“The government must wake up and serve justice to the victims of the 1984 riots,” said Daya Singh, president All India Peace Mission.