1984 Delhi Sikh Genocide - Statements

Statement submitted before the Nanavati Commission

Witness No. 137

Name : Gurbachan Singh

Age : 78 Years

Occupation : I.F.S. Retired

Address : 12 Kasturba Gandhi Marg, New Delhi.

On SA

In additon to what I have stated in my affidavit I say that I was in Government of India service for 36 years. I was in Indian Foreign Service and had tendered my service at various places like, Washington, London etc. I have served as Ambassador of India at Morocco, Sri Lanka, Kenya and Switzerland. I had retired in 1981.

On 1st November, 1984 while were proceeding towards Rashtrapati Bhawan, there was a crowd near Secretariat on Krishna Menon Marg and on seeing us they were shouting "Khoon – Ka – Badla – Khoon - Se – Lange" and they had made threatening gestures. When we met the President on that day we had conveyed to him various suggestions but he had expressed his inability to help.

We had made suggestions that he may appeal to the people on television and radio to remain calm just as Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru had done on the occasion of assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, call the Army Chief and tell him to induct army and restore peace, to call the Home Minister and to give him appropriate directions, to call all the Chief Ministers who had gathered in New Delhi for funeral and request them to make public address for keeping calm and the like.

The President had told us that he would speak to the Prime Minister within a day or two after he has had time to settle down. We had told the President that Sikhs were being killed everyday and there was open session for the Sikhs and immediate steps should be taken to control the violence. As far as we could gather, President could not do anything more than that. We had moved around for two or three days and had visited various places and our impression was that the authorities were not in a mood to take any serious steps to control the violence.

I had visited various localities along with Air Marshal Arjan Singh, General Aroa, Patwant Singh and Brig. Sukhjit Singh. As we found that nothing serious was done by the authorities we had decided to convene a meeting of enlightened citizens. The meeting was held on 15th November, 1984. On that day many enlightened citizens including Dharam Vira, former Cabinet Secretary, Soli Soharabjee, H.D. Shourie, L.P. Singh, Romesh Thapar, Rajni Kotari and few others had remained in the meeting.

Two important decisions were taken in that meeting. One was to make an appeal which can be found in the report of the Citizens Commission annexed to my affidavit. The second was to constitute a Commission to inquire into the various incidents which had taken place during those days. There were five members in the Commission and I assisted that Commission during their functioning of two months as Convener / Secretary.

The Commission had visited various Gurdwaras, refugee camps and many of the localities which were badly affected. I had accompanied the Commission on all these occasions and I was present at all the hearings. The findings were recorded in the report of the Commission – One thing which had appeared very clearly to me was that the police had remained as a by – stander merely in most of the cases. About 40 groups of citizens were heard by the Commission. They were either people affected or were social workers of the localities. They had narrated harrowing tales.

During the functioning of the Commission we had come across one old Sikh woman who had narrated to the Commission the fact that her grand son was scalped first and then he was killed and thereafter the hair attached to the Sikh were presented to her. We had also come to know that the mobs had forcibly cut hairs of many Sikhs and shaved their beards. We had also come to know that many Hindus helped and saved Sikhs and had also come into trouble because of that.

In Palam Village we were shown that the houses of Sikhs which were burnt were marked whereas other houses in the colony were not marked and were intact. In the report of the Commission names of the politicians are not mentioned but during the hearings before the Commission persons appearing before the Commission had stated about the involvement of prominent leaders like H.K.L. Bhagat, Sajjan Kumar, Jagdish Tytler, Lalit Makan. Apart from these leaders they had also named local leaders of the Congress Party I do not remember.

On 5th December, 1984 Mr Sikiri who was heading Commission and who was the former Chief Justice of India had addressed a letter to the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister P.C. Alexander for interview with the Prime Minister. P.C. Alexander had replied on 6th December, 1984 that the matter would be placed before the Prime Minister. Another letter was written by Mr Sikri on 19th December, 1984 seeking appointment with the Prime Minister.

There was no reply to that letter and no interview was arranged. On 20th December, 1984 he had also written to Narasima Rao who was the then Home Minister and had sought for appointment. Along with that letter a note containing suggestions was also sent. The reply given by the Additional Private Secretary is also annexed with the report as Appendix – E. Justice Sikri had also written directly to the Prime Minister on 4th January, 1985. But no reply was received from the Prime Minister nor any meeting was fixed.

Also on 4th January, 1985 he had also written a letter to the new Home Minister S.B. Chavan. That letter is Appendix – G of the report. After the inquiry was over when I had gone to the Office of the Vishwa Yuvak Kendra where the hearings of the Commission were held to settle down the dues the Secretary was upset since he and others in the management were being harassed by the higher authorities for having allowed the premises to be used by the Citizens Commission.

No cross examination by S.S. Gandhi, Senior Advocate on behalf of Delhi Police

No Cross examination by Ashok Kashyap, Advocate on behalf of Central Government

Read over and found correct.

(Gurbachan Singh) (G.T. Nanavati)

8th January, 2002

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