There must be a lot of muddle-headedness in high places in New Delhi if Mr. Rajiv Gandhi, and possibly Mrs. Gandhi herself, sincerely believe that a day’s visit by him to Chandigarh can help remove the fear psychosis that grips Congressmen in Punjab. It will do nothing of the kind. Mr. Gandhi will be, as he should be, heavily guarded. He will address, according to the present programme, only closed door meetings. The programme cannot be changed in favour of a public meeting for compelling security reasons. So what kind of message will all that send to ordinary Congressmen in the state? That they can move freely and establish contacts with Sikhs in Punjab and explain to them the wrong-headedness of Akali, especially extremist, actions! And that when the extremists continue to be is a position to kill, loot, blow up railway tracks and do whatever else they believe will advance their cause without encountering any resistance worth the name either from the authorities or the people! And what will Congressmen achieve if they do agree and manage to stir out?
The proposed visit appears to be a product of a lot of nonsense that is being talked these days in connection with Punjab. One piece of such nonsense is that the situation would not have deteriorated to the point it has if the Congress had not abandoned the political scene and left the Akalis in total command of access to the people, and that the position can still be rectified. The decline of the Congress in Punjab, as in other parts of the country, is a long and sad story. The party has also had the distinction of having produced a chief minister who converted Punjab into a virtual Sikh state long before the extremists raised the demand for Khalistan. Incidentally, the Congress also promoted Sant Bhindranwale. It is plainly ridiculous to think of reactivating such a party in a crisis of the present magnitude. Moreover, one must be an innocent to believe that political activity of any kind can be resumed in Punjab so long as the extremists are not smashed and some kind of respect for law is not restored.
Since reports of secret talks between the government and the Akalis have been circulating, Mr. Gandhi’s proposed visit to Chandigarh can lend itself to the interpretation that an agreement is round the corner and that the Prime Minister is trying to give the credit for it to her son as part of her programme to build him up. Such an interpretation will clash with Mrs. Gandhi’s own rough address in Himachal Pradesh earlier this week. But the Union minister, Mr. PC Sethi’s repeated renewal of the offer to talk to the Akalis can be cited in support of the possibility of an early agreement. Despite this confusion, however, it should be reasonably obvious that it is extremely difficult to work out an agreement with the Akalis at this stage, if it was ever possible to do so, and that it is utterly futile to try now. The Akali leaders live in terror of Sant Bhindranwale and his band of assassins. They are, therefore, not likely to risk their lives. They too will need evidence of the government’s capacity to deal effectively with the extremists before they make a deal with it. And even if they reach an agreement, they cannot make it stick. In the result, the authorities will have thrown away whatever few cards they now possess without achieving peace in Punjab.
Escapism comes naturally to most people anywhere in the world. In our case in the present context, it takes the form of recriminations. That is a dangerous exercise. It makes as little sense for Mrs. Gandhi to blame the rot in the Punjab police on the Akali-Janata coalition government as for her detractors to go on harping either on the Congress party’s help to Sant Bhindranwale in the past or on the opportunities she is supposed to have missed of reaching an accord with the Akalis. These are all old stories. We are face to face with a serious crisis and no soft options are open to us. Certainly, we cannot afford to spread the impression that an agreement has more or less been stitched up. That can only weaken whatever will there is in the Punjab administration to fight those who are determined to destroy national unity for the second time in one generation.