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So I spend the last 2 days reading @PavSingh84 1984: India’s Guilty Secret. Here is a short thread of my thoughts on the book.
Firstly, the book has been one of the few books I have read where I haven’t checked how many pages are left or even lose focus. Once I started I could not stop reading it.
Pav’s research is split into two parts- the first part in answering what exactly happened. Going into depth the mass slaughtering of Sikh men and children, the mass rapes against Sikh women and the looting and sheer devastation of property and homes.
The second half focuses on a deliberate, elaborate cover up at the hands of the @INCIndia . Revealing extensive evidence of how prominent politicians of the Congress party were involved and have largely gotten away with it (including thousands of policemen and criminal gangs)
Overall, the book has left me feeling quite puzzled. I grew up over a decade after the genocide and have always looked at Congress as the party of liberal values, progress and secularism. This book makes them look indistinguishable from BJP. Can I truly support this party?
A party that *pre-planned* a genocide against my own people? Some of you may notice I am using the word genocide as I never used to. This book has illuminated my ignorance on the pogrom. Not only is it a state sanctioned genocide it was a pre planned one.
I don’t want to give to many spoilers - but one of the most shocking reveals is that the genocide was perhaps ‘inevitable’ as Indira herself was planning to stir anti Sikh violence on Nanak Jayanti in Delhi in order for political means (secure an election?)
Reading and uncovering the factual horrors whilst living in a time where anti- Muslim sentiment, anti Liberalism is rife and anyone who disagrees with the genocidal establishment is labelled anti national was a really chilling parallel but only shows how Pav’s book is a MUST read
I am going to recommend this book and even share it with my friends (who are all hardcore congress supporters to the core) it’s only through awareness can we hope to bring about justice and move on from this wound in history that has not yet officially healed
and make Congress the true party Nehru intended it to be. Whilst the book is filled with tragedy and reveals man at its lowest, the book also has glimmers of hope that reveal man at its most beautiful such as how @maxpk44 was one of the few cops to save hundreds of lives
Or the many Hindu/ Muslim neighbours that put their very lives on the line to defend their Sikh brothers and sisters. On top of this, Pav does the @INCIndia work for them by revealing very clearly how to make amends in his last chapter.
As Pav rightfully states, the lack of Justice for 1984 allowed for the pogroms of Gujarat, UP and others to take place. If justice in 84 was served the dark shroud of hatred that often engulfs this country would not have often been present.
It’s only because the state in different times has often taken a blind eye or in this case been complicit in genocide against minorities, that the Nazis in this country feel emboldened to come out of their ratholes.
I hope Pav’s books spreads in this country, the way he writes is so accessible and welcoming (without the pompous ness of pseudo academics) that it def has the ability to be understood by nearly all! This empathetic research deserves to be read so that it will never happen again.
