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What's Punjab got to
do with Iraq?
Siddharth
Srivastava
What’s Punjab got to
do with Iraq? Observers here have been drawing comparisons between
the hostile situation that reached a flashpoint recently at Falluja
and the terrorism that had infested the western state of Punjab
during the eighties.
The discussions (specially in the seminar circuit) were set off by a
recent article written by noted columnist Swaminathan S Anklesharia
Aiyar in the Times of India that draws a comparison between the
situation at Falluja (and by extension, the rest of Iraq) and what
was in Punjab. Needless to say, given the volatile situation that
the coalition troops face in Iraq and by comparison peace reigning
in Punjab, there are lessons to be learnt about dealing with an
increasingly sensitive population. Below are some jottings from the
ideas doing the rounds:
Terror and religious shrines: This is a tricky situation as an
attack on a religious shrine translates into an assault on the
entire community. Reports from Falluja indicate that the minaret of
a mosque was destroyed by the US forces when it was suspected that
armed rebels were holed up inside. These are the kind of actions
that provide grist to people looking to influence young minds into
joining the ranks of Islamic militancy. Such a mistake was made in
Punjab in 1984 when the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi ordered
troops into the most religious shrine of the Sikhs, the Golden
Temple at Amritsar. Code-named Operation Bluestar, the Army
successfully flushed out the terrorists but at a huge cost ---
scores of pilgrims trapped inside were killed in the crossfire and
the sanctum sanctorum of the temple was damaged. The Sikhs saw the
assault as an attack on their dignity. Gandhi paid the ultimate
price when two of her own personal security guards (both Sikhs)
assassinated her. What followed were mass killings of Sikhs by
Hindus that fuelled terrorism in Punjab to its worst levels. A
similar situation happened again in 1988 under Prime Minister Rajiv
Gandhi. Rajiv, however, did not repeat the mistake of his mother.
Code-named Operation Black Thunder, pilgrims were given time to move
out, the morale of the militants was broken by cutting off food,
water and electricity supplies while care was taken not to damage
any portion of the temple. The Operation was hailed as a victory.
Religious shrines hold immense symbolic value and terrorists should
not be allowed to gain sanctuary inside them.
Violation of Civil Rights: In an operation of the scale in Iraq, the
innocent are bound to suffer. With tempers frayed, a sense of
insecurity and people dying on both sides, mistakes of the kind that
have happened at the Abu Ghraib prison are waiting to take place.
This is not to condone or justify such behavior, but the fact it was
perpetrated by US soldiers (read outsiders), makes it worse.
Terrorism in Punjab was finally tackled by a police officer called K
P S Gill, a Sikh, who achieved cult status as a man who literally
browbeat the malaise. As head of the Punjab police force, he was
given a free run by the political establishment. He turned Punjab
police into a group of henchmen owing personal loyalty to him and
resorting to extra-judicial killings and torture. Many innocents
died, but so did terrorism and the mass public opinion slowly turned
in Gill’s favor as normalcy returned. The crucial factor over here
is the fact that Gill was a Sikh and hence had an acceptance level
that no person of an outside community could have enjoyed. In his
book Punjab: Knights of Falsehood, Gill argues strongly that
terrorism in Punjab was defeated not by some mystical force called
popular will but by force of arms. Voices emerging from Iraq suggest
that people would have preferred to be tortured under the Saddam
regime rather than by US forces. This is a significant psychological
factor. There seems to be a realization of this fact at Falluja
where Saddam’s former policemen have been entrusted with the
authority to bring order. You need local thugs to handle local
thugs.
Military versus Police strategy: Terrorism in Punjab was solved when
the military pulled back and the police was handed the authority to
maintain law and order. There are several differences between the
methods of operation of the military and the police. The personnel
of the military do not belong to the local community and hence
unaware of cultural and social sensitivities. The police force, on
the other hand is recruited from within the area, with members
sharing filiations as friends and relatives. The mode of operation
of the military is through tanks and rocket-launchers that may kill
a militant but cost the lives of scores of civilians as well. The
police rely on local intelligence, word-of-mouth to pin down the
adversary. As long as tanks and armored vehicles patrolled the
streets of Punjab, militancy only became worse. The police under
Gill developed a very strong intelligence network. They may have
gone wrong several times, but there was a fear in everybody’s mind
that the next-door neighbor was an informer. No terrorist could melt
into the crowds and feel secure. This is the kind of local
networking that will be needed in Iraq for the coalition forces to
succeed, even if it requires the re-nomination of security personnel
under the Saddam regime. One of the reasons attributed to the
failure to tackle terrorism in Jammu & Kashmir is the large presence
of the Army and paramilitary forces considered as aliens.
Institutions matter: While the police went about their business in
Punjab a strong democratic foundation was being simultaneously laid.
Despite years of President’s rule when the state was under central
control, elections were held periodically in order to allow the
people to choose the government of their liking. The Akalis who
enjoyed popular support of the Sikhs as having a true understanding
of aspirations of the people of the state were elected. So was the
Congress party, the other main political force in the state. In the
past decade both the Akalis and the Congress have intermittently
enjoyed power. Both the parties know that the people of Punjab will
not tolerate terrorism or atrocities by the police. Development is
the keyword and Gill has retired and since returned to Delhi. A
similar exercise needs to be implemented in Iraq wherein a tough
police force (that harks back to the Saddam regime) will play an
interim role until true democratic institutions take over. Only then
will the forced nostalgia associated with the supposed good times
with Saddam be exorcised for good.
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