For harmony, put rumour mills to rest

SANDEEP SINHA

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A few days ago, I received a message from an old friend, a Sikh, about the disturbance in Shillong. He forwarded the message that had been sent to him by one Ajmer Singh Randhawa. It described the situation similar to that in 1984, when the police were nowhere to be seen. My friend did not know that I was on leave and since journos are believed to be Mr Know-all, he asked me to check the veracity of the news. Coming from a Sikh family with liberal views, who shunned extreme views and was eclectic in its world view, I could sense he was disturbed. I checked this newspaper’s news alert and messaged him a tweet by Union Minister for Home Affairs Kirin Rijiju and also the news about the Punjab Government forming a fact-finding committee to inquire into the incident.

Sitting in my hometown in faraway Jharkhand, I was reminded of another time, in 1984, when rumours in the aftermath of the Operation Bluestar, had fuelled Sikh unrest, leading to a revolt in the Sikh Regiment at Ramgarh, barely 45 km from here.

At that time, there had been a real Army operation but for the lack of authentic information and falling prey to trouble-makers, the nation witnessed some dark times that sapped Punjab of its vigour and sagacity.

Was it also a coincidence that the whole incident and rumour-mongering took place around the time when the Bluestar anniversary is observed, lost this time in the din of celebrations being held to mark World Environment Day. Isn’t such rumour-mongering more polluting, destroying not just the nature but social harmony and cohesiveness, destroying not just Mother Earth but individuals at the altar of vested interests that threaten our very body politic.

The rumours had fuelled anti-Sikh riots and I have been a witness to such incidents in Jamshedpur in 1984 when a mob surrounded the house of an elderly Sikh couple. Their son stayed abroad and the elderly couple had already left. It was not that the police were not there but would look the other way when the mob would shout “Indira Gandhi amar rahe.” My neighbour explained what shoot-at-sight orders meant—shoot only if you sight them. Since the police were unable to sight them, the trouble-makers were not shot.

While it was the government at that time that was seen to have caused the damage through brazen action and no attempt at containing collateral damage, any attempt should be nipped in the bud. It is said when Gandhi was assassinated, Lord Mountbatten made Nehru put out the word that the assassin was a Hindu. No repeat of the 1947 mayhem! The incident also pinpoints the danger posed by the social media where messages are passed around and it becomes difficult to separate the grain from the chaff. TV anchor Ravish Kumar in his book has written about the dangers posed by the social media and says IT cells of political parties and other outfits are singularly devoted to the cause of rustling up support by spreading fake news. He calls it “WhatsApp University”.

The rumours invariably revolve around minority communities, trying to stoke flames of social unrest. The country still carries the hangover of the Partition in the form of the Hindu-Muslim rift, surfacing from time to time, and the Sikh wounds taking time to heal after the 1984 riots.

Once bitten, twice shy, we should say in the face of such rabid spreading of hate, act responsibly, and bring the wrong-doers to book if the attempt is to disrupt social harmony. Freedom without restraint, even in the cyber world, is fraught with danger, and it should be put paid to if it harms our social fabric.