Explainer: What jobs for ’84 anti-Sikh riots victims in Haryana signify

Dhani Haud is an unusual place to get a sense of the significance of Haryana government’s promise of jobs to victims of the 1984 riots. But in some ways, no other place can give a measure of the pain and loss suffered by Sikh residents after the assassination of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984. Once a bustling hamlet in Chilhar village panchayat in Rewari district, an eerie silence now defines Dhani Haud.

On November 2 that year, 32 Sikhs were killed here as rioting mobs went on the rampage. For Harbhajan Singh, who was 21 at the time and now resides in Ludhiana, the horror is difficult to forget. “They targeted anything and anyone they saw. Some of them poured diesel on my father, Balwant Singh, and set him on fire after ransacking the house. He fought back. My mother and I somehow extinguished the flames, but not before sustaining serious injuries,” Harbhajan recalls.

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Most of the Sikh families were farmers. No one returned.

Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini recently announced jobs to one member each of the 121 families who had lost kin during the 1984 riots in the state. He also spoke of the destruction: 20 gurdwaras, 221 houses, 154 shops, 57 factories, three railway coaches, and 85 vehicles were set on fire.

Saini’s outreach to the Sikh community is being viewed as part of the BJP’s plan to improve the party’s prospects in Punjab ahead of the 2027 Assembly polls. The Haryana CM has been making regular visits to the neighbouring state to build grassroots support. His annoucement has been welcomed by Sikh organisations in Haryana.

Though appreciative of the job offer, Harbhajan says the condition of a family member having died in the 1984 riots should be relaxed. “One member from each surviving family should also be offered a job, as they, too, endured severe injuries and mental trauma. Families were forced to abandon their land.”

He says Rs 5 lakh was granted to surviving families following the recommendations in 2015 of the retired Justice TP Garg Commission, which was set up in 2011 during the Congress regime, “but the amount was nominal”.

Among the survivors was the family of Saroop Singh Makkar, a former sarpanch and numberdar. His son, Jogendra Singh, a lawyer in Rewari, was 20 when the riots claimed the lives of several members of his brother’s family.

Jogendra says his family made Dhani Haud home in 1947, after migrating from Mianwali (Pakistan). Several Sikh families were resettled in Haud then. Four decades later, a pogrom awaited them. “They showed no mercy, not even to children, women, or the elderly,” he recalls, while narrating the tragic fate of an Armyman from Patiala who was travelling from Ajmer. The train stopped at Rewari due to curfew, and he was advised to go to Dhani Haud for safety “as it was a Sikh village”. He was among those murdered.

“No police came. No official help arrived. There was complete anarchy. What could be more shameful — no one resides in Haud now.”

On the job offer, he says the survivors and descendants must be included. “Entire families were wiped out. Those who survived endured unimaginable pain and loss. They too deserve support.”

In Karnal, 55-year-old Kanwaljeet Singh, a daily-wager battling poor health, says the job promise offers a ray of hope. His father, PS Bhalla, was injured in the riots in Delhi and died two years later. Despite complaints, no FIR was registered. “I never got any compensation,” he says. “This feels like justice.”

— With inputs from Parveen Arora