(From left) Bhupinder Kaur, Charamjit Kaur and Surjit Kaur in Ludhiana. (Express Photo/Gurmeet Singh)
Born on October 31, 1984, the day when former prime minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated, the babies of Charanjit Kaur were snatched from their aunt Bhupinder Kaur’s hands and burnt alive by a mob on November 2.
Now, 33 years later, after Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s remark that ‘Congress was not involved in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots’, these three widows in Ludhiana are left wondering that if not Congress, who took ‘revenge’ of Indira Gandhi’s killing from Sikhs. “Who else’s mother she was?” they ask.
Bhupinder Kaur (70) recalls how their residence in Delhi’s Sultanpuri area was attacked by a mob on November 2,1984, at around 12 noon and five men including her husband Bant Singh, brothers-in-law Shingara Singh and Kulwant Singh (aged 30-40), father-in-law Magar Singh (60s) and nephew Kulwant Singh (20s) were allegedly burnt alive in front of her eyes, a scene that still rankles her.
“First they crushed their heads with stones and then set them on fire with tyres in their necks. Our Hindu neighbours tried to stop the mob, but they too were threatened and asked to stay away. For three days, we three women kept sitting near the burnt bodies so that MC vans do not pick them for mass cremation or stray dogs don’t drag them away. It was only on November 5 that our neighbours arranged wood and cremations were done. We did not even have money to buy woods as our entire home was burnt and we were shifted to a camp,” she recalls.
But worst was yet to come. A mob attacked two babies whom Bhupinder Kaur was trying to hide. Her sister in law Charanjit Kaur (59), then in her twenties, had delivered twins two days back on October 31. Bhupinder was cradling them when they attacked. “I tried to suppress their cries and save them but they were snatched from my hands and I was pushed to the ground. Attackers did not even spare the babies and burnt them alive. Their cries still resonate in my ears. I pleaded them to spare babies but they did not,” says Bhupinder, who hid her own three daughters (aged 10 to 1) at neighbour’s place.
Charanjit Kaur, wife of Kulwant Singh, who lost her babies, says, “I haven’t even loved them once properly after delivery as I was unwell. Did my newborns kill Indira Gandhi? They were born just two days back.”
The attackers also did not spare Charanjit’s elder son Kuldeep Singh who was just 2 -years- old then. “They cut him with swords and left assuming he has died. Luckily he survived,” she recalls.
Surjit Kaur (65), wife of Shingara Singh, remembers that mob were shouting ‘Sikhs killed our mother’, referring to Indira Gandhi.
“After Rahul Gandhi’s statement, we are wondering that who took revenge of Indira Gandhi’s death, if not Congress? Who else’s mother was she? The mob were so well-organized. They had iron rods, inflammable powder, kerosene, tyres- everything with them. We request Rahul Gandhi to come in people’s court once and answer our questions,” says Surjit.