New Delhi: Forty-one years after the 1984 anti-Sikh genocide, survivors, activists, and rights groups gathered at Jantar Mantar to remember the victims and condemn the Indian state’s continued failure to deliver justice. The commemoration, organised by Lok Raj Sangathan and allied groups, renewed demands for accountability and an end to state-sponsored communal violence.
Speakers at the gathering called the 1984 violence a “state-enabled genocide,” not a spontaneous riot. Lok Raj Sangathan President S. Raghavan said over 10,000 Sikhs were brutally killed while those responsible still enjoy impunity. “No mastermind has faced true justice,” he stated.
Rights activists drew parallels between 1984 and later instances of communal violence, including Gujarat in 2002, Muzaffarnagar in 2013, and Delhi in 2020, arguing that the use of violence for political gain has become systemic. Mohammad Salim Engineer of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind said that the same communal machinery that targeted Sikhs then continues to target Muslims and other minorities today.
Speakers also criticised the government’s growing authoritarianism, citing misuse of laws like UAPA and NSA, and the targeting of dissenters. “Institutions that should safeguard citizens now protect the guilty,” said Sucharita of Lok Raj Sangathan.
Leaders including Dr. SQR Ilyas of the Welfare Party of India and Birju Nayak of the Communist Ghadar Party called for collective resistance to communal politics and unity across movements. As participants raised slogans of “Justice for 1984” and “End State Terror,” the event became both a memorial and a renewed call to action.
Forty-one years on, the wounds remain open. Justice, participants said, is not only overdue but essential for India’s democratic survival.
