BJP Celebrates Patel’s Birthday as Unity Day on Sikh Genocide Anniversary

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chose to celebrate 31^st Oct as Unity Day without consideration that the date is also the anniversary of the 1984 Sikh genocide; BJP started celebrating when it came to power in 2014 to mark freedom fighter and India's first Home Minister Vallabhbhai Patel's birth anniversary but this time the function was grand because it was Patel’s 150^th anniversary. After India's independence, Patel had united more than 560 princely states. However, for Panjab, Patel remains a complex character. Patel believed India was primarily a Hindu nation. He was the first to agree to the plan of India's Partition in 1947 and had proposed the transfer of population during the Partition. BJP chose to appropriate an Indian National Congress (INC) leader Patel who agreed to Partition of Panjab and Bengal and celebrate him on a day the Sikhs remember as the beginning of violence on them in 1984 and the gross injustice they have faced in Indian courts since shows the BJP’s arrogance towards both—Panjab and Sikhs. Yet, in Bihar which is going to elections soon the Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi invoked the Sikh genocide to discredit INC. Meanwhile, Panjab’s popular singer Daljit alias Diljit Dosanjh appeared on popular television show Kaun Banega Crorepati (Who will be the millionaire?) hosted by film star Amitabh Bachchan to raise funds for the flood hit in Panjab. In the show, Diljit showed respect to Bachchan by touching his feet—a common South Asian manner of greeting elders. However, Diljit has come under attack from various sections of Sikhs because many have accused Bachchan of sloganeering khoon ka badla khoon (blood for blood) after then PM Indira Gandhi’s assassination on 31 Oct 1984. The Sikh genocide followed Gandhi’s death and Bachchan is considered to have abetted it though no proof exists because the state TV channel Doordarshn’s footage has been wiped out. Sikhs for Justice, the Sikh separatist group, has announced they will shut down Diljit’s shows in Australia. Sri Akal Takht Sahib's (Eternal Throne) Jathedar (leader), Giani Kuldip Singh Gargajj, said Bachchan remains 'unexonerated' in the eyes of the Sikh community over the 1984 Sikh genocide, as the allegations made against him had never been properly investigated (earlier coverage).