Politics of tragedies: Need to de-legitimise violence
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), whereas the Congress’ vote share in the urban and semiurban constituencies increased by 14% between 2014 Lok Sabha and 2017 assembly elections. The BJP’s vote share declined by 11%, and the Shiromani Akali Dal vote share dipped by 14% in the urban and semi-urban constituencies between 2012 and 2017 assembly elections.
POLITICAL MISADVENTURE
This volatility in Punjab politics disturbed the delicate balance between the urban Hindus and the Sikhs, the Dalits and the Jat peasantry. The rookie party, AAP, attempted to mainstream the radical fundamentalist discourse in politics. Their leadership publically patronised radical leadership and the Maur bomb blasts cemented the belief that it was dangerous to support the AAP as that might lead to the assertion of radical politics. The AAP flirtations with the Sikh radicals led to the alienation of the urban Hindus, moderate Sikhs and a large section of the Dalits. The purblind politics of the AAP could not succeed as the tragic and fearful outcome of such a kind of politics is still fresh in the people’s memory.
Political misadventure to cultivate exclusive religious support base and, in the process, disturb the diversity sensibilities, brought about major shift in the support base of the political parties, particularly the AAP. Accordingly, the major beneficiary of this political discourse was the Congress which was seen to have a potential to defeat the AAP. In other words, the main agenda that took precedence over the menace of drugs, unemployment and farmers’ debt was to decisively defeat the radical politics. The main lesson to be learnt from these elections is to bring closure to the politics of the 80s.
CASE FOR CLOSURE Closure does not mean revenge, and it also does not mean to register a claim that “my” use of violence is privileged. Therefore, the same cannot be brought to justice. For example, the assertions that the violent acts of nonstate actors must be pardoned and the state actors who were involved in the violence must be hanged or vice versa is nothing but subversion of justice. Closure does not mean subversion of the institution of justice for saving those who took life of others.
The main focus of closure should be the recognition of the atrocities that have been committed and a “willingness to live with the truth”. This may involve setting up of documentation centres, holocaust museums and the peace memorial monuments. This will create an understanding towards some degree of justice and reconciliation. Incidentally, that has been on the people’s agenda since 1997 and found articulation in the newspaper articles since 2007.
NEED FOR PEACE MEMORIAL
This was further reinforced by a group of Punjab citizens, including RS Cheema, senior advocate, Prof Harish Puri, Neelam Mansingh Chaudhary, Prof Atamjit Singh and others. To quote: “We earnestly believe that a peace memorial is to be built to commemorate the spirit of perseverance and eternal resilience of the people of Punjab, and also to reflect multi-cultural and multi-religious harmonious spirit of the Punjabis.
The memorial, while recording the sufferings of our people across board, shall epitomise our collective aspiration for peacebuilding, brotherhood and progress” (June 7, 2012). The Punjabi society has to initiate a process of setting up a monument in the memory of those who became victims of the decade-long terror, trauma and torture.
It is not to undermine the earlier efforts to bring closure.
Because of these, the tragedies produced and the hurt caused by the events of the 80s became universal. In a way, the efforts towards seeking “closure” surely weakened the divisive and separatist politics, but the delayed initiatives have provided a sort of lease of life to the extreme and fundamentalist politics.
Thus, there is a compulsive need to make concerted efforts to de-legitimise violence and reduce incentives to violence and deliver restorative justice. In other words, the obvious goals of closure, i.e. transparency, justice and reconciliation require to be addressed adequately.