Kids Corner

1984

US Court Summons Amitabh Bachchan To Answer Allegations Over 1984 Mass-Murders

FIRST POST

 

 

 



Amitabh Bachchan has been summoned by the Federal Court of Los Angeles (California, USA) for allegedly instigating violence against the Sikh Community in 1984.

The petition against Bachchan was filed by Sikhs for Justice legal advisor Gurpatwant Singh Pannun. 

According to the petition, Bachchan instigated the attacks. He allegedly raised slogans saying, "Khoon ka Badla Khoon se Lengey" (“Blood for Blood”) after former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated.

Gurpatwant Singh states that Bachchan, then close to the Indira Gandhi family, had come out of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in New Delhi on 31 October, 1984 and instigated the crowds.

Bachchan has to respond to the charges made by the Human Rights body in 21 days.

Following Indira Gandhi's execution by two members of an elite Indian security force sworn to guard the Constitution of India  -- Satwant Singh and Beant Singh -- an orchestrated program of genocide was begun in Delhi on November 1, 1984, and quickly spread across the country.

Last year, the main witness in the case, Jagdish Kaur had asked as to why the actor had not been booked for fuelling the anti-Sikh massacres during interviews and TV appearances.

Reminiscing her memories of the mass hate crimes against the Sikhs of India, she said, "I watched the live relay on Doordarshan (India's national and state-controlled TV network) and saw Amitabh Bachchan raising his arm and shouting the slogan, 'khoon ka badla khoon sae lengey' (We will avenge blood with blood!) two times."

[There is no dearth of witnesses who have come forward to confirm that they had indeed seen him do this on TV that day. The tapes of the broadcasts from that day have mysteriously disappeared from Doordarshan's archives!]

However, the actor has constantly denied the allegations and in 2011 had even written a letter to Akal Takht in which he had vehemently denied any role the in the anti-Sikh pogrom, putting forward the defence that his maternal grandparents were Sikhs!

In his letter, Bachchan wrote, "I wish to take this opportunity to vehemently and categorically deny these allegations against me which are completely baseless, false and untrue. The Nehru-Gandhi family and our family have old ties from our city of origin, Allahabad. We have been together in each other's hour of grief and joy, but to allege that I was a part of the crowd that incited them to raise anti-Sikh slogans is a preposterous and blatant lie.

"Quite contrarily, I have always propagated the soothing of injured feelings and the maintenance of serenity. The unfortunate incidents of the [mass-murders] of 1984 against the Sikhs shall always remain a blot and a dark phase in the history of our country, a country that prides itself in its secular credentials."


[Courtesy: First Post. Edited for sikhchic.com]

October 28, 2014


 

Conversation about this article

1: Jagdish Pal Singh (Jaipur, Rajasthan, India), October 28, 2014, 9:34 AM.

Amitabh Bachchan's Naana ji and Naani ji (maternal grandparents) must be showering him with curses from their graves!

2: Sunny Grewal (Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada), October 28, 2014, 11:39 AM.

From what I understand his mother was born a Sikh. I wonder if she cheered him on or just simply felt awkward when her son became a cheerleader for a pogrom against her own people. Jagdish Tytler also partly comes from a Sikh background. It's a little muddled, but from what I understand his mother was a Sikh. The revelation of these monsters' bloodlines is astonishing.

3: Kaala Singh (Punjab), October 28, 2014, 1:15 PM.

This "superstar" of Bollywood is a wolf in sheep's clothing. He changes his political colours like a chameleon to get favours. Earlier he was very close to Rajiv Gandhi and Congress, later he joined the Samajwadi Party of Mulayam Singh and now he is with the BJP. And, how did he use his stardom? - by inciting mobs to kill Sikhs in 1984. Another painful fact, this scoundrel was born to a Sikh mother who had seen the horrors of partition. I wonder if she reprimanded her "illustrious" son for his role in 1984 or she also got "transformed" after marrying a Hindu.

4: Harmeet Singh (USA), October 28, 2014, 3:52 PM.

His was an "incitement to genocide."

5: Kanwarjeet Singh (USA), October 28, 2014, 8:10 PM.

@ #1 and #2. Merely being born in a Sikh family does not make one a Sikh. I think this is the biggest folly in our thinking. A Sikh is a Sikh by the values he or she lives by. First, one becomes a human then a Sikh. People like Bacchan, Tytler are not even humans, how can they even be connected to Sikhi?

6: R Singh (Canada), October 28, 2014, 9:47 PM.

This "transformation" after marrying outside is rather a common phenomenon. I would think it is but an expression of extreme self-hatred. The only way to feel comfortable is to disown any connection to the perceived weaker side, as Sikhs are perceived in the current atmosphere. Of course there are exceptions to the rule, where our own children feel obligated instead to accommodate even when it is not even demanded, to advantageously fit into the mainstream. Events of 1984 have had the intended consequence, where Sikh kids happily go over to the other side and disown their own heritage.

7: Kaala Singh (Punjab), October 28, 2014, 10:01 PM.

There are a lot of Sikhs today who have a complex, unaware of their history and glorious past and are influenced by the negative propaganda against them. They feel "proud" when their daughters marry outside the community and are quick to abandon their faith and identity and then to fit-in they try do things to prove that they are more Hindu than the Hindus themselves. I believe this guy is the son of a woman of this category. Other examples: Maneka Gandhi, Shiela Dixit (Former CM of Delhi), Mandira Bedi (Bollywood actress) and the list goes on. Not to forget our own Sidhu, former BJP MP and Bollywood clown who is performing havans to "please the gods' nee his masters. Jagdish Tytler, the 1984 mass-murderer, also has Sikh parentage. He lost his parents in the violence during partition and was raised by a Christian family and hence the name Tytler. He lost all humanity when he massacred people of his own community.

8: Harvinder Singh (London, United Kingdom), October 29, 2014, 6:17 AM.

Kudos to Sikhs for Justice. They strive to bring such criminals, who have evaded justice and live with impunity in India, to the attention of the international community. This scoundrel should now fear his shadow when he leaves the borders of lawless India.

9: R S Minhas (Millburn, New Jersey, USA), October 29, 2014, 1:14 PM.

Going on national TV inciting genocide cannot be explained away that easily with a letter. Accepting his letter with no response from the Akal Takht does not serve the cause of justice. He needs to be summoned as they have done others. It is common for many criminals to plead "Not Guilty" in any trial. The community and civil society should boycott this man and his family in the interim. Victims' families should be able to file claims to freeze assets of these perpetrators till these cases are resolved.

10: Sunny Grewal (Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada), October 29, 2014, 2:27 PM.

I wonder if the organization should have waited to file the petition during some Bollywood event in America. This monster would have attended and it would've put a bigger international spot-light on him. Also, it probably would have forced him to run back to India and would've made a bigger splash there.

11: Kaala Singh (Punjab), October 30, 2014, 12:45 AM.

This guy has huge business interests in the UK along with his brother who lives there and he is a frequent visitor. The Sikhs living in the UK should file a case there so that this scoundrel will get nailed.

12: Roop Dhillon (Reigate, United Kingdom), November 01, 2014, 5:55 AM.

Sikhs in England are ignorant of their history and are enamoured by Bollywood films, so are unlikely to file anything successfully. Also, he is not a UK citizen so it will not have much leeway within UK law.

Comment on "US Court Summons Amitabh Bachchan To Answer Allegations Over 1984 Mass-Murders"









To help us distinguish between comments submitted by individuals and those automatically entered by software robots, please complete the following.

Please note: your email address will not be shown on the site, this is for contact and follow-up purposes only. All information will be handled in accordance with our Privacy Policy. Sikhchic reserves the right to edit or remove content at any time.