Not Since Rushdie

THERE is no similarity between the writings of Gurcharan Singh Babbar, president of the All India Shiromani Akali Dal (Bab-bar), and Salman Rushdie. But the Sikh leader takes some measure of ironic pride in the fact that Sarkari Qatl-e-Aam (Government Organised Carnage), his expose on the November '84 riots, is the first book after Satanic Verses to be banned in India. The order against Babbar's 240-page effort was made official on March 20 just after the BJP government assumed office at the Centre.

The book, which was published last November and is available in Punjabi, Hindi and English, has been banned due to fears that it could fuel communal tensions. Following the March 20 order, copies of Sarkari Qatl-e-Aam have been seized and Babbar, who is also its publisher, has been asked to withdraw the book from the market. The Akali leader, however, has decided to try and beat the ban and has even put a copy on the Internet. Says he: "Right now we have hidden many copies of the book. But even if the authorities seize these, I have put the book on the Net so people can access it."

Though the decision to ban the book nationwide has been taken by the Delhi government, Babbar believes that the action had the sanction of the BJP national leadership. Therefore, instead of taking any legal recourse, he has announced that he will launch an indefinite fast outside Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's house from March 31 to "seek justice".

The Akali leader says he is surprised that the BJP has come down heavily on a book which directs its ire against the Congress government for the anti-Sikh riots following the assassination of Indira Gandhi. "If the court had banned the book, then I would have accepted it," he declares. "If the Congress had banned it, it would have been understandable. But I can't believe that the BJP has done this when the party has been promising that it will bring to book those guilty of atrocities in the '84 riots."

 Babbar takes great pains to prove his proximity to senior BJP leaders. In fact, appended to his book is correspondence from senior BJP and United Front leaders who, he claims, were sympathetic to his cause. Some BJP leaders, he boasts, used material from his book for their election campaign. It is therefore all the more surprising, he says, that the BJP has banned the book.

Trouble began even as the book hit the stands last year. Suresh Kumar Chauhan, a social worker, filed a public interest litigation in the Delhi high court seeking a ban on the book. The reasons cited were that it named senior Congress leaders and police officials as having an alleged hand in the riots. The author is also said to have made offensive remarks against the judiciary which, he contends, should have acted to save the Sikh community from the carnage. According to Chauhan's lawyer, the book contained allegations based solely on eyewitness accounts collected by the author. The publication of the book would not only be libellous but it could fuel communal tension, it was claimed.

The court had asked the Delhi government to assess the book. Lt Governor Tejinder Khanna has set up a three-man panel to go through the contents of the book, but it has not yet submitted its report. Even so, the home department decided to ban the book throughout the country. The government affidavit submitted to the court on March 20 did not go into any specific reasons as to why the book had been proscribed. It may be recalled that a PUCL report on the '84 riots published within a year of the carnage had been banned. It too named those who allegedly had a hand in the rioting.

Babbar's book is by no reckoning the final word on the anti-Sikh riots. It is a compilation of survivor accounts interspersed with the author's own interpretations and newspaper accounts of the killings. Among those accused by Babbar of organising the riots is a former prime minister. A chapter listing the policemen chargesheeted for their role in the riots and those who escaped the net would not have gone down well with the police.

Interestingly, the release of the book, initially in Hindi, did not attract any notice. But ever since the English edition was picked up by the US embassy and other western missions, the IB has been knocking on Babar's door. Now by politicising the ban, he perhaps hopes that the book will have more takers.