By Sarwar Kashani
New Delhi, Oct 30 (IANS) When bloodthirsty mobs ruled Delhi’s streets for three days, he and his pregnant wife managed in the nick of time to find shelter and escape unscathed. Rioters were looking for them during the anti-Sikh riots that followed the assassination of then prime minister Indira Gandhi on Oct 31, 1984.

Twenty-five years down the line while the horrific memories still give him goose bumps, Harvinder Singh Phoolka, 53, the lawyer who has relentlessly soldiered on, battling for justice to riot victims, says the fight now is just for symbolism.

“With systematic and concerted efforts to scuttle investigations and wind up committees at every stage, what can you expect?” exclaims Phoolka.

A budding lawyer then, Phoolka and his four-month pregnant wife Maninder had to first take refuge in a tiny loft of their Hindu landlord’s south Delhi apartment. After a day, he had to shift out again. With the help of an army convoy, both landed in another Hindu family’s house.

“Can you imagine the family was saving us from Hindu crowds?” recounts Phoolka nostalgically. Originally from Sangrur district of Punjab, Phoolka had come to the city only three years ago.

Once calm was restored in the capital, he decided to go back. But a chance visit to a relief camp in east Delhi’s Trilokpuri, however, proved to be a life-altering experience for Phoolka.

“Over 400 Sikhs were killed in Trilokpuri that saw the worst violence and there was not one lawyer willing to help them,” Phoolka told IANS in an interview.

“I changed my mind and Maninder supported my decision,” says Phoolka in his office in south Delhi’s swish Defence Colony.

Thus began his fight for justice during his days of fledgling legal practice.

“The plight of orphans, widows and bereaved mothers in the relief camp hit me hard. I immediately changed my mind and instead of returning to Chandigarh, I chose to help victims of the massacre. Clearly their suffering was incomparably greater than ours.”

Phoolka insists that he never took on the legal battle to pit Hindus against Sikhs. “It was for rights, for justice. And unfortunately that has not happened.”

In this incredibly long journey, he found help among several in the legal community, including Justice Ranjit Singh Narula, Soli Sorabjee, Justice V.M. Tarkunde and novelist Khushwant Singh.

“I knew what I was doing. Taking on politicians and police officers was never going to be an easy task especially when both were involved. And considering the immense power they wielded, it made my job that much tougher,” says Phoolka.

“I faced hostility in courts. I was dubbed as a terrorist and lawyers used to call me counsel for terrorists,” a sombre Phoolka recalls.

But, Phoolka says, he was undeterred. He burnt the midnight oil for years on end and led the coordinated efforts of his spirited team of junior lawyers to collect evidence and write the affidavits of victims before government-appointed bodies and commissions.

Though over 3,000 Sikhs were killed, there have been only 20 convictions and not one politician or senior police officer has been held guilty.

“Most of the cases against politicians and police officers are over. They have already resulted in acquittals. Only four to five cases are left now like that of Congress leaders Sajjan Kumar and Jagdish Tytler,” he said.

“Everybody knows the truth. Everybody, even those who swept the truth under the carpet, know the tacit approval by the political leaders at the helm of affairs then.”

(Sarwar Kashani can be contacted at s.kashani@ians.in)

–Indo-Asian New Service

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