•Despite this you demanded more Sikh recruits in the Army in the beginning of this interview. And we are walking in a war memorial right now. Does it mean that you have no bitterness now?

When an elderly man dies, we mourn for 10-15 days and then get over the grief.

•I had gone to meet Longowal sahib in Udaipur. He had said that between New Delhi and Amritsar, there are thousands of Sikh corpses hanging from trees.

At that time it seemed so. If it was a small loss, we could have overlooked it. But the attack on the Golden Temple and the 1984 killings can’t be wiped out of memory. The Congress planned all that. And they said that when a big tree falls, the earth shakes.

•But the people of Punjab and the Sikhs have put all this behind them.

Memories remain, but the new generation doesn’t feel the pinch, as in the case of Germany. Those who remember, remember.

•During those days, did your Indian commitment ever shake? Did you ask yourself why we are in this country?

Even today we feel Punjab is not getting its due. India’s big worry today is food. We removed that worry with record procurement this year. But again, agriculture gets nothing. They say they’ll look after those states whose production is less. Electricity will be given to those states where villages haven’t been electrified yet. Roads will be built where there are no roads. If we have good roads, have we committed a sin?

... contd.