Similarities, unfortunately, do not end here. Then, as now, there were demands for the chief’s arrest, an apology from the sect, and a new fire raged against what the Sikh clergy saw as apostasy and worse. Then, as now, the Akalis were in power in the state, actually under the same chief minister as now. Then, as now, the Congress was fishing in troubled waters.

THERE are still many who would argue that it was the Congress, or Mrs Gandhi and Zail Singh, or Zail Singh at her behest, or some variation of the same theme, that created Bhindranwale and then paid for it. That is simplistic. One, it would give too much credit for the conspiratorial and organisational abilities of the Congress; two, it would do injustice to the kind of appeal Bhindranwale built for himself, for his communication skills, his ability to pick his moment and seize it. Yes, at the first sign of trouble on Punjab’s streets, the Congress, then in the dumps after the post-Emergency defeat, many of its state leaders including Zail Singh facing prosecution and inquiries for excesses, saw an opportunity. Here was an opportunity fitting so nicely into its strategy for Punjab politics crafted by Zail Singh who was not merely a devout Sikh but had greater knowledge of religious practice and scriptures than many priests. He had built his own popularity by playing with orthodox religious sentiment when in power, particularly during the Emergency years.

I did get to know Zail Singh rather well as I interacted with him over nearly a decade and a half in my reporting life and can recount memories and anecdotes that will fill a whole chapter in my memoirs. But the two more striking ones belong to days when I was still a journalism student in Punjab University in Chandigarh. Gianiji came to inaugurate a global conference on anthropology, where many of us had been drafted to help as volunteers, and in his keynote address lambasted the scientists gathered there for indulging in ‘bhed-chaal’ (herd mentality) by accepting whatever Charles Darwin had said. Then he raised the question that, I suppose, would still fox any Darwinian anthropologist: “If, as Darwin says, man evolved from monkey, where did the parrot come from?”

... contd.