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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, NOVEMBER 2, 1984
ON THE WORLD SCENE
GANDHI ASSASSINATION; ETHIOPIA'S ORDEAL
The shocking assassination of
India's Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by two Sikh bodyguards--one a trusted
servant of 15 years--again points up the dangers that daily confront world
leaders.
Just a short while back (during the Feast of Taber-nacles)
British Prime Minister Thatcher narrowly escaped death at the hands of the
Irish Republican Army when the hotel she was staying at during a
Conservative party conference was partially blown up. Had she lingered in
her suite for another two minutes, she might have been killed.
How safe is Mrs. Thatcher? And what of Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Charles
and his family and other Royal Family members? The Queen is reluctant to
increase visible security measures, feeling this would restrict contacts
with the public such as her popular "walkabouts." But the IRA would love to
score a spectacular hit. It got close to the Royal Family with the 1979
killing of Lord Mountbatten.
In Mrs. Gandhi's case, she had apparently been living on borrowed time ever
since this past June, when she ordered the Indian Army into the Golden
Temple in Amritsar, the most revered shrine of the Sikh national/religious
group. She did this in order to clean out a band of secessionist militants
who had taken refuge there and built up a huge arsenal on the premises. The
radicals had been responsible for killing hundreds of Indians, mostly
Hindus, since 1981. In the temple assault, at least 600, perhaps 1,000,
Sikhs died, plus 200 army troops.
As if sensing her end was near, Mrs. Gandhi, the very night before her as
sassination, told a huge political rally: "Even if I die in the service of
the nation, I will be proud of it. Every drop of my blood will invigorate
the nation."
While most Indians deeply mourned her loss and world leaders condemned the
violent act, the Sikh community worldwide appeared divided. The Secretary
General for the Supreme Council of Sikhs in Britain called the slaying "the
act of a coward" but said the Prime Minister had been "more or less asking
for it." A spokesman for the World Sikh Organization in Southern Califor
nia was far from grieving. "We are ecstatic," he said. "Justice has been
done by God's grace by the shooting down of Indira Gandhi." He added later:
"My reaction is the same as any Jewish family to Hitler's death."
Immediately after the assassination, Sikhs across India were set upon by
Hindu mobs, their businesses ransacked and burned and their automobiles
torched. (They are the taxi drivers of India.) This was a tragic develop
ment since the two communities have lived largely at peace for centuries.
Some Hindu families have even made it a practice to rear one of their sons
as a Sikh.
During the 1980s, however, relations between the Hindus and Sikhs have
soured. Militants among the 15 million Sikh minority in India have been
pushing for total independence for their home area, centered around the
northwestern state of Punjab. Sikhs comprise about 52% of the population
of Punjab--formed out of neighboring regions in 1966 as a result of Sikh
agitation. The central government has yielded to pressure for more home
rule for the Sikhs and recognition of their uniqueness, but has stopped
short of allowing an independent "Khalistan" (the Sikh's suggested