In a recent interview, actress Taapsee Pannu discussed the 1984 Sikh genocide. She described how her father was the lone Sikh in Shakti Nagar, Delhi, at the time, and what might have happened if there had been no Hindus around.
Taapsee revealed in an interview with The Lallantop that she never grew up believing that her family had gone through anything bad despite what had occurred to them during the riots. Nonetheless, she claimed that once she was old enough, she realized that she belonged to a minority religion.
She responded in Hindi when asked about her memories of the riots, “My parents weren’t married then. My mother used to live in East Delhi. My father used to reside in Shakti Nagar. Everything I know about that time, I’ve heard from my parents. My mother told me that it was safe on her side of the town. But in Shakti Nagar, we were the only Sikh family. At that time, we had a Jonga parked outside our house, not many people owned cars.”
The Indian Army used a Nissan-designed vehicle called the Jonga. Jabalpur Ordnance and Guncarriage Assembly were referred to as Jonga.
Moreover, Taapsee describes how a car parked in front of her father’s house helped the rioters identify their residence.
“When people arrived brandishing swords and petrol bombs, the Jonga was discovered. They were aware that our family was the only Sikh family in the area. There was no point in trying to escape because our family knew they were being surrounded, so they turned off all the lights and hid. Four tenant families used to reside in the house where we used to stay. All of the others were Hindus. As the rioters arrived, they protected us. They had seen the car and knew it belonged to us, so they had come to our door. Our neighbours, however, informed them that we had left town. The automobile was destroyed by fire. We survived because our neighbours protected us.”
It is notable that before the Sikh genocide in 1984, Operation Blue Star was conducted. The purpose of this operation was to drive out the Khalistani terrorists who had taken over the Harmandir Sahib premises and were regularly targeting Hindus. The then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by Khalistani terrorists and just after her death, anti-Sikh riots, where many Congress leaders were involved, engulfed Delhi.