NEW YORK – Exactly 30 years ago this month, lynch mobs led by politicians slaughtered almost 3,000 Sikhs in Delhi, in some cases by hanging burning tires around their necks. The pogrom came as retaliation for the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards. In nationwide elections held a few weeks later, the Congress party, some of whose members had helped supervise the killings, won in a landslide.
With state elections approaching, parts of Delhi are again awash with manufactured hate. The Trilokpuri neighborhood, which witnessed the deaths of hundreds of Sikhs in 1984, recently suffered clashes between Hindus and Muslims, as well as a brutal police crackdown on the minority community.
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