This past Saturday (November 9) was one of those gloomy days that brought together Sikhs and Muslims to jointly grieve the high-handedness of the Indian establishment.

Thirty-five years ago, around this time in 1984, thousands of Sikhs were murdered all across India following the assassination of then prime minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards.

The massacre was orchestrated by the ruling Congress party, which claims to be secular, with the connivance of police. The objective? To polarize the Hindu majority to win the forthcoming general election in the name of national unity.

Hindu mobs were incited to kill Sikhs. As a result, in the national capital of New Delhi alone close to 3,000 people died. Many of the top senior officials, including the succeeding prime minister and Indira’s son, Rajiv Gandhi, were never punished in spite of evidence of their complicity in the crime.

The judiciary also failed to deliver justice, barring the conviction of a single former member of Parliament, Sajjan Kumar, and that only came 34 years after the mass murders.

Every year, Sikhs all over the globe remember the dead. In Canada, they hold an annual blood drive that has saved more than 140,000 human lives since 1999.

Last Saturday, I donated blood as part of this campaign for the very first time. As I sat on the chair with my blood dripping into the pouch, memories of those dark days came back to haunt me.

I was 14 when the massacre happened. Although I was lucky enough as we lived in Punjab, Sikhs in most parts of India outside this state were being hunted down by Congress-led goons.

TV imagery of Congress supporters chanting “Blood for Blood” as the body of Indira Gandhi lay in state is permanently etched on my mind. While the Indian state machinery was after Sikh blood, here the Sikhs are trying to save human lives by giving their blood.

But that wasn’t the only tragedy I have not been able to forget. Many more bloody incidents were yet to come.

Eight years after the massacre of Sikhs, Hindu mobs demolished the Babri Masjid—a 16th century mosque in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh, as police stood by.

Hindus claim that the mosque was forcibly built by the Muslim emperor Babur after the removal of a temple that stood at the birthplace of Hindu god Lord Ram in Ayodhya.

At the behest of currently ruling right-wing Hindu nationalist Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP), mobs razed the mosque in December, 1992.

At the time, the BJP ruled the state of Uttar Pradesh and the Congress ran the national government then led by prime minister Narasimha Rao.

Notably, Rao was home minister when the Sikh genocide happened. Although he was the in charge of law and order, he did nothing to protect Sikhs. And he failed to stop an assault on the mosque in Ayodhya as prime minister.

Much like some BJP supporters participated in the Sikh massacre as foot soldiers, some Congress supporters were also among those who wanted to see the mosque replaced by a temple. A makeshift Hindu temple has remained on the site since then.

In 2002, more than 50 passengers died after a train bringing Hindu pilgrims from Ayodhya caught fire in the western Indian state of Gujarat. The then chief minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi—now prime minister—blamed the incident on Pakistan-sponsored Islamic extremists, after which the state of Gujarat went up in flames.

Thousands of Muslims were slaughtered by mobs led by BJP activists in the state. Repeating the pattern of 1984, Modi won the upcoming assembly election and much like Rajiv Gandhi, he mustered a majority in the legislature.

Court ruling reinforces majoritarianism

Recently, a Supreme Court verdict ordered construction of a Hindu temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya. The court also ordered that a separate piece of land go to Muslims to build a mosque, which is like rubbing salt on the wounds.

Instead of punishing those who were responsible for the demolition of the mosque and restoring this place of worship to a minority community, the courts have clearly sided with the mandate of the BJP.

It is no secret that the BJP always wanted to build Ram temple in Ayodhya and has remained steadfast on this promise to Hindu voters.

Thus, it would be more appropriate to put the blame on the Indian state rather than one party or the other to understand the pattern of impunity for systematic violence against minorities in India. It has become a majoritarian entity under the garb of secular democracy.

As of now, I stand with organizers of annual blood drive and its Campaign Against Genocide to send a strong message to the Indian government that continues to patronize violence against religious minorities.

It is no surprise that under Modi, who first got elected as prime minister in 2014, attacks on minority communities have sharply increased.

The Supreme Court verdict that came close to this year’s blood drive indicates how Modi has institutionalized bigotry through his influence over the judiciary.

Some of those I met at the blood donation campsite in Surrey were outraged over the verdict and felt that the Indian judiciary had deceived minorities. Giving blood to save lives is our collective response to a repressive regime.