The Hindu : National : Holding the banner of harmony aloft

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jan 07, 2006

National

National

Holding the banner of harmony aloft

S. Dorairaj

Narinder Sohal

CHENNAI: It all occurred over 18 years ago. A gang of terrorists stormed Sohal, a tiny village in Amritsar district of Punjab, around midnight on July 21, 1987. The gun-toting Khalistanis opened fire using automatic weapons.

Narinder Sohal, who was just 12 years old then, lost her parents and sister in the gory incident. The terrorists' bullets did not spare her and two of her sisters. She sustained bullet injuries on the right leg. Her grandfather succumbed to the shock after six months.

"Though I was a kid then, I knew that my father, who as Amritsar district secretary of the Communist Party of India, could not be browbeaten by threats issued by terrorists. He opposed the designs of the separatists tooth and nail. I have seen him telling people that Hindus and Sikhs are brothers and they should live in harmony," she said.

Her father's comrades came to the rescue of Ms. Sohal and her siblings — four sisters and one brother. They helped them to shift to Amritsar after a few months so that they could get over the trauma, she recalls with gratitude.

Objective conditions prevailing in the State drove her to follow in the footsteps of her father and hold aloft the banner of secularism and communal harmony held by him. She joined the movement even as a student. Then there was no looking back.

Ms. Sohal now heads the Punjab State unit of the AISF (All-India Students Federation). Having completed her post graduation in Punjabi literature at Guru Nanak Dev University, she is the editor of Pavikh (Future), a Punjabi bi-monthly. She was one of the eight delegates from her State to the 26th national conference of the AISF, which concluded on Friday.

Though she expressed happiness over the eclipse of terrorism in Punjab, she struck a note of caution that the swelling population of the unemployed youth — 45 lakhs according to her — might take unpleasant twists in the absence of steps to provide employment. Currently she is leading a campaign to make employment, a fundamental right.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

National