Top 15 Zail Singh Quotes

Had he as supreme commander resigned at that time, there would have been chaos and Sikhs would have suffered immensely. It was because of his decision that Sikhs could become army heads and PM now.

He could not pass an executive order to call even a soldier to stop the riots. Pressure was built on him by various Sikh organisations to quit...[but] he took the conscious decision in the larger interest of the nation in general and Sikh community in particular to stay put.

In the first 48 to 72 hours, no one including the Prime Minister turned up at Rashtrapati Bhavan to brief the President as is the convention even now in India.

He was deeply perturbed over breaking out of riots. He tried calling the PMO, the then Home Minister and other concerned authorities in a concerted effort to stop the atrocities being committed on innocent Sikhs. His calls either were not returned or lines were getting disconnected for reasons unknown, thus revealing helplessness at that time of 'the Most Powerful Man' of independent India who also happened to be the supreme commander of Indian defense force.

He was a very strong man and he could fight his own battles, but the Operation Bluestar was one that shook him and brought tears to his eyes. Four days after Operation Bluestar, when he visited Golden Temple and Akal Takhat Sahib, he came back devastated and in deep anguish. He was shaken by the damage caused to the sanctum sanctorum.

The year 1984 was the most painful year for my father. He was deeply hurt both by Operation Blue Star and the anti-sikh riots. His agony was that despite being the supreme commander of Indian defense forces, he was neither consulted before Operation Blue Star nor could he, in spite of his best efforts, stop the riots against innocent Sikhs.

After he became President of India in 1972, the anti-Sikh riots took place in 1984, and his relationship with Rajiv Gandhi soured.

He worked to defeat the forces of communalism and exploitation in Punjab during the period 1962-72. In 1972, he became the Chief Minister of Punjab and ushered industrialization and green revolution. During this period he was close to Indira Gandhi, and in spite of difficulties and embarrassments he contested for Lok Sabha elections, when Indira Gandhi took him as the Home Minister in the central cabinet. In this capacity he handled the Assam agitation by bringing together the warring parties, and also dealt with communal riots in any part of the country with tact and innate sense of fair play without malice.

Once Faridkot was merged with the state of Patiala and east Punjab states [known as PEPSU], he became a Minister for Revenue and Agriculture. He introduced the revolutionary steps of abolition of absentee landlordism and ensuring the security of tenancy and the rights of tenants, which won him acclaim.

During a revolt against the maharaja of Faridkot by setting up a parallel government he was arrested, was tied up and was threatened to be dragged by a jeep through the streets of Faridkot if he did not mend his ways. But peoples' reaction to this action resulted in abandoning the idea.

He came under the influence of Mahatma Gandhi and his message of peace, and he restarted the freedom movement in Faridkot. On the rising the national flag during this period there was wave of violence when Jawaharlal Nehru himself came to hoist the tricolor [national flag]. This event was the beginning of his lasting close contact with Nehru.

In 1938 when he tried to set up a branch of the All India Congress in the state of Faridkot to spearhead the freedom movement, then a princely state under the British, he was proclaimed and treated as an ordinary criminal and sentenced to five years solitary confinement.

His earliest inspiration came from the martyrdom of Bhagat Singh and his companions on 23 March 1931. **In: p. 71.

His entire personality commanded respect by its example of self-reliance and resolute determination, enabling him to carve a solid reputation for himself in public life.

He showed pronounced thirst for knowledge right as an young boy and had completed ths study of Sikh religion, Sikh history, and Sikh scriptures by age when most complete only their school education, which earned him the honorific of ‘Giani’ meaning Scholar.