Ranbir Singh Sandhu

Dr. Sandhu recounts his reaction of disbelief to the news that Sikhs were behind the assassinated Indira Gandhi and holds even today: “I really believe that they didn’t do it.” Regardless, he says, “First they ‘taught Sikhs a lesson’ in June but apparently that wasn’t enough, they wanted to do it all over the country now.”

Now famed for his book “Struggle for Justice: Speeches and Conversations of Sant Jarnail Singh Khalsa Bhindranwale,” Dr. Ranbir Singh Sandhu had no idea who Jarnail Singh was as the news of 1984 reached his hometown of Columbus, Ohio.

In this interview, Dr. Sandhu describes the organizing efforts in the Sikh American diaspora immediately following 1984, including the historic meeting at Madison Square Garden, NY, where he first bought tapes of Jarnail Singh’s speeches.

“He never said kill anyone, or anything like that…I once asked IK Gujral that was Bhindranwale right when he spoke about 400 men killed in jails etc… Gujral asked ‘Why do you ask?’ ‘Because if he was lying, then, ok, we deserved it. But if not, where were all of you when these things were happening?’”

Dr. Sandhu describes his own transformation after 1984.