The recent incident involving a Sikh journalist who attacked Indian home minister P. Chidambram at a press conference has sparked an interesting debate in the Punjabi media of Metro Vancouver.

Jarnail Singh of Hindi daily Dainik Jagran copied Muntadar al Zaidi, the Iraqi reporter who threw shoes at former U.S. president G.W. Bush for attacking his country.

Jarnail Singh was upset over the minister’s position on politicians involved in the 1984 anti-Sikh pogrom. The massacre was engineered by the Congress Party following the assassination of then Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her two Sikh bodyguards, who were seeking revenge for the military operation that was launched to flush out religious extremists who had fortified the Golden Temple complex, the holiest shrine of the Sikhs. The ruling Congress Party leaders led mobs targeting Sikhs in different parts of India with the help of the police.

Two of Congress MPs who were actively involved in the crime - Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar - were seeking nomination for the upcoming parliamentary election despite being under investigation for their activities in 1984.

As soon as it was learned that Tytler was to get a clean chit from India’s Central Bureau of Investigation, Sikh organizations intensified their campaign against the Congress Party.

Jarnail Singh was upset at Chidambram’s comment that he is happy for Tytler. He became angrier when Chidambram did not answer his questions and attacked the minister with a shoe. Since it was a repetition of what Zaidi did, the incident was picked by the international media. Subsequently, the Congress Party has been forced to dump the two controversial candidates.

While moderate Sikh journalists have described Jarnail Singh’s action as unprofessional and shameful, the reporter has become a hero among media aligned with radical Sikh ideology.

In fact, the apex Sikh religious body, the SGPC, honoured him while Sikh politicians offered him rewards. However, Jarnail Singh says he regrets his action though he sticks to his stand on the issue.

Undoubtedly both Jarnail Singh and Zaidi crossed the professional line. But since the two journalists have themselves become subjects of news stories, the media should look at the bigger picture and try to examine the causes of such incidents rather than becoming apologists of the establishment.

What journalists could not do over the years by writing about the 1984 carnage, Jarnail Singh’s stroke did.

If Jarnail Singh has crossed the professional line, so too have the Indian police by first not helping the Sikhs who were slaughtered by the goons of the Congress Party and then by protecting their political masters from the justice they deserve. The media should question the barbarity of the state rather than being insensitive to the emotional acts of a few angry individuals.