The last action taken by Rajiv Gandhi as Prime Minister of India was the release of two Sikh Members of Parliament who had been accused of participation in the plot that resulted in Indira Gandhi's assassination in 1984 [ Johnson B. "Gandhi's Clearing of Newly Elected `Terrorist' Sikh MPs Condemned", The Globe and Mail, 1 December 1989, p. A14.]. Despite this act of clemency, new Members of Parliament elected in the Punjab refused to swear allegiance when the new Parliament convened in early December 1989 [ Tierney B. "New Sikh MPs Refuse to Take Oaths of Office", Citizen, 2 December 1989.].

The new Indian Prime Minister, Vishwanath Pratap Singh, travelled to the Punjab a few days after he was sworn in [ "Amritsar Visit: Brave Pilgrimage by India PM", Citizen, 11 December 1989.]. He expressed his regrets for the 1984 Amritsar Golden Temple incident [ "Indian PM Apologizes for Bloodshed", Globe and Mail, 8 December 1989, p. A8.]. With regard to the Punjab, the new Prime Minister stated his intention to abandon policies of tight control and the use of force that were adopted by his predecessor [ Sharma K.K. "Disarming Approach by V.P. Singh Calms Punjab Gunmen", Financial Times, 13 December 1989.]. He first asked the Parliament to revoke special measures taken in 1987 in order to suspend civil rights in the Punjab, but he later asked for a renewal of the 59th constitutional amendment [Crossette B. "Indian MPs Back Rights for Punjab", Globe and Mail, 30 December 1989, p. A11. See also the response to your information request IND5652, dated 16 May 1990, for more details on the renewal of the 59th constitutional amendment.]. The new official attitude towards the Punjab, moreover, was reinforced by the promise to release some 1500 imprisoned Sikh activists over the next few months [ "Libérations en Inde", Le Devoir, 4 January 1990.].

In practice, however, the situation has not changed in a great deal since V.P. Singh came to power in November 1989. On 10 January 1990, for example, Punjabi policemen were victims of a bomb attack in Jullundur [ "Punjab Police Officers Die in Bombing", Globe and Mail, 11 January 1990, p. N17.]. Shortly after the Prime Minister's visit to the Punjab, a Sikh leader was shot on 25 January 1990 in Amritsar [ "Sikh Leader Killed by Gunmen in Punjab", Globe and Mail, 25 January 1990, p. A11.]. A few days later, a pro-Hindu rightist party's leader was killed by Sikh militants [ «Inde: violence», Libération, 31 January 1990.]. The police, in retaliation, gunned down four Sikh militants shortly after that incident [ Ibid.]. V.P. Singh went back to Punjab at the end of January 1990 in order to appease Sikh militants in Ludhiana and elsewhere in the state [ "Le premier ministre de l'Inde entreprend de pacifier le Punjab", La Presse, 12 January 1990; "Concessions are Offered Over Punjab", Globe and Mail, 12 January 1990, p. A13.].

In mid-February 1990, 19 people were killed by Sikh militants, thus raising the death toll to 220 since the beginning of the year [ «Inde: violences», La Presse, 13 February 1990; «Inde: attentats», Libération, 14 February 1990.]. In early March 1990, Sikh separatists attacked a market in the Hindu city of Abohar, killing 22 people and wounding 42 others [ «Punjab Separatists Blamed for Carnage in Market», The Globe and Mail, 8 March 1990, p.N12; «Inde: attentat», Libération, 9 March 1990.]. At the end of that same month, attacks by Sikh separatists caused the death of 22 people in Amritsar, Ferozepur and in the district of Jallandhar [ «Inde: tuerie au Pendjab», La Presse, 20 March 1990; «29 Killed in Punjab Violence», The Globe and Mail, 20 March 1990, p.C6.]. At the beginning of April 1990, a bomb attack on a Hindu procession resulted in forty deaths in the Punjab city of Batiala [ «Death Toll From Bombing in Punjab Rises to 10», The Globe and Mail, 5 April 1990, p.A5; «Bomb in Punjab Kills 33 at Hindu Fete», The Globe and Mail, 4 April 1990, p.A8; «Thirty-Three Killed by Bomb in Punjab», The Globe and Mail, 4 April 1990, p.A11.]. On 15 April, a bomb placed just outside of a Hindu temple caused the death of 5 people [ «5 Killed, 25 Hurt by Bomb Blast in India», The Globe and Mail, 16 April 1990, p.A5.]. A week later, a Sikh policeman was arrested for his involvement in previous New Delhi bomb attacks [ «Sikh Policeman Arrested in Connection With Bombs», The Globe and Mail, 24 April 1990, p.A4.]. For more general information on the current situation in Punjab, please refer to a comprehensive article from the Toronto Star which synthesizes the changes that have occurred in the Punjab since Prime Minister V.P. Singh came to power [ J.B. Blank, «Fear Grips India's Punjab», Toronto Star, 25 March 1990.].