Ever since Amritpal
Singh’s followers stormed a police station in Ajnala to free an “innocent”
Toofan Singh aka Luvpreet Singh, parallels have been drawn with the nightmare
years of Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale’s free run of Punjab, when the
secessionism was at its fearsome height. But are these parallels justified? Is
Amritpal Singh a genuine Khalistani demagogue or a stooge or an opportunist out
to carve a niche for himself in the state’s political landscape? We will get
there, but let us look back at the state’s shifting fortunes.
The specter of Punjab
separatism has hovered over the nation’s mindscape right from the days of
Master Tara Singh’s demand for an autonomous Punjabi Suba. A demand that became
stronger with the rise of Sant Fateh Singh.
Master Tara Singh was
born in a Hindu Khatri family in the village of Haryal in Rawalpindi, now in
Pakistan. He became a Sikh when a young man. This was not unusual in those days
because Hindus in Punjab traditionally offered their sons to the Khalsa Panth –
a tradition started during Guru Gobind Singh’s time. For the uninitiated, all
the ten Sikh Gurus belonged to various Hindu Khatri clans.
Coming back to Master
Tara Singh, he took part in Mahatma Gandhi’s Satyagraha movement even
while he was a leader of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee and
Shiromani Akali Dal. During the Partition days, he reputedly cut down Pakistan’s flag with his sword and shouted anti-Pakistan
slogans. In India, he demanded a Punjabi Suba, where Sikhs would be in the
majority and manage their religious and political affairs. This demand
attracted massive support from the Sikh community. However, soon a younger and
more energetic Sikh leader emerged in the person of Sant Fateh Singh, a Jatt
Sikh, who took over from Tara Singh after a tussle. He preferred to use
language rather than religion as the basis of Punjabi Suba’s formation. The
Punjabi Suba movement finally succeeded in the formation of a Sikh majority
Punjab state in 1966.
Thanks to Chief Minister Pratap Singh Kairon’s proximity to Prime
Minister Nehru, Punjab received generous support from the central government for
building roads and other infrastructure, including the modern capital of
Chandigarh. This prosperity received a further boost under Gyani Zail Singh. However,
Punjab’s prosperity was taken for granted. Complacency set in. There was no
effort to build a roadmap for taking Punjab’s prosperity to the next level.
Much needed to be done. The education system needed reforms at all levels.
Similarly, a well-structured plan for the state’s industrialization could have
been given a practical shape. Though small-scale and ancillary industries were
present in the state, there was a need for giving a push to establish
large-scale Agro-industries. This required infrastructure on a massive scale.
There was apparent reluctance by political leadership to allow big business to
enter Punjab. Rampant corruption and maladministration only made things worse
for the state’s prospects. Unemployment started rising and a sense of
frustration set in amongst the youth.
A baseless complacency coupled with a false sense of invincibility
paved the way for supremacists to appropriate Punjab’s socio-political space.
You could sense in public places. From the mid-1970s, separatist voices had
started echoing in religious places and functions. Gyani Zail Singh’s penchant
for appropriating the orthodox Sikh grammar only intensified the rivalry
between the Congress Party and Shiromani Akali Dal. Gyani Zail Singh was bent
upon loosening the Akali Dal’s hold on the Sikh peasantry, especially the SGPC.
Consequently, Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, a little known preacher, was
introduced into the Punjab politics. Bhindranwale’s supremacist politics
resulted in a storm of violence that destroyed Punjab’s social fabric and
economic leadership. The frustrated unemployed youths were available as gun fodder
for the Khalistanis. ISI and CIA gleefully fished in the state’s troubled
waters. The diabolical games resulted in unprecedented and unavoidable
bloodshed and destruction.
Now, even as Punjab is finding its way back to the fast lanes of development,
the rivalry between BJP and Aam Aadmi Party has resurrected the ghosts of the
late 20th century Punjab. If the Congress-Akali Dal rivalry was
vicious, the BJP AAP antagonism has assumed a diabolical dimension in Punjab. The
vacuum left behind in Punjab politics by the discrediting of Akali Dal has
assumed the contours of a political black hole. The Congress infighting in
Punjab has only made things worse. The AAP government clearly cannot handle the
state’s volatile elements. Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann is perceived as Kejriwal’s
puppet. We know of the Sikh community’s traditional allergy to the Delhi Darbar
syndrome.
So, the time and place were right for the reappearance of extremist
elements, facilitated by the BJP’s intense desire to discredit the AAP
government.
The roots of today’s problem in Punjab go back to the days when the
farmers’ agitation was at its peak. The mainstream media and a section of the
social media started orchestrating a vilification campaign against the farmers
– painting them as Khalistani anti-nationals. When vilification did not gain
traction, a section of the farmers entered the Red Fort and hoisted Nishan
Sahib. How and at whose behest this happened has been kept under wraps so far.
And who was the star of this stunt? A Punjabi actor named Deep Sidhu. Sidhu
founded an organization called Waris Punjab De, roughly translated as the ‘legatees
of Punjab’. This organization aimed to resurrect Punjabi culture. However,
Sidhu died in a road accident. A while later, suddenly one heard of Amritpal
Singh appropriating Waris Punjab De and using it as a platform for launching
the Khalistan movement.
Several questions remain unanswered. In a country where a journalist
can be arrested on charges of sedition for merely performing his professional
duties, the police can send notices to a singer for her satirical songs and
just about anybody can be put behind bars for being a dissenter, how did Deep
Sidhu get away with this act of anti-nationalism? Nishan Sahib’s place is in a
civilized society’s Gurudwara and not a replacement for the national flag. Now,
how is it that despite Amritpal Singh using highly secessionist language, there
is not even a hint of action against him? In fact, the manner in which Toofan
Singh was released from jail only shows the spinelessness of the governments in
the state and the center.
Let us not forget that the same central government has been flouting
the federal dharma by sending its agencies to various non-BJP states to arrest
or question people with or without evidence against them. But they are allowing
Amritpal Singh to spew communal and divisive venom that should have attracted
penal action by now.
As for Deep Sidhu and Amritpal Singh, their credentials as Sikhs are
doubtful. Let us remember that Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale was a genuine
Sikh with irrefutable credentials as a Sikh holy man. Neither Deep Sidhu nor
Amritpal Singh can be described as so. Neither of them was even a Sahajdhari
Sikh. They could be described as Patit Sikhs or fallen Sikhs because they had
flouted the tenets of their religion by cutting hair and shaving off their
beards. That they conveniently appeared in the garb of devout Sikhs later on
smacks of subterfuge. If they had gone through the due processes of
rehabilitation by undergoing punishment/tankhwah prescribed by the Akal Takht, then it must be a well-kept secret.
It is time for Punjabis to rid themselves of medieval demagogues –
whatever their claimed religious credentials – and get on with their march
towards a modern, liberal and secular Punjab. As for the politicians, stop
playing the common man’s sentiments and sensibilities. Such games are dangerous
for the nation’s unity and security.
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