Not only the law and order situation, but Punjab’s political spectrum has seen changes in the last few months.
NEW DELHI: On 3 January, miscreants defaced the wall of SSP Upinderjit Singh Ghuman’s office in Sri Muktsar Sahib. This incident took place after a day when a bombshell was found near CM Bhagwant Mann’s residence. Incidents like this are not new in Punjab. Earlier, in May, an RPG attack took place in Mohali and the target was the Punjab Police intelligence headquarters; last month the police station complex in Sarhali village in Tarn Taran was targeted by RPG. Later, seven men, having links with ISI and Canada-based operatives were arrested for the Tarn Taran attack.
Not only the law and order situation on the ground, but Punjab’s political spectrum has also seen changes in the last few months.
Akali Dal taking radical road
Last Sunday, Shiromani Akali Dal President Sukhbir Singh Badal visited Satwant Singh’s house and Gurudwara which was made in his memory, Satwant Singh, one of the assassins of former PM Indira Gandhi. This visit made him the first Shiromani Akali Dal President who paid a visit to the memorial of former PM assassins. Apart from this, Badal also paid a visit to Akal Takht on the death anniversary of Indira Gandhi’s killer. From the official Twitter handle of Akali Dal tribute was paid to Indira Gandhi’s assassins. “On the occasion of the death anniversary of the great martyrs of the community, Bhai Kehar Singh and Bhai Satwant Singh, who avenged the attack on Sachkhand Sri Harmandir Sahib, the highest holy place of the Sikhs and the illegal oppression of the Sikhs, we pay tribute to them,” Akali Dal tweeted. This shows, how Akali Dal is taking a radical road to stay relevant in the politics of the state.
Rise of Amritpal Singh Sandhu
Amritpal Singh Sandhu, also called Amritpal Singh Khalsa (29), is a Khalistan ideologue and head of Waris Punjab de (meaning the inheritors of Punjab), a group set up by actor Deep Sidhu, who died in February last year. According to various reports, Sandhu came from Dubai and for the last ten years, he was living there. According to Amritpal, he came back to Punjab to save the religion. Amritpal styles like Bhindranwale and walks with a group of armed bodyguards. This has made Sikh preacher Amritpal resembling Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale.
But in the past months, his videos circulating on social media have made him create a buzz in the state.
On 9 December, Amritpal Singh and his group of armed men removed settees from the sanctum sanctorum of a Gurdwara in Biharipur village of Kapurthala district and set them on fire and the same was done with chairs in a Gurudwara in Jalandhar.
This act of vandalism brought criticism of Sandhu from all spectrums. According to Amritpal, the rationale behind doing this is that no member of the congregation is allowed to sit on a raised seat or platform in the presence of the Guru Granth Sahib. “The idea of Khalistan came when Punjab took birth in 1966 and to accumulate political and economic power a panic was created”, said Prof Harpal Singh, former professor of Punjabi at Sikh National College, Banga, Punjab and currently a fellow at Indian Institute of Advanced Studies, Shimla. Khalistan is the concept of Sikh polity, but it’s never been translated. Because it is based on violence, unrest and over all this, the idea of a separate state is to establish the hegemony of a community, not Panth (religion),” Harpal Singh explained.
According to him, Amritpal is a rabble-rouser “with little knowledge of Sikh scriptures”. “This is a matter of investigation that how he came up,” he added.