Facilitated by the ‘instant’ character of social media that has rendered geography irrelevant, secessionist thought has taken a visibly more vocal and bitterly hostile turn.
When the Aam Aadmi Party came to power in Punjab a year ago, they listed law and order at number 12 in their list of priorities. It was only on the advice of security-minded officials that law and order was upgraded to the number one position.
But reprioritising on paper is one thing. Implementation is quite another. Clearly, this has not been followed by giving better training and leadership to the Punjab Police. Punjab’s ruling party needs to hold serious discussions regarding security issues in the state. Punjab police’s has been an embarrassingly botched attempt to catch the 30-year-old Amritpal, the upstart radical who has caught the imagination of many radicals within a short period of seven months. Behind this support for him is both the politics and emotion of identity and parochialism on the one hand and a dislike fostered from outside for India with its rich history and cultural diversity.
The incident has brought to fore several major challenges that need to be urgently addressed: (i) a mediocre police force and a below average state intelligence agency that has lost its past sheen; (ii) the gradual re-emergence of competitive militant politics among political and religious organisations in the state; (iii) an insidiously encroaching undercurrent of fostered separatism once again put on steroids in and outside Punjab; and (iv) ideological and financial support from expatriates settled overseas assisted by the Pakistani establishment.
EMBARRASSINGLY INCOMPETENT ARREST EFFORT
Last week, the Punjab and Haryana High Court correctly slammed the government and the Punjab Police for their inability to interdict and apprehend a public figure travelling in a couple of cars in broad daylight. “How did Amritpal escape and what are 80,000 cops doing in the state?” the High Court angrily asked while terming the bungled operation as “a complete failure of intelligence”. That Amritpal managed to change his clothes during an hour-long break in a gurdwara not far from where he was being chased, change five vehicles ranging from cars, motorbikes and even a cart in a span of 12 hours, travel in daylight along routes punctuated with CCTVs and cross into at least one other state (Haryana) despite barricades reflects on how lackadaisical and sparsely informed the police and intelligence agencies still really are in a sensitive border state.
The same police had reflected casualness while handling the Prime Minister’s visit to Punjab in January last year. For 20 long minutes the Prime Minister of the country had been a potential sitting duck on a flyover blocked by virulently protesting farmers. In a recently produced report, a Supreme Court-constituted inquiry committee has indicted officers belonging to the coveted IPS. Three of them—the then director general of police (DGP) himself (who is an otherwise veteran of anti-terrorist operations in Punjab), a deputy inspector general (DIG) and a senior superintendent of police (SSP)—are facing serious disciplinary proceedings. Explanations are being sought from five other police officers comprising two Additional DGPs, two IGPs and an SSP “as to why disciplinary proceedings should not be initiated against them as recommended by the inquiry committee”. These and more incidents of police mishandling are a matter of embarrassment and grave danger to the security of a state bordered by a hostile neighbour and a union territory (J&K) also beset with complications caused by external players.
EMERGENCE OF COMPETITIVE MILITANCY
In a marked departure from their relatively moderate politics played while in power (1997-2002 and 2007-2017), the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) has done a 180-degree turn by terming the Punjab Police’s manhunt for Amritpal as “extra constitutional” and a “conspiracy”, while simultaneously offering “complete legal assistance” to all Sikh youth in the crackdown. This is the same political party which had only last month criticised the AAP government of not doing enough and had accused it of succumbing to Amritpal’s violently expressed demands for the release of his supporter who had been accused of violence and kidnapping.
The Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC), a religious body in charge of managing all historical gurdwaras in Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh (erstwhile greater Punjab) and a repository of Akali politics, went a step further by accusing the government of “trapping innocent Sikh youth in false cases”. This mini-parliament of the Sikh community cautioned the state government against “creating an atmosphere of terror in the state”.
Then again, the SGPC-appointed Jathedar of the Akal Takht, which serves as the temporal seat of the Sikhs, similarly accused the government of “spreading terror” in the state. The SGPC is the same body which only a month ago had expressed serious reservations at Amritpal’s dubious measure of carrying the holy Guru Granth Sahib during a violent agitation in Amritsar’s Ajnala police station.
These statements and more are reminiscent of the politics of competitive militancy played during the abysmal days of terrorism in the 1980s when populism overrode reason and moderation. Except that such populism and politics of identity only accentuates a radicalist, splittist, sectarian and supremist agenda. This certainly does not augur well for the state.
That there was an undercurrent of radicalisation had come to the fore over a decade ago. In March 2012, protests had broken out in the state when death warrants were issued against Balwant Singh Rajoana, the unrepentant assassin of former Congress Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh. The ruling SAD, then aligned with the BJP, secured a stay on his hanging from the President. Seven years later, in October 2019, the BJP government at the Centre played a role in commuting Rajoana’s death sentence in deference to demands from its alliance partner, the SAD and, by default, all Sikh radical organisations.
Then in 2013, the SGPC installed pictures of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, a radical and secessionist, in a specially established controversial “martyr memorial” in the Golden Temple complex. His pictures were subsequently removed following objections from the BJP, which was then a political and electoral ally of the ruling SAD headed by Parkash Singh Badal. In June 2017, by when the SAD was out of power, the SGPC reinstalled about 300 pictures of Bhindranwale and his prominent followers who had once spearheaded a separatist movement and spread terror in the state.
Secessionist elements have always been active overseas, notably in the US, UK and Canada. In recent years, Australia has been added to the list. Now, facilitated by the “instant” character of social media that has rendered geography irrelevant, secessionist thought has taken a visibly more vocal and bitterly hostile turn. General prosperity and the increasing value of the dollar have made funding that much easier by those engaged in secessionist activities. The traditional speeches, literature and videos apart, fierily worded and raucously sung Punjabi songs propagating parochialism and anti-India sentiments by boys in their 20s are catching the imagination of many youth . For low attention spanned and entertainment-hungry youth who are easily susceptible to propaganda, songs are proving to be an effective medium. For example, a prominent Canada-based Punjabi singer posts maps of India on his social media site sans the union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh and also of all the eight north eastern states while projecting Punjab as comprising Himachal Pradesh and Haryana. There is no mention of Pakistani Punjab indicating very clearly his loyalties in the midst of a pronounced anti-India hatred campaign.
SOME SUGGESTIONS
The government and political parties need to act fast and long term on multiple fronts. The government and all moderate political forces must engage and stay engaged with the SGPC, the Akal Takht and other religious entities (through the back channel) with the intention to ensure moderation. Religious sentiments are an emotive issue and are difficult to rationalise. It would be best if bodies like the SGPC and Akal Takht are voices of moderation and do not contribute to inflaming emotions.
Second, mainstream political parties like the SAD which have so far been trying in vain to make themselves politically relevant to the electorate too need to be similarly engaged. They need to understand that their belief that politics of competitive militancy will get them votes is not sustainable and will cause serious damage to the state and society as happened with almost an entire generation in the past.
Third, the police, state intelligence and all other law enforcement agencies really must get their act together, retrain, reorient, restructure and professionalise. Most important, they have to understand that the situation is expected to remain sensitive at best and therefore keeping their ear to the ground is paramount. Central intelligence agencies have to do better.
Finally, and very importantly, the AAP, which has a resounding majority in the state and now has the status of a nationally recognised political party, must engage in meaningful public policies that lead to career opportunities for a severely distracted and impressionable youth. The menace of drugs and corruption has to be dealt with most severely. Education, health, industry, service industry, progressive farming, infrastructure development etc have to be high on the table. In the end, all political parties have to stop playing politics in a state where the stakes are acute.