CHANDIGARH: Is Punjab revisiting the dark days of militancy? At a time when growing radicalisation, allegedly fuelled by external forces, threatens peace in the state, the lack of policing and intelligence gathering add to the woes.
The decision of the Akal Takht, the supreme temporal seat of the Sikhs, to pardon Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh in a 2007 blasphemy case seems to have backfired for the Punjab government. The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government has not only drawn flak from its core group—the Sikhs—but the move has also led to widespread protests in the state. The state police, however, claim to have gathered “concrete evidence” of foreign funding that’s believed to have helped the protests.
Now, amid pressure from the Sikh community and hardliners, the Akal Takht has withdrawn its edict pardoning Gurmeet Singh, making matters worse. While the radical groups have lapped up this opportunity to protest against the decision, the law and order situation in the state has taken a beating. To add to the woes, there has been alleged desecration of the holy Guru Granth Sahib in some parts of the state, putting the security officials on the tenterhooks.
Intelligence Failure
This is the first time in more than three decades that a desecration has led to state-wide protests. But sources blame it on complete intelligence failure as during this phase, the state government has transferred many police officers including the intelligence wing head, Additional Director General of Police (Intelligence) Hardeep Singh Dhillon and to date, no one has replaced him. The state government, however, has recently asked DIG RK Jaiswal to take a stock of the situation.
Sources also claim that about two months ago, the Intelligence Bureau (IB) had sent an alert to Punjab Police warning it about a terrorist module, which was being trained to launch attack in the state. The IB had also mentioned that the members of the module were being given a fair idea about Sikh traditions and Gurumukhi script at the Gurudwara Kartarpur Sahib in Narowal district of Pakistan.
Led by Ranjeet Singh alias Neeta, chief of Khalistan Zindabad, the militants were briefed about each and every area. Earlier in July, an advisory was sent to several states, including Punjab, about a possible terror attack. Within days of the advisory, the state witnessed terror attack at a police station in Dinanagar in Gurdaspur. BJP leader Sukhminderpal Singh Grewal had admitted that the terror attacks had exposed the loopholes of Punjab Police intelligence wing. This time too, the wing had no clue about the farmers’ agitation and protests over sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib.
The Controversy
On September 24, the Akal Takht pardoned Gurmeet Singh following a written apology from him. The Takht admitted that the sect chief had written an apology letter in which he said he had no intention to show disrespect to the Sikh Gurus or hurt the religious sentiments of the Sikh community. The Akal Takht said the sect chief was asked to refrain from any actions in future which could hurt religious sentiments of Sikhs.
This decision, however, didn’t go down well with the Sikhs as they felt that the sect chief was pardoned at the behest of SAD as they wanted to woo Dera followers ahead of the Assembly elections in 2017. Interestingly, SAD controls Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), which appoints the top priests. However, after a strong opposition from the community, the pardon was revoked on October 16. The crisis worsened as the Panj Pyaras of Akal Takht, which was suspended by the SGPC, turned up at the Takht in Amritsar on October 23 in connection with the controversial summons issued by them to the five Sikh high priests who had issued the pardon edict. The priests, however, didn’t turn up and the Panj Pyaras passed a resolution demanding their resignations. They also asked the SGPC to withdraw the powers granted to them.
SGPC president Avtar Singh Makkar had earlier suspended these Panj Pyaras for summoning the Sikh high priests as they had granted pardon to the Dera Sacha Sauda chief. The SGPC’s executive committee, had not supported Makkar’s decision.
Farmers’ Protest
While the state was witnessing violent protests over the Gurmeet Singh issue, farmers across the state started a protest on October 6, demanding higher compensation for cotton crop loss. With this, the pesticide scam once again surfaced and the opposition parties—Congress and AAP—demanded the resignation of agricultural minister Tota Singh. Even though the farmers called off the rail-roko agitation, the Indian Railways suffered a loss of more than `125 crore.
On October 23, farmers once again started dharnas outside the residences of the ministers and other leaders. But talks between the farmers’ organisations and Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal remained inconclusive.
With the sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib coinciding with the farmers’ protest on October 12, several torn pages of holy book were found scattered in Bargari village in Faridkot. During the clash with the police, two Sikh protesters died and several were injured, thus triggering widespread protests.
From October 15, protests spread across the state with roadblocks. Six more incidents of desecration were reported from Sangrur, Ferozepur, Amritsar (Rural), Tarn Taran, Ludhiana and Bathinda districts. Sikh organisations have blamed followers of the Sirsa-based Dera Sacha Sauda for the incident. The Dera, however, has denied all such allegations.
Top Guns Resign
Following the incidents, Congress MLA Ramanjit Singh Sikki has resigned from the Assembly. There were voices of dissent in the ruling SAD too, as Sukhdev Singh Bhaur, member of its high-powered political affairs committee, resigned from the primary membership of the party.
Centre Seeks Report
Punjab Police has claimed that it has concrete evidence of foreign funding in the incidents. It claimed to have solved five of the seven cases of desecration.
The Union government has sought a report from the state about the foreign funding. Brothers Rupinder Singh and Jaswinder Singh were arrested for desecration of Guru Granth Sahib in Bargadi village on October 12 and the police claimed they had received foreign funding for the incident. Police claimed to have possessed a clip of a telephone conversation between Sukhjit Singh Deol of Melbourne and Rupinder Singh, purportedly discussing monetary issues. But Melbourne-based Sukhjit denied such allegations.
The Panchayat members of Panjgrain Khurd village in Moga too demanded release of the brothers.
Additional Director General of Police (Crime) IPS Sahota, however, said: “All these incidents of desecration seem to be interconnected. We have unearthed the track used in foreign funding for carrying out these activities. So far, seven people have been arrested in five cases. Two cases are yet to be investigated.”