Jagtar Singh

Why is Punjab’s political class so scared? There might not be any parallel to what at one level can be also labelled as the comic situation going by the level of threat that the political class across the board in Punjab perceives. They are the people who seem to have lost their personal freedom in the process. Rather this is the only common denominator that unites this class of the most scared people, possibly in India. The Indian Express on July 31 front-paged a story about one more bullet   proof high-end Land Cruiser that is to be added to the existing fleet of 16 such vehicles in the Chief Minister’s security set up. It would cost the taxpayers more than Rs 1.75 cr. This is the state that keeps the purse strings tight for the people on the excuse of high incidence of debt and stressed finances. There is comic dimension too to this situation. For years, the chief minister in Punjab has been functioning from the residence that is about one km from the Punjab Civ...

NO ONE STOLE AND DEFILED GURU GRANTH SAHIB! One line in the closure report into highly politically sensitive cases of sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib dating back to 2015 raises question on its very relevance. The closure report has been filed in the CBI special court in Mohali. It states: “The Govt of Punjab vide notification dated 06.9.2018 had withdrawn its consent for the investigation of these cases given to the CBI U/s 6 of DSPE Act 1948”. At that level, despite the technicalities this report should have no meaning so far as two other probes that presently are going on by the Punjab police. Yet another important aspect is that the CBI did not make any arrest in the three cases that it was probing ever since it was entrusted with the job by the Akali Dal-BJP government in the state. It may be mentioned in the face of growing Sikh anger, the Punjab government handed over investigation into three FIRs registered in Bajakhana police stations relating to sacrilege ...