Jagtar Singh

  Badals target Capt Amarinder Singh for farm laws adopted by Narendra Modi government Ground Zero Jagtar Singh   They did not speak even one word against Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the day the farmers staged dharnas and blocked the highways against the farm legislation adopted by the BJP government at the centre. Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal and his wife and former union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal today mainly targeted Capt Amarinder Singh and sought his resignation. The farmers, on the contrary, trashed the Modi government. The Badals addressed the party dharna-cum-conference at Lambi today. Harsimrat did her best to project herself as the anguished ‘Daughter of Punjab’ (Punjab Di Dhee) who had resigned from the cabinet against the farm acts. However, the husband-wife team did not utter a word about the vociferous defence of the same till a few days before she resigned as the anger among the farmers mounted in Punjab. There was no...

    Wanted by India, militant leader Gajinder to be honoured by Akal Takht as Sikh Warrior-in-Exile Jagtar Singh Ground Zero   Issue is no more that of yet another stamp from Akal Takht reinforcing legitimacy of the Sikh militant struggle commanded by Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale as the same has been epitomized by Martyrs’ Memorial in the Darbar Sahib (Golden Temple) complex. The announcement by the Akal Takht, the supreme religio-political institution of the Sikhs for prayer and politics that represents sovereignty of the Sikh doctrine transcending geographical boundaries, to honour Gajinder Singh, one of the founders of the radical Dal Khalsa organisation, with the title of Sikh Warrior-in-Exile signals confrontation at one level with the Indian state as he was once on the list of 20 most wanted militant leaders by India. Gajinder is known to be in Pakistan but is stateless technically. Pakistan denies his existence there. The other pe...

Farmers’ struggle could dictate political discourse in forthcoming assembly polls, including Punjab Ground Zero Jagtar Singh   Punjab and Haryana is now going to the  battle ground of the Mahabharta with farmers on the one side and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party at the centre on the other and  this confrontation is also likely to dictate the political as well as the electoral discourse in the forthcoming Assembly elections in several states in the ensuing months and later Punjab in February 2022. The fact can’t also be ignored that the problems that might arise out of the opening up the farm sector completely to the ruthless market forces could be different from state to state. The region that is directly impacted includes Punjab, Haryana and Western Uttar Pradesh. The agitation has been sparked in Punjab where the new legislation has impacted more than two decade old alliance between the Shiromani Akali Dal and the Bharatiya Janata Party dating back to 1996 that was o...

  Both political and religious domains getting sharply polarised in Punjab, disadvantage Akali Dal Jagtar Singh   Ground Zero   Focus in Punjab has suddenly shifted from governance to other issues and this situation is not unusual. This situation is comparable at one level to the Narendra Modi government whose failure in governance reflected in deepening economic crisis is not part of the dominant political narrative in India. None is now talking about the scholarship scam in which the name of Social Welfare Minister Sadhu Singh Dharamsot surfaced. Corruption in general is no more an issue. The deaths due to spurious liquor was an issue on which the Congress government in the state headed by Capt Amarinder Singh appeared to be on the defensive. The dominant narrative now revolves around the three farm ordinances tabled in the Lok Sabha yesterday to replace the same by the regular legislation, much to the chagrin of the Shiromani Akali Dal that is part of the...

  Sumedh Singh Saini now scared of same Punjab Police that he headed Ground Zero   It is ironic. Retired Punjab cadre IPS officer and once a ‘hero’ during the period of extreme human rights violations in this border state now dreads the same police force that he headed as its Director General when Parkash Singh Badal headed the Akali Dal government with his son Sukhbir Singh Badal as the deputy chief minister in charge of Home department. Is he haunted by the methods that the police under his command from the time he headed the districts used against not only the militants but also the others? He is already facing one case of disappearances relating to his tenure as the Ludhiana district police chief and this case has nothing to do with militancy. Those who became his victims were the common people known to him. This case pertains to disappearance of Vinod Kumar and two others. The wheels of justice in this case seem to have go stuck somewhere going by the years th...

  Can a person with Z plus security cover, Sumedh Saini in this case, go underground?   Ground Zero   Former Punjab Director General of Police Sumedh Singh Saini, a Z plus protectee,     having absconded raises some fundamental questions. He was denied anticipatory bail by the district court in Mohali after Section 302 was added to the case registered against him relating to the detention, torture and disappearance of Chandigarh employee Balwant Singh Multani in 1991 who happened to be son of a serving IAS officer in Punjab. A Punjab cadre IPS officer, Saini was then on deputation with the Chandigarh administration. His bail plea in the Punjab and Haryana High Court could not be heard as the judge concerned reclused himself. This is not the only case Saini is facing.   He was appointed as the state police chief during the Akali Dal government headed by Parkash Singh Badal.   The name of Saini surfaces among those in Punjab associated with...