Bargari sacrilege: Punjab can’t afford another systemic collapse in justice delivery
Ground Zero
Jagtar Singh
The System is expected to deliver justice and all the more
so in cases in which the failure can later turn out to be historic. Not only
Punjab, the country has paid the cost for what is assessed to be failure of the
System to provide justice some decades back.
Chandigarh, the city with the unique distinction of housing
headquarters of three administrations, on Monday the April 19, witnessed two
demonstrations on the same issue by people belonging to different ideological
pretensions. These people were from the Aam Aadmi Party on the one hand and the
others being from the Sikh radical political stream. The Dal Khalsa that was
part of this conglomerate cherish no political ambition by way of contesting
the Assembly or the Lok Sabha elections.
The issue is the long delayed justice in the cases of
sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib in Bargari village dating back to 2015 when
Punjab was under Akali Dal-BJP rule with Parkash Singh Badal as the Chief
Minister and his son Sukhbir Singh Badal as the Deputy Chief Minister.
It is pertinent to mention here that some cases of sacrilege
of other religious texts like Bible, Quran and Ramayan were also reported over
the period.
However, there is one very significant difference so far as
these cases are concerned. Unlike texts of other Faiths, Guru Granth Sahib is
the Guru Incarnate that is revered as Living Guru and is not sold like a book. Guru
Granth is the compilation mainly of the compositions of the Gurus unlike other
religious texts. The comparison as such is far fetched.
The sensitive issue has resurfaced in Punjab’s religious
political domain following quashing of one set of special investigating team
probing the police firing on Sikh devotees demanding arrest of the culprits
responsible for the sacrilege on October 14, 2015 at Kotkapura followed by at
Behbal Kalan next to Bargari. It may be mentioned that the Congress in Punjab
then headed by Capt Amarinder Singh in its election promise before 2017
Assembly polls had assured speedy justice. He later took over as the Chief
Minister with his party getting unprecedented massive mandate. His government
has entered the last year of the 5-year term and justice is still elusive.
For years, the Akali Dal used to talk of justice for the
victims of November 1984 massacre of the Sikhs in Delhi and several other
places following the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to avenge
army attack on Darbar Sahib (Golden Temple) code-named Operation Bluestar. Yet another
issue on which the party promised to deliver was taking action against those
police officials who were known to have resorted to brazen violation of human
rights and went to the extreme that was extra judicial killings. The wheels of
justice have been too slow in the first category while in case of the second
category, the Akali government rather rewarded many such officials with plum
postings.
The names of some of those officials are linked to the 2015
narrative too.
Inspector General of Police Kunwar Vijay Partap Singh whose
probe into Kotkapura firing has been quashed by the Punjab and Haryana High
Court has brought on record in a letter to his boss (DGP Dinkar Gupta) that
efforts were being make to turn the complainant hostile. This is a serious
issue.
In a politically sensitive case earlier, even the
investigating officer had turned hostile with the change in the government. It is
in context of this precedence that the issue raised by the IGP is important.
Some aspects of this narrative that might not come directly under 2015 narrative
are important. One such issue is that of 2012 in which the Bargari sacrilege is
rooted.
Punjab government withdrew a case from the Bathinda court
just five days before the state was to go to the polls in February 2012. This was
the blasphemy case against Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmit Ram Rahim Singh
registered in May 2007. Who ordered its withdrawal? Can such a sensitive case
be withdrawn without bringing it to the notice of the Chief Minister?
It is pertinent to mention here that what sparked the fire
in Punjab that went on for years was the failure of the System to deliver
justice in the case of victims of Sikh Nirankari clash at Amritsar on April 13,
1978 when Akali Dal-Janata Party alliance ruled the state with Parkash Singh
Badal as the Chief Minister. That narrative still awaits closure.
History has many lessons provided the System is sensitive
enough to learn.
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