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Bargari sacrilege: Punjab can’t afford another systemic collapse in delivery of justice

 



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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