Religio-political dimensions of Bargari sacrilege narrative more critical than probe itself

 

Religio-political dimensions of Bargari sacrilege narrative more critical than probe itself

Jagtar Singh

Ground Zero

A single judge bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court last week turned upside down the Kotkapura police firing case associated with the sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib by quashing the probe conducted by the SIT, and the SIT itself.

It has been a long wait for justice as the shocking incidents associated with sacrilege are rooted in 2015 when Punjab was being ruled by the Akali Dal-BJP alliance government headed by the towering leader Parkash Singh Badal with his son Sukhbir Singh as the Deputy Chief Minister who also had the Home department under him and thus directly responsible for law and order affairs.

Here is the backgrounder in brief.

The Bir (copy) of Guru Granth Sahib (the revered book that is Guru Incarnate for the Sikhs), was found stolen from Burj Jawahar Singh Wala village in the Malwa hinterland in the afternoon of June 1, 2015. This area used to be the stronghold of the Akali Dal.

No member of the higher echelon of the ruling Akali Dal visited the Burj village despite the fact that this was the first such case of theft ever since this holy book was installed in the Darbar Sahib (Golden Temple) Amritsar by the Fifth Guru, Guru Arjan Dev.

Suddenly in September, a notice was found pasted in nearby Bargari village purportedly signed by the followers of Sacha Sauda sect challenging the Sikhs in abusive language to locate Guru Granth that was claimed to be hidden in that very village. The police did not act. Similar notice was also found in Burj village.

To the utter shock of the people, the pages of Guru Granth Sahib were found scattered in the streets of Bargari village on October 12 morning. By evening, the devotees took the pages in procession and started dharna at Kotkapura town a few kms away. The situation was peaceful. Early in the morning of October 14, the police swooped down on men and women who were sitting in dharna. Yet another dharna had started at Behbal Kalan next to Bargari village. Three hours after Kotkapura, the police opened fire on protesters at Behbal killing two of them.

In the FIR, the police that opened fire were shown to be “unidentified”. This perhaps was the first such case of “unidentified” police opening fire on protesters publicly. The ammunition has to be accounted for.

The Badal government, however, had earlier allowed devotees of Dera Sacha Sauda to block roads and rail tracks in protest against the film MSG that was produced by Dera chief Gurmit Ram Rahim and in which he had himself acted.

This is the first twist in the narrative that started from June 1.

Who directed the police to allow the Dera protesters  to block roads while similar protests by the Sikh devotees were fired upon? The dharna at Behbal was not even on the main road.

The Sikh devotees were not demanding the lifting of the ban on some movie but justice for the sacrilege of their Guru, Guru Granth Sahib. It may be mentioned here that the Akali Dal had come into existence to articulate the Sikh concerns and in power was the government of this very party.

There is another aspect of this religio-political narrative and this concerns directly Parkash Singh Badal.

In violation of the Sikh Maryada, he summoned Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Gurbachan Singh and two of his associates from Takht Keshgarh Sahib, Anandpur Sahib and Takht Damdama Sahib, to his official residence in Chandigarh. The Akal Takht Jathedar is not supposed to appear before even any court. This institution is the supreme religio-political authority symbolizing Sikh sovereignty. It was created by Guru Hargobind, the Sixth Guru, as symbol of State power and its functioning evolved over the years.

The ostensible agenda of this meeting was the exoneration of the Dera chief against whom action had been taken by the Sikh clergy earlier in 2007.

What had provoked this action was the act of Gurmit Ram Rahim of appearing on his stage in the attire akin to that of Guru Gobind Singh, the Tenth Sikh Guru, towards April end in 2007, within weeks of the Akali Dal-BJP alliance replacing the Congress government in the state. It was Guru Gobind Singh who had ordained Guru Granth Sahib as the Guru Incarnate.

The Jathedars accordingly exonerated the Dera chief but this action evoked strong repulsive reaction from the Sikhs. The Akali Dal controlled Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee spent more than Rs 90 lakh in newspaper ads to defend this pardon that had to be finally withdrawn under pressure from the Sikhs.

Both the Akal Takht and the SGPC were further damaged in the process.

There is still another important part of this narrative.

A case was registered in Bathinda against Ram Rahim in 2007 for his blasphemous act. Punjab had witnessed violence following this provocative incident. No progress was made in investigation. However, five days before Punjab was to go to the polls in February 2012, this case was withdrawn by the police. Who ordered this?

These are the issues that are more important dimensions of the Bargari narrative at the religio-political level than the police investigations.

No chief minister has ever been prosecuted for the action of the police in opening fire on the protesters.

The Akali Dal was relegated to the third position in 2017 Assembly elections with Aam Aadmi Party emerging as the main opposition. Can the Akali Dal be punished twice for the same offence?

Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh too has to answer some questions so far as the investigations is concerned.

The name of Dera Sacha Sauda had also figured in the case of bomb blast at Maur during elections in 2017 in which five persons were killed. Why the Dera chief has not been questioned so far after making one abortive attempt?

 Is the Congress too concerned with the vote bank politics? After all, Dera Sacha Sauda normally issues directive to its followers and its following is considerable.