Jagtar Singh

  Issues relating to sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib in 2015 are straight and simple Ground Zero Jagtar Singh   If one ignores the political slugfest, the issues relating to sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib in 2015 are straight and simple. These issues have presently triggered turmoil in the ruling Congress government in Punjab headed by Capt Amarinder Singh for non-action. Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal was today questioned by a new team conducting the probe in this highly sensitive case. He was the deputy chief minister incharge of home affairs in 2015. Earlier last week, his father and former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal was examined by this team. Both of them had been probed by the earlier SIT too. The probe has been re-initiated as the earlier one was quashed by the Punjab and Haryana High Court with strong indictment of the main probe officer Kunwar Vijay Partap Singh in the rank of inspector general of police. He has since resigne...

  Congress ‘High Command’ concedes failure of Strongman Amarinder to deliver Ground Zero Jagtar Singh   Close to the February 2022 Assembly elections in Punjab, the Congress Party that rules in this border state presents theatre of the absurd. At one level, the situation is comical. The people of Punjab gave the strongest ever mandate to the Congress in February 2017 to end 10- year rule of the Akali Dal-BJP government headed by Parkash Singh Badal with his son Sukhbir Singh Badal, who later took over as the Deputy Chief Minister, being the de facto Chief Minister. The Congress captain in this fight against the Akalis was Capt Amarinder Singh. It is the leadership of Capt Amarinder Singh that has come to be questioned by a strong section of the party and interestingly, that section is not backing any other leader in case the Chief Minister is to be replaced. The basic issue is non-governance that can hit the fortune of the party hard in February 2022. None else...

  Punjab political arena turning chaotic   Ground Zero Jagtar Singh   With the Assembly elections a few months away due in February 2022, Punjab’s religio-political discourse has started dictating its electoral discourse which at present is chaotic. The agenda for this election would evolve from this churning. At the same time, there are issues on which the political parties don’t like to focus. One can begin with one such issue. The ruling class in Punjab has been turning filthily rich over the years while the per capita income in this once the most advanced states in the country has been going down. Punjab is now counted among the laggard states. This is a major contradiction in itself. Nothing can be more explanatory than thousands of farmers from Punjab who have been camping at the doors of the capital commanding national struggle that is for their very survival threatened by the three farm laws thrust on the farm sector by the Narendra Modi government...

  Alliance with BSP is Akali Dal’s gain mainly in perception domain Ground Zero Jagtar Singh   The arrangement to have alliance for the February 2022 Assembly elections in Punjab by the Shiromani Akali Dal with the otherwise non-performing Bahujan Samaj Party after break up with the Bharatiya Janata Party is an issue that has more relevance in the perception domain. The basic issue for the Akali Dal is whether the new relationship can compensate for the loss resulting from the unexpected parting of ways with the BJP, the alliance that ended up as the longest in recent history between the two divergent parties who also had the history of being adversaries in the context of Sikh struggles to protect the interests of Punjab and the Punjabis. The alliance broke under pressure from the farmers struggle. It is pertinent to   mention that the BSP has never made even a single electoral gain in Punjab since 1997. The party   still has some pockets of influence, ...

  Shiromani Akali Dal course corrects, joins hands with Bahujan Samaj Party for 2022 polls Ground Zero   Jagtar Singh   Having ended its almost quarter of a century old alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party under pressure from the farmers struggle, the Shiromani Akali Dal today joined hands with the Bahujan Samaj Party to pose a formidable challenge to the ruling Congress in the February 2022 Assembly election. The BSP that has not won a single Assembly seat in the last several elections, would contest from 20 seats with 97 seats in the quota of the Akali Dal. Under the arrangement with the BJP since 1997, the   quota of junior partner was 23 seats. It is pertinent to recall here that the Akali Dal and the BSP had entered into alliance way back in the 1996 Lok Sabha election in which the Akali Dal won eight and BSP three seats out of 13 with two having been retained by the Congress. Punjab was still coming out of the hang over of long period of milit...

  Khalistan narrative gets institutional legitimacy from Sikh sovereign seat of Akal Takht Ground Zero Jagtar Singh   Khalistan was not the political objective of the militant struggle commanded by Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale during Phase I that ended with Operation Bluestar, the brutal army attack in the Golden Temple (Darbar Sahib) complex in June, 1984. The slogan ‘June Chhe, Khalistan Day’ (June 6 is pronounced as June Chhe in Punjabi) resonated in this most sacred shrine of the Sikhs at 37 th   anniversary today of that attack that has now been named as the Third Holocaust faced by the Sikhs in history. The raising of this symbol has been justified by the highest institution of Akal Takht as expression of hurt and pain. As compared to previous anniversaries, the gathering this time was massive. The Akali Dal dominated Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee used to discourage larger gathering at such functions earlier. The scene today was different. T...

    Government must come out with exact number of casualties during Operation Bluestar Ground Zero Jagtar Singh   The Sikhs are the only native people who have ruled over the region from river Satluj to Khyber Pass in a period of about 500 years despite being about 13 per cent of the population at best of times and the Sikh Empire was the last to be annexed by the British in 1849. This nostalgia of being the rulers of the land nurtures the ambition to rule. The foundation of the Sikh Raj was laid by   Baba Banda Singh Bahadur, the warrior who had been deputed to Punjab by Guru Gobind Singh during his last days at Nanded in Maharasthra, with the conquest of Sirhind province in 1710 that was part of the Mughal Empire. This nostalgic glory continues to sculpt the Sikh ambitions and aspirations even under the present fast changing geo-political situation. At another level, this is what can be called as the historical baggage that they carry. The Sikhs were th...

  My Traumatic moment of   taking care of injured Bir of Guru Granth Sahib in Golden Temple during Operation Bluestar   Jagtar Singh   Ground Zero   “The historic Bir of Guru Granth Sahib (holy scriptures bestowed upon the high status of the Guru) on the first floor was partially covered in a white bloodstained sheet. Putting the Bir in order was a traumatic experience, which continued to haunt me for many years despite my Leftist background”.   (At the time when the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee chief Bibi Jagir Kaur has announced the decision to display injured Bir of Guru Granth Sahib hit by bullets during Operation Bluestar, here is my first-hand account of the trauma I experienced. I was the only journalist to go to first floor of Darbar Sahib from the party air-lifted by army from Chandigarh on June 15, 1984.)       Under Army Occupation   The morning of June 15, 1984 , felt hotter than usual. ...