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Sacrilege: What was provocation to evict dharna at Kotkapura and Behbal as no action had been taken earlier against Dera followers, farmers

 



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 resigned and joined the Aam Aadmi Party.

The main issue this SIT is probing is the firing by police at Behbal Kalan and Kotkapura on the Sikh protesters demanding arrest of the culprits responsible for the sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib.

They were seeking justice from the Akali Dal-BJP government headed by Parkash Singh Badal who had been bestowed with the unprecedented title of Faqr-e-Qaum Panth Rattan from the highest temporal Sikh seat of Akal Takht.

It is necessary to recall the events in brief.

A copy (Bir) of Guru Granth Sahib was reported missing from a gurdwara in Burj Jawahar Singh Wala village in the afternoon of June 1, 2015. Its pages were found scattered in the streets of nearby Bargari village on the morning of October 12, more than three months later. In between, derogatory posters had appeared in September both in Burj and Bargari challenging the Sikhs to locate Guru Granth Sahib claimed to be hidden in Bargari village. The posters carried name of the controversial Dera Sacha Sauda with which the Sikhs had been in confrontation since 2007.

The Sikh devotees took the torn pages in procession a few kilometres away to Kotkapura town in the afternoon and started dharna at the trijunction. The police action was launched on October 14 to disperse the protesters first at Kotkapura and three hours later at Behbal Kalan in the vicinity of Bargari. Two persons were killed in Behbal firing while at Kotkapura, some were reported injured.

The main question: What was the emergency to disperse the protesters? Who ordered the police action to get the dharna vacated first at Kotkapura and then at Behbal? As to who ordered the  police to open fire at both the places is secondary. On the record, it is the duty magistrate who signs the orders. The protesters also included women.

This question on forcible lifting of the protesters becomes all the more relevant in the context of other agitations around that time and that too in that very area.

Those were the agitations that for days had disrupted the rail and road traffic in major part of the Malwa region. The railway line connecting Delhi to Bathinda too had remained blocked for about a week.

First the protest by followers of Dera Sacha Sauda in the month of September.

This protest was over non-screening of the film MSG-2 in which Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim had acted. It was not screened in Punjab. The Dera followers started protests in the state from September 19 and blocked rails and roads demanding its screening. “Thousands of Dera Sacha Sauda sect followers held protest demonstrations in Malwa region of Punjab for the second consecutive day despite bad weather to demand that MSG-2 movie starring sectarian head Gurmit Ram Rahim Singh should be screened in the state on Sunday. Railway authorities were forced to cancel 12 passenger and four goods trains after hundreds of followers sat on the tracks on the outskirts of Moga since Saturday evening, refusing to let trains pass. Trains on the Ferozepur-Moga-Ludhiana, Ferozepur-Moga-Chandigarh, Ferozepur-Jalandhar-Amritsar and Ferozepur-Fazilka line, among others, were affected. Protesters also blocked major road routes leading to Moga despite the intermittent rains witnessed all through Sunday”. (The Tribune, September 21, 2015). Malout-Bathinda highway too was blocked.

The police took no action.

            (Farmers agitation 2015-file photo)

The next was the rail blockade by the farmers.

Thousands of farmers blocked the rail traffic in Bathinda-Mansa area for about a week causing major disruption as part of the agitation over various issues. The blockade at the Mansa railway station was the main point of agitation. The traffic to Delhi remained affected for a week.

No action was taken by the police.

What provoked the Punjab government to lift dharna by peaceful protesters against the sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib at the Kotkapura trijunction? The police force from various districts was deployed under the command of an inspector general of police for this action.

The action started first early in the morning at Kotkapura. The videos capturing this action emerged later. Several persons were injured in police firing going by the information.

Intriguingly, the action was repeated three hours later at Behbal near Bargari where the dharna was on a link road. Two protesters were killed when the police opened fire. Both the Justice Jora Singh Commission appointed by the Badal government and Justice Ranjit Singh Commission during Congress government provided almost similar details of the Behbal police action.

Should not the government have taken precaution after the action at Kotkapura  mishandling?

The issue is not as to who ordered the police to open fire.

The basic issue is as to who ordered the police to get the dharna vacated at both the places and why.

The police had not taken action days earlier when major agitations had been witnessed in the state.

This is the crucial dimension of the Bargari sacrilege narrative that should be answered by the people concerned.

It is for the probe agencies to provide record to this effect to get pointed answer.

This aspect has nothing to do with the politics over sacrilege being indulged in by the political parties who have no concern other than votes.


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