Punjab
seems to be entering into critical domain with incidents of sacrilege and bomb
blast
Ground Zero
Jagtar Singh
April 24:
Cow heads were placed in Katra Ahluwalia and Bazar Kathian, Amritsar.
April 27:
Two carcasses of calves were found in Kharar area.
April 28: Virendra
of Daily Partap and Ramesh Chander of Hind Samachar group in Jalandhar received
parcels containing cow ears.
April 30:
Three packets of cigarettes recovered from a gurdwara in Tarn Taran.
May 1:
Packet of Bidis found in a gurdwara at Anandpur Sahib.
May 1: Cigarette
packets found in the Golden Temple complex.
It is that
it happened about four decades back in 1982 sparking fire in Punjab that raged
for about a decade and a half that consumed more than 40,000 lives including
that of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, Akali Dal chief Sant Harchand Singh
Longowal and Chief Minister Beant Singh.
Now come to
2021.
Sacrilege at
the Golden Temple (Darbar Sahib) has been followed by a powerful bomb blast in
the district court complex at Ludhiana. Yet another case of sacrilege was
reported from Anandpur Sahib but the police perhaps did not take it seriously.
Not that the
history is repeating itself.
However, what
is now happening raises apprehensions about the same.
The only
difference is that Punjab is not witnessing protests by any political party unlike
in 1982. The launch of Dharamyudh Morcha on August 4, 1982 by the Shiromani
Akali Dal had come at the culmination of a long narrative and failed negotiations
with Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
The Akali
Dal presently is in a different kind of situation as one of its senior leaders
and former minister Bikram Singh Majitha faces drugs related case.
The party
today after years decided to return to Diwan Hall Manji Sahib in the Golden
Temple complex to organise a Panthic convention on the issue of continuing
cases of sacrilege on January 2 next.
Party
president Sukhbir Singh Badal, who is always up-to-date on every move of the
Congress government in the state, asserts the case against Majitha is a frame
up. Several senior officers are on the record having refused to register this
case and were shifted.
It is the
timing that is one of the most important dimensions as fear rises about Punjab
sliding back into the dark tunnel. The Assembly elections are due in February
2022. Such incidents are being seen to create fear psychosis in this sensitive
border state that can impact on the electoral discourse and outcome.
It is for
the first time that the Assembly polls in this state are going to be four
dimensional with the emergence of unexpected permutations and combinations.
It is
pertinent to recall that Punjab has witnessed deadly bomb blast at Maur in
Bathinda district in the run up to the 2017 Assembly polls.
That bomb
blast is a case as to how the government fails the people.
This case is
still waiting to be taken to the logical conclusion.
So is the
case with the shocking case of sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib at Bargari on
October 12, 2015 during the Akali Dal government headed by Parkash Singh Badal who
was in his record fifth term.
That case
too is still awaiting closure despite having gone into by two judicial commissions
and several probes.
The name of
Dera Sacha Sauda had emerged in both Bargari and Maur cases but for some
strange reason, the probe halted at the gate of this Dera at Sirsa in Haryana. Dera
chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim is serving jail term in a rape and murder cases.
Badal today
came out of self-imposed hibernation due to old age as he is 94 to attend the
core committee meeting. He has already signalled that he is not averse to
entering into poll fray for one more time.
The situation
demands that the political formations avoid competitive politics on such
sensitive issues and evolve some minimum consensus to confront such threats
unitedly.
These parties
should have learnt from the losses they and India suffered due to opportunistic
politics during those dark times.
The problem
now is that even the ruling Congress is faction ridden with several groups
competing amongst each other despite the fact that the situation at the
political level continues to be nebulous unlike the earlier elections.
Chief
Minister Charanjit Singh Channi must assure the people that the situation would
not be allowed to get vitiated again.
Punjab being
a border state is also a vital aspect but what is more important is the
situation in the state itself. Pakistan would definitely exploit the situation
in case the socio-political tension here rises.
The positive
vibes that the farmers struggle created must continue to dominate the narrative
as that is the only way forward to confront the divisive narrative.
It would be
myopic view to link these incidents to just elections. Of course, that could be
an important dimension.
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