Bargari sacrilege
narrative has both criminal as well as religio-political dimensions
Ground Zero
Jagtar Singh
The Bargari narrative
associated with sacrilege of Sikh Holy Text Guru Granth Sahib that dictated the election results in 2017 and
2022 hitting two incumbent chief ministers has returned to the centre stage of
the highly sensitive religio-political matrix in Punjab.
The reason is the report of a
special investigative team (SIT) into the sacrilege per se at Bargari on
October 12, 2015 under the Akali Dal-BJP alliance government headed by Parkash
Singh Badal in his fourth term. There have been several such probes. There are
separate probes into the incidents of police actions at Kotkapura and Behbal
Kalan as part of this narrative on October 14, 2015.
The report SIT report has
interestingly been released by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann himself to a group of
Sikh preachers who have not been actively associated with the agitations and
protests over this issue over time. One of the most prominent among this group
is Amrik Singh Ajnala who headed a breakaway faction of Damdami Taksal.
Is AAP proposing to enter the sensitive
arena of election to the general house of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak
Committee by roping in a section of the Sikh preachers? The BJP is also learnt
to be making similar moves. The RSS, the
parent body of the BJP, has always been interested in the Sikh affairs.
Unlike the earlier charge
sheet filed by Inspector General of Police Kunwar Vijay Partap singh (Who later
resigned from IPS and is now Aam Aadmi Party MLA from Amritsar), this report does
not mention the names of Parkash Singh Badal or his son and then deputy chief
minister Sukhbir Singh Badal.
The Shiromani Akali Dal leaders
have a reason to go ga ga over this development.
The report into police firing at
Kotkapura and Behbal Kalan is awaited.
This narrative has two basic
dimensions- criminal as well as religio-political.
First the narrative has to be
recalled in brief.
The first phase relates to the
period when the picture of Gurmit Ram Rahim attired like Guru Gobind Singh, the
10 Guru of the Sikhs, appeared in the newspapers in May 2007 within weeks of
Badal having been taken over as the chief minister. This Dera had supported the
Congress in that election. Punjab turned highly tense with the situation
reminiscent of 1978 when the Nirankari sect had come into confrontation with
the Sikh organisations at Amritsar on April 13, 1978 for the mishandling of
which Punjab continues to pay the cost. The chief minister at that too was
Badal.
The second part of the
narrative is the theft of the Bir of Guru Granth Sahib from Burj Jawahar Singh
Wala village adjacent to Bargari in
Faridkot district on June 1, 2015 whose pages were found scattered on the
streets of Bargari on October 12. Sukhbir Singh Badal was the Deputy Chief
Minister and the Home Minister at that time.
The third phase include
post-October 12 events that include police firing on protesters demanding
justice on October 14, first at Kotkapura and three hours later at Behbal next
to Bargari.
The Director General of Police
in 2015 was Sumedh Singh Saini. The DGP is always the choice of the political
leadership and it was a wrong choice as his name was associated with brazen
human rights violations during militancy.
The Akali Dal-BJP alliance
captured power in Punjab in February 2007 and formed government headed by
Parkash Singh Badal in March. The Dera Sacha Sauda, a sect with headquarters in
Sirsa in Haryana but having large following in adjoining Mawla area of Punjab,
had openly supported the Congress in this election. This is the only sect that
has been openly active in electoral domain and has a political wing.
The Punjab headquarters of
this Dera is at Salabatpura village in Bathinda district. Dera head Gurmeet Ram
Rahim organised a function at Salabatpura and Punjab was suddenly rocked as full
page advertisement appeared in some newspapers on May 13, 2007 of the Dera
chief attired like Guru Gobind Singh, the 10th Sikh Guru.
In a swift action, the Sikh
top clergy headed by Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Joginder Singh Vedanti issued a
Hukamnama (Directive) calling for boycott of this sect as action against its
head. Here was the beginning. A case was registered against the Dera chief for
this blasphemous act at a Bathinda police station on May 20, 2007.
The branches of this sect were
shut down and the sect followers were not allowed to organise their
congregations. This situation continued.
Another development followed
but in the political domain.
Faridkot Lok Sabha seat, the
family bastion of the House of Badals till then, was declared reserve. The Badals
had to shift to Bathinda. Village Badal is about 20 kms from Bathinda city. The
family nominee in 2009 was Harsimrat Kaur Badal.
There is no evidence that the
support of Dera was sought.
However, the Dera at a media
interaction at Patiala before the election on
November 6, 2008 offered support to the Akali Dal. The Akali Dal won
this seat with a massive margin of more than one lakh votes.
The next development took
place days before the Assembly elections
in February 2012. The Bathinda police
filed a cancellation report of the case against the Dera chief on January 27, 2012. This marked the beginning
of a new phase in this narrative. Was it a quid pro quo?
The Akali Dal-BJP combine retained
power in 2012 elections.
The Dera chief turned producer
and his first film hit the screens barring Punjab on February 13, 2015. This
was due to Akal Takht Hukamnama of 2007. The Punjab government banned the film
apprehending law and order situation.
In the meantime, the Guru
Granth Sahib was found missing from village Burj Jawahar Singh Wala on June 1,
2015. This was the first such case of
theft of Guru Granth Sahib that is treated as the Guru Personified by the Sikhs
but it seemed to have been taken up like
just a routine crime. No person of importance from the political domain visited
Burj. No progress was made in the case.
Posters appeared in Burj and
Bargari on September 24 and 25, 2015 claiming in abusing language that the Guru
Granth Sahib was hidden in Bargari and challenged the Sikhs. The name of Dera
surfaced at this stage.
Finally, pages of the Holy
Book were found scattered in the streets of Bargari on October 12 morning triggering
strong protests. Protesters shifted to nearby Kotkapura where police came into
action on the morning of October 14 and three hours later at Behbal Kalan where
two persons were killed in police firing. Police firirng at behbal Kalan could
have been avoided in case the political leadership had directed police to
observe restraint after Kotkapura incident.
It is pertinent to mention
here that days earlier, the Dera followers had blocked railway lines at Bathinda
for three days protesting against ban on the film but no action was taken. Still
earlier, the agitating farmers had blocked Mansa railway station for days.
Punjab was in turmoil. However,
Deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal mocked the protesters saying they had
nothing else to do. The Akali Dal organised counter conferences.
Again in June 2018 when Morcha
was launched by the Sikh organisations demanding justice, the Akali Dal opposed
the same.
The issue is not just whether
the names of the Badals appears in the Bargari case charge sheet or not. The issue
concerns the religio-political domain too.
In this context, to pave way
for the release of the film, Chief Minister Badal in September 2015 summoned
Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Gurbachan Singh and his associates to his official
residence in Chandigarh to get pardon for Dera chief on a flimsy apology. This pardon
was defended by Badal-controlled SGPC by spending about Rs 90 lakh on newspaper
ads. Both these institutions were hit in the process. The Takht jathedars can’t
be summoned in this way by anybody. This was brazen violation of the Sikh code
of conduct. Both the Akal Takht and the SGPC are still to recover from that
damage.
The badals have a lot of
explaining to do in the religio-political domain.
The issue now is as to why
Mann has released the SIT report to a select group of preachers who are not
from the mainstream.
Is the Aam Aadmi Party already
going ahead with the strategy to enter the domain of the election to the SGPC
that could be held within the next few months?
The stock of the Shiromnani
Akali Dal is at rock bottom.
Sangrur Lok Sabha election has
witnessed the emergence of yet another dynamics with the return of hard-line leader
Simranjit Singh Mann who has attracted the youth.
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