Both Shaheed Bhagat Singh and Sant Bhindranwale are icons and term terrorist is relative

 

If Shaheed Bhagat Singh is terrorist by Mann’s criteria, then so is Sant Bhindranwale

Ground Zero

Jagtar Singh

 

Even before he took the oath as the MP from Sangrur,  the seat that he won in a byelection that sent out multi-layered political message, Simranjit Singh Mann, the mercurial president of the Akali Dal (Amritsar), waded into a minefield, one can’t say consciously or unconsciously.

He triggered the debate of Shaheed Bhagat Singh, who is perceived to be the star of the freedom struggle, being the terrorist. This controversy is not new, especially in the context of the Sikh religio-political domain.

Talking to media after taking oath as MP in the chamber of the Lok Sabha Speaker ostensibly to avoid getting recorded by television channel, he said Bhagat Singh was a terrorist as he threw a bomb in Parliament and killed constable Chanan Singh in the attack on Assistant Superintendent of police John Saunders in Lahore.

In the record of colonial India, Bhagat Singh was a terrorist.

However, he was freedom fighter for Indians.

Going by Mann’s criteria, the militant Sikh struggle commanded by Sant Jarnail Singh Khalsa Bhindranwale that got sparked in 1978, too was terrorism. Sant Bhindranwale did not kill anybody till the army attack on Darbar Sahib code named Operation Bluestar in June 1984 but he was the main leader. There was even no major case registered against him.

Mann’s logic is that constable Chanan Singh was Amritdhari Sikh. He was with Saunders as his security. The target was Saunders but Chanan Singh’s death was collateral damage.

It is said that Bhagat Singh had fired a single shot and this was the only time he had used a gun. He was the man with the pen and a revolutionary thinker.

He wrote a lot and his works including under pen name surfaced years later after independence. He provided socio-political framework rooted in Marxist thought. His slogan was Inquilab Zindabad, a slogan that remains relevant over space and time.

However, the philosophy of Bhagat Singh does not suit the rulers in India and his projection is more of a man with a pistol that is his brazen distortion.

The role of the elite in general including the Sikh elite during freedom struggle has by and large been questionable. The Sikh establishment owned neither Bhagat Singh, nor the Ghadar Party or the Babbar Akalis. All three were from radical stream. The Sikh elite of Amritsar has issued a formal statement opposing what has come to be known as the Jallianwala struggle.

The SGPC did not include the name of Bhagat Singh in the condolence resolution that was passed post his hanging at its general house meeting. The names included Moti Lal Nehru.

However, while defending his grandfather Arur Singh who as Sarabrah (manager) of Akal Takht had honoured Brigadier General R E Dyer, he forgot that he had apologised for the same at a meeting of the SGPC general house of which he was a member in 2002.

In the recent times, several security people including his physician were killed when chief minister Beant Singh was assassinated by human bomb Dilawar Singh at the main gate of the Punjab civil secretariat. Jagtar Singh Hawara and Balwant Singh Rajoana, whose release is being demanded by the Sikh organisations, were part of that operation. Human bomb Dilawar Singh is now a Shaheed but for the Indian state, he is a terrorist.

Sant Bhindranwale has been immortalised with martyrs’ memorial in the Darbar Sahib complex, near the very spot where he fell to the shots fired from a medium machine gun on the morning of June 6, 1984. Beant Singh and Satwant Singh who gunned down prime minister Indira Gandhi to avenge Operation Bluestar were later declared Shaheed from Akal Takht.

The term terrorist is relative depending upon space and time.

Mann’s victory betrayed unprecedented reversal in the fortunes of the Aam Aadmi Party within less than four months of securing unprecedented mandate from the people of Punjab. People articulated their disgust with the functioning of the Bhagwant Mann government by voting for Simranjit Singh  Mann while dumping Shiromani Akali Dal and rejecting the Congress once again. He was entrusted with a bigger responsibility.

However, the way he has enmeshed himself in this unsavoury controversy does not convey the right message. He was supposed to be the fulcrum in the Sikh religio-political domain.

One has to go back to 1989 when Mann received unprecedented mandate by winning from Tarn Taran in the Lok Sabha election with a margin of nearly five lakh votes. Not only that. He had emerged as the most powerful leader in the Sikh matrix who had total support from every section. He did not even enter Parliament. He failed to deliver. It was his failure that paved the way for the return of Parkash Singh Badal.

It seems the history is repeating itself.

Mann might please a section in the Sikh domain but the issues are much larger.

The leadership space in the Sikh religio-political domain is vacant.

The issue is not whether Bhagat Singh and Sant Bhindranwale were terrorists are not.

Mann has reiterated his political agenda as the Sikh state as buffer between India and Pakistan within no time of swearing by the constitution.

The concept of buffer state had emerged in the political terminology in context of Punjab during pre-partition period. Mann revived it in 1989 before he phased out. He has gone back to the same issues.

Punjab needs The Leader.