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.
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