TV screens across the board constructing narrative as if Punjab is on fire, but it is not on fire

 

Is Punjab on fire again?

Ground Zero

Jagtar Singh

Is Punjab with its history of turbulence is on fire again after having been hit by a new meteor?

It seems to be so going by the TV screens and the narrative that is being constructed at the national level by the shouting brigade of anchors.

Otherwise, Punjab is normal, rather more normal than many other regions.

Of course, the Sikh religio-political matrix is experiencing turbulence. Sikh activist and Khalistan protagonist Amritpal Singh who has been on the run since March 18 after frustrating police attempt to arrest him in Tarn Taran district has now triggered the Sikh religio-political domain. Mocking at the system, he yesterday released his first video shot only last night going by its content indicating his political course. He followed it up with audio message Thursday.

In the video, he looks undeterred.

For the last several years, India has been witnessing intensification of hate speeches and the players in this domain do not hide their affiliation with the Hindutva ideology.

Amritpal too after he paradropped started using the same phraseology and targeted the Christians initially, thereby creating the perception of being playing the broader Hindutva practices, and later the migrant workers who come mainly from the Hindi heartland.

It may be mentioned that Amritpal Singh who was in Dubai for more than a decade managing his family’s trucking business paradropped in Punjab last year as successor of activist Deep Sidhu and presented himself as carbon copy of Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale.

He committed some blunders but suddenly, he has now hit the national scene while at the same time, activated a section of the Sikh Diaspora.

While the security agencies and the Punjab police are after him, he, in a dramatic move, released his video Wednesday evening.

The issue here is not just Amritpal but the narrative this phenomenon is rooted in as he is a Khalistan protagonist.

Not that raising of Khalistan demand is something unusual in Punjab. Organizations like Dal Khalsa have been raising this issue for years while adhering to parliamentary methods.

The only difference that Amritpal made is that he appeared on the scene copying mannerism of Sant Bhindranwale. A major part of the hard-line section in the Sikh religio-political domain seemed to have shifted towards him. The hard-line organisations hit the competitive mode.

This turbulence in the Sikh religio-political matrix  reinforces the often-cited postulate that an idea can’t be killed by an AK-47.

The idea of Sikh state of Khalistan has been part of the narrative since April 1940 when it was first articulated by Dr. Vir Singh Bhatti of Ludhiana.

This articulation was rooted in the fact that the Sikhs once ruled over the land from Satluj to Khyber Pass that was the sovereign Sikh Empire under Maharaja Ranjit Singh. The British annexed Sikh Empire in 1849 after two Anglo-Sikh wars. Kashmir was part of this Empire whose boundary also touched Tibet.

This Land of the Sikhs got partitioned in 1947.

Punjab witnessed militant struggle for more thana decade beginning 1980 whose genesis is traced to 1978 events. This militant narrative turned into struggle for Khalistan after the army attack on Golden Temple (Darbar Sahib) code-named Operation Bluestar in June 1984.

The problem is that the militant narrative that phased out in 1995 is still to witness closure.

The narrative associated with Sikh activist Amritpal Singh who paradropped from Dubai last year has now catalysed this domain.

The handling of this narrative by the security agencies continues to be colonial, refusing to learn from the past blunders.

Institution of Akal Takht, the symbol of Sikh sovereignty and synergy of religio-political domain, too has finally got involved in this narrative. The Shiromani Akali Dal has positioned itself precariously after initial usual flip-flop.

Going by the agencies, Sikh militancy has now entered a new phase with the newly developed linkage of gangsters with some active Sikh militants operating from foreign lands.

The Sikh militant struggle that was rooted in the Sikh psyche that got unleashed due to failure of the justice delivery system got transformed into struggle for Khalistan after army attack code named Operation Bluestar in the Golden Temple (Darbar Sahib) complex in Amritsar from June 4-6, 1984 whose symbol now is  Sant  Bhindranwale, who, otherwise,  never unequivocally demanded Sikh sovereign state of Khalistan.

This is the only armed struggle in post-1947 India that took the life of a prime minister (Indira Gandhi), a chief minister (Beant Singh) and a retired army chief (General A S Vaidya).

The situation, however, in 2023 is different from 1984.

Punjab police arrested about 400 supporters of Amritpal, several of them under the draconian National Security Act who have been sent to Dibrugarh in Assam. Most of them have now been done but  damage has already been done so far as the individual as well as collective Sikh psyche is concerned.

India is the biggest democracy in the world but the ironic part is that India is colonial democracy.

Normal laws should be sufficient to respond to a situation.

This situation has suddenly pushed Punjab to the centre stage.

Sikhs in countries like UK, Canada, USA and Australia have been protesting and India has lodged strong protest against activities of these protesters abroad.

It is mainly mishandling of the situation that has complicated the issue.

Punjab is certainly not on fire as most of the TV channels are projecting.

But then the basic issue is why such sparks continue to be witnessed in Punjab whose political discourse is different from all other states in India.

Radical discourse in Punjab, of course, is cyclical.

However, Punjab has also associated with the most peaceful struggles in the Indian sub-continent, the latest being the Kisan struggle that forced the Narendra Modi government to withdraw the three farm laws that had opened the gates of the farm sectors to the corporates. Punjab lead that struggle that united the farmers from every region.

The socio-economic-political issues associated with Punjab call for holistic approach besides closure of the narrative associated with the militant struggle.

Otherwise, Amritpals would continue to emerge.