In Bargari, ‘radicals’ take centre stage, unnerve SAD, Cong

In Octtober 2015, torn pages of the Sikh holy book were found strewn around in Bargari. Along with Behbal Kalan, where police firing against the desecration left two protesters dead, and Burj Jawahar Singh Wala, where the June 1, 2015 theft of the Guru Granth Sahib from the local gurdwara was the first incident that year, Bargari is the eye of a fresh storm over the three-year-old episode that is shaking up Punjab’s politics.

SAD patron and former Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and his son — SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal — have described those leading and participating in the dharna as “Congress stooges”, and the dharna as a design “hatched” by the Congress government to “disturb peace and communal harmony” in the state with the “covert” motive of taking control of gurdwaras.

But the anti-Akali protests have now begun to worry the Congress government, and more so, the Punjab Police, which has been red flagging renewed activity among Khalistani extremists in Punjab and abroad over the last few months. The dharna, which began on June 1, has kept the police preoccupied and its boots on the ground stretched. Recent backchannel efforts by Congress ministers to get the protesters to disperse failed. Activists of Sikh organisations Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) and United Akali Dal are among the participants. The dharna is led by Dhian Singh Mand, appointed “Akal Takht jathedar” by the “Sarbat Khalsa” held by radical orgainsations in November 2015, in defiance of the SGPC appointed jathedars.

On the Bathinda-Kotkapura road, the mood is almost festive. There are stalls selling Sikh articles of faith, panthic literature. There is langar and tea. The dharna site is located on farm land right next to the main road, but does not hinder traffic. Policemen are deployed in good numbers on the entry and exit points of the slip road that leads to dharna site. Everyday, there are religious discourses by panthic personalities and recitations by dhadi jathas.

The protesters demand arrest of culprits behind desecration of Guru Granth Sahib in 2015 and those responsbile for police firing at Kotkapura and Behbal Kalan the same year. Additionally, they are also taking the opportunity to push a long standing radical demand for the release of Sikh prisoners whose cases are “fit for release”.

Emerging from a pandal in the morcha, Mand who wields a sword and is accompanied by his supporters, lashes out at both the Congress government and previous SAD-BJP government for doing nothing to bring guilty to the book.

Mand declares that the morcha will continue till all the demands are met. “Those who will oppose this morcha are doomed to fade away. Congress government will meet the same fate as Akalis if it did not act at the end of the day,” said Mand. He is firm that morcha will not end till all the demands are met.

Though the government has sought to assure the protesters it will act on the Ranjit Singh Commission report into the incidents, the recent Punjab and Haryana High Court stay on proceedings against the four police officers, and the court’s permission allowing SAD to hold the Faridkot rally on Sunday, has Bargari morcha leaders suspicious of the “intent” of the Congress government.

At Burj Jawahar Singh Wala, a set of seven CCTV cameras now guard the gurdwaras from different angles, two angled on the Guru Granth Sahib from different directions. The footage is beamed into the home next door of granthi Gora Singh. Gora Singh and scores of residents of Burj Jawahar Singh Wala recall the ordeal after theft of Guru Granth Sahib and say police were merciless on suspects in the village. “Even me and my family members were subjected to stringent interrogation and taken for a narco test to Gujarat twice. But, since I am diabetic, I could not take the test,” said Gora Singh. But, he added that his interrogation continued.

At the site of police firing in Behbal Kalan, construction of a gate on link road entry is under way. The gate, according to United Akali Dal general secretary Gurdeep Singh Bathinda, was likely to be dedicated to Krishan Bhagwan and Gurjeet Singh who were killed in the
police firing.