Doyen of the panthic politics, Parkash Singh Badal remained haunted by sacrilege till very end

The series of sacrilege incidents began with the theft of a ‘bir’ (copy) of the holy Guru Granth Sahib from a gurdwara at Burj Jwahar Singh Wala on June 1, 2015.

Later in October, torn pages of the holy book were found scattered outside the gurdwara at Bargari in Faridkot. The incident sent shockwaves across the state and triggered a series of protests, including one at Kotkapura town and in Behbal Kalan village nearby. The police opened fire at the protesters, killing two persons — Gurjeet Singh and Kishan Bhagwan Singh —in Behbal Kalan and injuring a few at Kotkapura.

Soon after, Badal formed an SIT led by then ADGP IPS Sahota, who termed the incidents as the handiwork of “foreign handlers.” On November 30, 2015, another SIT headed by IG Ranbir Singh Khattra was formed to probe the Kotkapura police firing case, while the CBI was handed over the probe into the sacrilege cases of Bargari.

SAD patriarch and former CM Parkash Singh Badal and SAD President Sukhbir Singh Badal during the ‘panthic gathering’ at Manji Sahib Diwan Hall in Golden Temple complex in Amritsar. (Express photo by Rana Simranjit Singh)

Nothing came out of these investigations, and the anger fuelled by the sacrilege cases and police firing was considered one of the reasons for the Akali debacle in the 2017 assembly polls when it came third after the newbie Aam Aadmi Party.

But this was not end of Badal’s troubles as his successor Capt Amarinder Singh set up another SIT led by then ADGP Prabodh Kumar in May 2018, in which IG Kunwar Vijay Partap was also a member. The SIT report sought to blame Badal, his son Sukhbir, and then DGP Saini for the incident but was quashed by the Punjab and Haryana High Court in April 2021.

Capt Amarinder then set up another SIT led by ADGP LK Yadav in May 2021. This SIT questioned both Sukhbir as well as Badal Sr during the course of the investigation.

Former Punjab CM Parkash Singh Badal with former PM Atal Behari Vajpayee. (Express archive photo)

The SIT finally submitted its main 7,000-page chargesheet on February 24 this year in which it indicted Sukhbir and Saini as masterminds of the conspiracy for illegal and excess use of force to conceal the inaction of the state on a series of sacrilege incidents. It also blamed then CM Badal for the police firing that left two people dead. Badal, said the chargesheet, was a facilitator in the execution of the conspiracy.

It was a charge that rankled Badal, who had to get anticipatory bail in the case, till the very end.

So much so that he had issued an open letter accusing the ruling dispensation of unleashing “vendetta politics” to target him. Though he regretted during his stint as Chief Minister, “some very bad and condemnable incidents occurred,” he termed them “a deep conspiracy to disturb peace and communal harmony in Punjab”. The veteran with 70 years in politics, however, had vowed to contest the charges.

“During my entire life, I have been fighting against the tyranny of the governments and at the age of 95 years, I would continue to fight… such pressure tactics can never cow me down and I have full faith in judiciary,” he had said.