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Journalism of Courage
Prithipal Singh Randhawa, leader of the Punjab Students Union (PSU), was murdered in Ludhiana on July 18, 1979. He was only 27, at the time, and among the tallest leaders of the student union movement in Punjab in the 1970s.
Randhawa came from Hoshiarpur in Punjab. In 1972, he took admission in the Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), Ludhiana. At the time of his death, he was completing his Masters’ degree in Agriculture.
He was active in student politics from the very beginning, working as the general secretary of PSU. On October 5 1972, students were protesting outside the Regal Cinema in Moga district against black marketing of tickets when the police opened fire, killing four people, student leaders Swarn Singh and Harjeet Singh. In response Randhawa launched a mass movement which culminated in the responsible police officers’ arrest.
On October 26 1974, he organised the massive Moga Sangram rally, covering a number of issues, from fee hikes faced by students to the United States’ imperial war in Vietnam. “The gathering in that rally gave a glimpse of Randhawa’s popularity… and an alarm bell for politicians who feared a strong student movement,” Sukhdev Singh Kokrikalan, general secretary of Bharatiya Kisan Union Ugrahan, told The Indian Express.
According to various accounts, Randhawa was an ardent follower of Bhagat Singh. That is why he joined PSU, an organisation floated by the revolutionary freedom fighter. Randhawa’s rising popularity, and anti-establishment politics saw him arrested, and imprisoned for 19 months, under the Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA) during the Emergency. At the time, PSU was also banned.
On July 18, 1979, at around 9 pm, Randhawa was in the clinic of his father-in-law when two persons came posing as patients on a two-wheeler. They were joined by five more in a car. The men overpowered Randhawa and dragged him into the car. Hours later, his body was found on the link road between Baddowal village and Jhande village of Ludhiana. He was shot dead.
A rivalry with another student group within PAU, led by a certain Beant Singh (no connection to Indira Gandhi’s killer or the former Punjab chief minister), was the reason for Randhawa’s murder. “Randhawa had received threats on his life for weeks before his murder,” Kanwaljeet Singh Khanna, farmer union leader of BKU Dakaunda who was also part of PSU in the 70s, told The Indian Express. His death led to massive protests, not only in Punjab and Haryana but also in Delhi.
Today, Randhawa is remembered by almost all the farmer unions of Punjab, different PSU offshoots, and other unions.
