A radical change

Paramjeet Kaur26,Satwant Kaur27,Tarlochan Singh22
Children of:Bhai Amrik Singh, second-in-command to Jarnail Singh
Bhindranwale and AISSF president
Occupation:Paramjeet and Satwant are lecturers, Tarlochan a student
When Amrik Singh died, he was doing his PhD in Punjabi. Little wonder then that his children too have an academic bent of mind. While Paramjeet and Satwant are lecturers in zoology and English, their younger brother Tarlochan is pursuing his masters degree in IT.
8220;After my father8217;s death, it was my mother, Harmeet Kaur, who faced a tough time,8221; says Paramjeet. So Harmeet worked in her fields they had enough land to help provide a good education to her children. 8220;After Operation Bluestar, we didn8217;t believe my husband had died. We waited for many years, but he didn8217;t return. Later we shifted from Amritsar and purchased land in a village near Muktsar, and my mother in-law helped me a lot. With her permission I sent my daughters to a convent school in Muktsar city as there were no good schools in the village and when my son started studying we shifted to the city,8221; she says.
Raising children was only part of the problem; the family suffered constant harassment after her husband8217;s death. 8220;If guests visited us, the police would surround the house as if a 8216;militant8217; had come visiting,8221; she recalls. 8220;Even our relatives were not spared by the police, who went to their homes and questioned them.8221;
8220;I also faced the wrath of many radical groups which wanted me to offer my children to them, but I was firm as I had lost much because of my husband8217;s involvement and didn8217;t want to ruin my children8217;s career,8221; she says. This, despite the fact that not only was Amrik president of the All India Sikh Students8217; Federation, but his father, Sant Kartar Singh Khalsa, was the head of Damdami Taksal and predecessor of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale.

Kanwarjit Singh26
S/o: Manminder Singh
Occupation: Forest guard
Kanwarjit was three years old when Manminder Singh of Bandala village in Ferozepur district was killed. Subsequently, the family not only faced a severe financial crisis but was also subjected to sustained humiliation by the police. 8220;For years, the police came to our home unannounced and beat up my grandfather Buta Singh and my uncles,8221; says Kanwarjit. 8220;They even gave me toffees so that I could tell them if my father had come home because they didn8217;t believe he had died.8221; His mother, Sukhjinder Kaur, worked in the fields to support the family. Today, his brother is looking after their six acre land, while he is in a government job. During the Dera row, people wanted to exploit their lineage but they refused to become involved.

Ishar Singh 39
S/o:Jarnail Singh
Bhindranwale
Occupation:Property dealer
Ishar Singh is media shy. He has a reason to be. He8217;s the son of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, the man who led the violent struggle from the front. After Bhindranwale8217;s death in Operation Bluestar, his wife Pritam Kaur came to Jalandhar from Rode village in Moga district in 1989 along with her two sons, Ishar Singh and Inderjit Singh.
While Inderjit has been in Canada for the past six years, Ishar is a property dealer who also runs a small finance company in Jalandhar. Though himself a matriculate, he wants to provide good education to his two children and doesn8217;t want to be involved in any controversy, religious or otherwise. While Ishar refuses to talk, according to his family, he has made a life for himself without help from any radical religious group despite the funds that his father8217;s name attracted. In fact, both the brothers are not linked to any religious body.

Daljit Kaur 28
D/o:Harcharan Singh Mukta
Occupation: Unemployed
Daljit has done her masters in Punjabi and public administration besides several computer courses, and is now looking for a job in Patiala. After the death of her father who belonged to Dera Mir Miyan Sirhind, the family was left to fend for itself, with no radical group offering any help. So her mother Amar Kaur took to working at other people8217;s houses to educate her three daughters.
8220;We didn8217;t have any land and it was only my mother8217;s work that supported us. I also took tuition to pay for my courses,8221; says Daljit. As for the Dera Sacha Sauda, she says it8217;s a controversy created by politicians and best kept at a distance.

Sarabjit Singh 25
S/o: Amarjit Singh
Occupation: Clerk in Guru Nanak Dev University
After a masters in economics, Sarabjit is working as a clerk at GNDU in Amritsar. When his father8212;at one time a Punjab Police employee and belonging to Khemkaran in Tarn Taran8212;died, his mother Malkiat Kaur took charge. She sold their two-three acre land in Khemkaran and shifted to Amritsar, where she worked as a clerk in a hospital to look after her two sons. The family has no affiliation with any Sikh organisation, particularly as none came forward to help them after their father died. The people who collected lakhs of rupees from various Sikh groups in foreign countries in his father8217;s name refused to recognise them when they needed help, says a bitter Sarabjit.

Manpreet Kaur 23
D/o:Amrik Singh
Occupation:Student
Manpreet is doing her masters in Computer Application. Though her father was from Varpal village of Patti in Amritsar, she stays in Gurdaspur now.

Gurbaksh Singh26
S/o:Bagga Singh
Occupation:restaurateur
After Class XII, Gurbaksh left for Austria where he has been ever since. After several odd jobs, he recently set up an eatery. 8220;We owned 40 acres of land and commission agent shops, so my children were well looked after by my husband8217;s brothers. I hardly faced any problem bringing them up,8221; says Lakhvir Kaur, Gurbaksh8217;s mother. According to Makhan Singh, Bagga8217;s brother, though they faced tough times initially, things got better with time. Now, during the Dera row, many Sikh leaders requested him to join hands with them, but Makhan refused. He has enough bad memories to last a lifetime.