Journalism of Courage
The recent verdict for Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar overshadowed Baisakhi Mela at Talwandi Sabo Saturday. Numerous stalls were selling t-shirts with Bhullars face on them while others encouraged participation in a signature campaign to get Bhullars death penalty dismissed.
A conference by SAD (Amritsar),led by Simranjeet Singh Mann,was packed to capacity as the SAD leader condemned the decision and stated that such unfair decisions had always been taken against Sikhs and Muslims,who are in minority.
When death penalty of one person in 1984 riot victims has been converted into life and also of Dara Singh,who burnt kids alive,then why cant Bhullar,who has already spent more than 20 years in rigourous imprisonment. Out of 133 witnesses,none gave a statement. Even one of the judges in the three-judge panel,dismissed the death penalty. Still Bhullar is being targeted.
The signature campaign for dismissal of Bhullars death penalty was started by a vernacular newspaper about six weeks ago and has already collected 80 lakh signatures. Their aim is to get 1 crore signatures and send them to President Pranab Mukherjee.
Meanwhile,Bhullar t-shirts were selling like hot cakes at Rs 100 a piece. Harminder Singh,a shopkeeper from Patiala said: Most of the stock of Bhullars t-shirts has been sold and still people are asking for more. We had no idea about this verdict,otherwise we would have brought more.
