Punjab separatists find many takers in rural Baisakhi mela

While hardcore terrorism may have been rooted out of the state a decade ago, the dark days of militancy continue to haunt rural Punjab as ba...

While hardcore terrorism may have been rooted out of the state a decade ago, the dark days of militancy continue to haunt rural Punjab as banned literature, photographs and cassettes of separatist leaders still find way into the houses.

At the Baisakhi mela at Talwandi Sabo today, all these were readily available. While the names of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and other separatists continued to reverberate in the speeches of radical Akalis like Jasbir Singh Rode, Mal Singh Ghuman and Simranjit Singh Mann at separate stages in the mela today, the literature of such separatists was a sellout as many stalls were put up on the occasion.

While calendars showing Bhindranwale (along with other separatists) were being sold for Rs 10 each, his banned cassettes propagating the separatist movement were available for Rs 30 each. Most of this publicity material had been provided by the Damdami Taksal at Amritsar.

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Bhindranwale also found favour with some radical Akalis who eulogised him at their political conferences.

While Simranjit Singh Mann continued to raise the demand of a ‘‘sovereign and independent status’’ for Sikhs as propagated by Bhindranwale, others like Rode and Ghuman raised slogans in his favour and eulogised him.

Meanwhile, the efforts to bring all Akali factions under one umbrella does not seem forthcoming as leaders like Mann are not ready to align with anyone and are totally against Badal and Tohra being in the new party.

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