Eye on Assembly polls,parties lap up Bhullar issue

The ruling Shiromani Akali Dal SAD was expected to take a stand in favour of granting pardon to Bhullar and make it an election issue,particularly as another discriminatory act by the Centre. Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal have appealed to the prime minister to intervene and stop the execution of Bhullar. They have pointed out what they call the double standards of the Centre in commuting the death sentence of Dara Singh,the killer of Christian missionaries in Orissa,while confirming the death sentence of Bhullar. It shall give a signal that there are two laws and in the country and Dara was pardoned because he belonged to the majority community while Bhullar is from a minority community, they said.

Given the sensitivity of the issue in Punjab,the state unit of the Congress is finding itself in an unenviable position. The Punjab Congress chief and former chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh lost little time in voicing his opposition to hanging Bhullar,albeit in his personal capacity; as the central spokesman of the party said the party was opposed to questioning the Presidents decision.

Avtar Singh Sarna,chief of the Delhi Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee DSGPC,considered to be close to the Congress,too has appealed for review of the decision.

The SADs coalition partner,the Bharatiya Janata Party BJP,has been avoiding a direct statement on the issue. The partys spokesman at the Centre has said there was a significant difference between the cases pertaining to Bhullar and Afzal Guru. The state incharge of the party,Shanta Kumar,when asked for the partys stand on the issue,said that it was all for tough action against terrorism. He said there was nothing unusual in the fact that the party had differences over the issue with its coalition partner,the SAD.

The rejection of the mercy plea has brought together diverse panthic religious groups of the Sikhs. A meeting of about dozen such organisations was convened at Ludhiana on Monday,which severely condemned the decision to reject Bhullars mercy plea. The organisations have warned the Centre of serious consequences and may whip up public sentiments.

Those opposed to the execution of Bhullar point out that the convict,an electrical engineer and a former teacher at the Guru Nanak Dev Engineering College,was only a Khalistani ideologue and had not actively participated in any violent activity. Even in the Delhi blast case,there was no witness and he was convicted on the basis of a confessional statement he had given to the police which he had retracted in the courts.

He had fled to Germany shortly after the Delhi blast but was denied asylum and had landed in police custody on deportation. Another significant reason given in favour of commuting his death sentence is that the Supreme Court bench was split while upholding the Delhi High Courts judgment. One of the three judges had acquitted him of the charges and legal experts say that should have been a valid ground to reduce his death sentence to life.

Making use of technology and new media,several groups have already started signature campaigns. Several SMSes are doing the rounds to spread the word of injustice being done to Bhullar while websites run by separatist groups have launched a campaign on the internet.

The Case

Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar was sentenced to death on August 25,2001,for allegedly plotting to assassinate present Punjab Vigilance Bureau Chief Director Sumedh Singh Saini in 1991 and the then Indian Youth Congress president M S Bitta.

He was also found guilty of having caused the death of nine persons and injuring 29 in a bomb blast on September 11,1993 in New Delhi.

PRECEDENT

In an almost similar case,Ranjit Singh Gill alias Kuki,who was convicted for life for killing Lalit Maken and Geetanjali Maken,was granted clemency after spending 19 years in jails following an initiative taken by their daughter Avantika Maken.

Kuki was sentenced to life imprisonment but his case was never reviewed for release until Avantika took the initiative and appealed to Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit to commute the sentence. She was also supported by her uncle and minister Ajay Maken.