Amritpal Singh gets some support on ground in his Punjab seat, for State’s ‘overreaction’

At the entrance of some villages in Majha region, where Khadoor Sahib falls, banners are up asking other candidates apart from Amritpal to keep away. Jagmeet Singh, a graduate preparing for the Army at Choorchak village near Faridkot, says: “He was just preaching against drugs, but they put him behind bars.”

Amritpal, who emerged suddenly on the Punjab scene as a pro-Khalistan voice, was slapped with charges under the NSA after his supporters attacked a police station.

Manmeet Singh, a farmer-cum-businessman from Ferozepur city, also says that the State’s “overreaction” is the main reason Amritpal is getting attention. “Look at how they conducted the operation to hunt him down. There was no Internet for over a week, and even youngsters who merely reposted his tweets were picked up.”

Even a Punjab Police personnel, visiting a gurdwara at Chabaal Kalan village near Tarn Taran, has the same to say. Admitting support for Amritpal in some quarters, he says: “Ohde naal kaafi dhakka hoya hai (He has faced a lot of injustice).”

Prof Amarjit Singh, Director of the Centre on Studies in Sri Guru Granth Sahib at Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, suggests that the support to Amritpal should not be seen as support for Khalistan, as many quarters fear it will be.

He attributes it to the Punjabi tendency to stand by anyone facing any kind of “dhakka”. “If you look at the history of the state, you will see that its people either stand up for those who are facing any kind of dhakka (injustice) or those who stand up to the high-handedness (again dhakka in Punjabi), especially of powers that be in Delhi.”

According to Amarjit Singh, this same mindset explains then Congress leader Amarinder Singh’s victory against the BJP’s Arun Jaitley in the 2014 polls from Anritsar, amidst a Narendra Modi wave. Amarinder had taken on the Centre by annulling all water-sharing pacts in 2004.

In 1989 too, several candidates either fielded or supported by the hardliner SAD (Mann) were seen as having won due to alleged police excesses. Among them was Rajinder Kaur, whose husband was killed in a never-investigated ‘encounter’, who won the Ludhiana Lok Sabha seat with no experience in politics behind her.

Apart from Amritpal, also trying his luck in these polls is Sarabjit Singh, the son of Indira Gandhi’s assassin Beant Singh, who is contesting from Faridkot. He is playing for sympathy votes talking about his “lost childhood and youth” following the assassination. While Sarabjit’s mother Bimal Kaur Khalsa fought and won one parliamentary election, Sarabjit, 45, has failed in his three earlier attempts at the hustings.

A man who didn’t want to identify himself told The Indian Express at Kot Isse Khan Mandi, “His family has sacrificed so much, I can at least give him my vote.”

SAD (A) president Simranjit Singh Mann, who is supporting Amritpal and is contesting from the Sangrur Lok Sabha seat where he is the sitting MP, also continues to enjoy support for his long-standing demand for release of Sikh political prisoners.

However, those who remember the “santaap (trauma)” of militancy are concerned about these developments. Jagrup Singh Sekhon, a political scientist who has studied the causes of militancy and belongs to Khadoor Sahib, says people in the constituency had found themselves caught between the “excesses” of the terrorists and the State during those years. “The voices in favour of Amritpal seem strong because they are loud, but the opposition is stronger. Also, to win an election, you need poll machinery and philosophy; Amritpal has neither.”

Navpreet Singh from Dhand village frowns at the mention of Amritpal: “He keeps changing his statements. We can’t trust him.”

An elderly gentleman on the road from Patiala to Chandigarh dismisses the attention being given to Amritpal. “Chaddo (forget it), he is just one of the almost 100 candidates in the fray. All Punjab wants is peace and development.”

Khadoor Sahib, earlier Tarn Taran, was a stronghold of the Congress until Mohan Singh Tur of the SAD won it in 1977. In 2019, the Congress’s Jasbir Singh Dimpa was the winner, with SAD candidate and former SGPC president Bibi Jagir Kaur coming second. Bibi Paramjit Kaur Khalra, the widow of celebrated human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra, who“disappeared” after being picked up by the Punjab Police in 1996, came in third.

To those who question the appeal of radical candidates among even a limited audience, Picchaura Singh, a numberdar from Kala Pana village, five minutes from the Indo-Pak border, hazards an answer. “There are several unresolved issues in Punjab, be it the river waters, political prisoners, or justice for victims of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. The government should resolve these issues; mahaul kharaab nahin hona chahida (peace should not be disturbed).”