Ghosts of Punjab’s Past: To shrink space for Amritpals, state and Centre need to work together, all parties need to work to keep the peace

“We are playing with fire, this has to be nipped in the bud,” said former Governor of J&K, Goa and Meghalaya Satya Pal Malik who, even as Governor, called for the repeal of the farm laws. “Today, Amritpal Singh has little following but tomorrow he may. Amritpal has said on record that agar Hindu rashtra ki baat chalegi , toh Khalistan ki baat kyon nahin chalegi…There is a need to control this Hindu Rashtra rhetoric.”

The protests against the farm laws had created a year-long blockade on the outskirts of Delhi. It had worried sections in the RSS and, finally, the Modi government had to withdraw the farm laws.

“What happened yesterday in Ajnala is not a one-off event, it is very disturbing,” said a leading Congress MP who did not wish to be identified. “Police told me they could not take action because they (the protesters) had taken shelter behind the Granth Sahib (the Sikh holy book), something that had not taken place even at the height of the militancy.”

Amritpal Singh, who came to India last year from Dubai after spending 10 years there, has been speaking about “Sikh freedom”; he heads the organization “Waris Punjab de”, having taken over from actor-activist Deep Sidhu who was killed in a car crash last year.

He has threatened to kill the Home Minister of India (according to PTI) but — and this is curious — he has not yet been questioned and is allowed to roam around freely. This, when the Assam government did not lose any time in deplaning and arresting Pawan Khera for allegedly insulting Narendra Modi.

Ajnala’s the tip of the iceberg. That iceberg is hardly hidden. It reveals that in Punjab, a border state adjacent to Pakistan, with a history of militancy, facing stagnant agriculture and shrinking employment opportunities, a protracted drug problem which has destroyed more than one generation in a state known for its enterprise, and huge discontent, the likes of Amritpal Singh will never be short of mobilising angry, resentful young men.

Zoom out, there is a complex political picture. Fed up with the old and jaded politics of the Congress, Akali Dal and the BJP, the people of Punjab looked at the newbie AAP with hope — giving it an unprecedented 92 seats, highest in four decades, with every community, Sikhs and Hindus and Dalits opting for it.

Waris Punjab De followers enter Ajnala police station near Amritsar, Thursday. (Express Photo: Rana Simranjit Singh)

For all the problems that AAP inherited, Punjab is seen as a springboard for AAP’s national ambitions — if handled well. Whatever be the inner dynamics of AAP, whether the Punjab CM calls the shots or, as insiders suggest, he signs what Raghav Chaddha pencils — the party’s government faces a test. Nothing is worse for a party’s image than the state’s police force helplessly watching a mob and then caving in – to release the associate and set up a panel to probe his detention.

In Delhi, the AAP has an alibi: the police is under the Home Ministry, the L-G has most of the powers. In Punjab, it cannot.

If the sectarian pot continues to boil in Punjab, it will divide Sikhs, make Hindus more insecure. The BJP has everything to gain from a weakening of the AAP, and has been trying to bring eminent Sikhs — like Amarinder Singh and Manpreet Badal — into its fold, so far without much traction.

The spectre of a movement for Khalistan could go to consolidate the Hindus behind the BJP — at the national level. This is exactly what happened with the Congress in 1984. As a result, Rajiv Gandhi clocked a never-before 414 Lok Sabha seats after Indira Gandhi’s assassination by her Sikh bodyguards.

So, what are the lessons the past can teach the present in Punjab?

It was competitive politics within the Congress and between the Congress and the Akali Dal which led to the unravelling in Punjab and the rise of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale. Sanjay Gandhi had asked Zail Singh to identify somebody the Congress could build up as a counter to the Akalis. Zail Singh, who had his own scores to settle with the then Punjab CM Darbara Singh, zeroed in on Bhindranwale.

Bhindranwale was a small-time preacher who had become the head of Damdami Taksal, a conservative Sikh seminary associated with the tenth guru Gobind Singh. He could mesmerise audiences with his rendition of the Gurbani. Bhindranwale became a tiger the Congress could not dismount. He got Hindus killed, ran a parallel government, dispensed rough and ready “justice”— and went on to demand Khalistan.

Finally, he occupied the Golden Temple, and Indira Gandhi had to send in the Army to flush out the militants, in the process killing Bhindranwale and wounding the Sikh psyche. She was killed by her own Sikh bodyguards, leading to terrible anti-Sikh riots all over north India but it led to the consolidation of Hindus to vote for the Congress in the 1984 general elections.

Since then, peace has been held in Punjab mainly because of the wise handling by leaders — of all parties. Atal Bihari Vajpayee nurtured the BJP’s alliance with the Shiromani Akali Dal, representing a pact between the Hindus and Sikhs, which he saw as being vital for continuing peace in Punjab.

When Manmohan Singh became the first Sikh Prime Minister, it sent its own message to the community, so did his apology in Parliament in 2005 for the 1984 massacre of Sikhs after Indira’s assassination. In the years that followed, Sikhs have seen representation at the highest levels in key national institutions including the Army, the Election Commission, and the CBI.

When Rajiv Gandhi took over as PM after his mother’s assassination, anti-Sikh riots had broken out all over Delhi. He was going to take oath along with P V Narasimha Rao and Pranab Mukherjee. “Pranab da” persuaded him to add another name to the list — that of Buta Singh, hoping to send a healing signal to the community.

But recent events have shown how the peace needs to be kept and the fringe kept on the fringe. The bitter battle between the Centre and the state, the BJP and the AAP — stoked by the standoff in Delhi – brings little comfort to Punjab. Bhagwant Mann may be firmly in the saddle but he needs the Centre’s solid support on security issues. So, did the BJP get it wrong when it broke its time-tested alliance with the Akali Dal in 2020 — thinking its “303” meant it didn’t need its numbers? That, given the realities of Punjab, may not be a mere academic question.

(Neerja Chowdhury, Contributing Editor, The Indian Express, has covered the last 10 Lok Sabha elections)