Punjab: Militancy rearing ugly head?

Everyone loves the boisterous Sikhs, their fondness for the finer things in life including good food and flashy clothes. The history of the Sikhs is inextricably wound with that of the Indian nation for they have been the first to bear the brunt of foreign conquests, being on the north-western border, the entry point for many an invader.

Their military traditions have won them awe and there is hardly a Sikh family that has not contributed its share of soldiers and martyrs to the cause of defending the country against transgressors from far and near. In the 1980s, the community was caught in the cauldron of militancy politics with Jarnail Singh Bhindrenwale leading the movement for an independent Sikh state, Khalistan. He was finally killed by the Indian army during Operation Blue Star in 1984 inside the Golden Temple in Amritsar where he had taken refuge.

The subsequent course of events are pretty well known to all those who lived through those turbulent times with then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi falling to the bullets of her Sikh bodyguards in an act of vengeance that left the nation seething. The anti-Sikh riots followed in which thousands from the community were butchered leading to a wave of militancy in the northern state, which lasted for almost a decade before it was stamped out, thanks to the efforts of redoubtable police officers like KPS Gill and Julio Ribeiro.

On Friday, a self-styled radical preacher of the Sikhs, Amritpal Singh, and his followers who were seen brandishing guns and swords, ensured the release of one of their loyalists who was an accused in a kidnapping case after storming a police station on the outskirts of Amritsar, which left several cops injured. A large police force kept watch but refrained from taking any action.

Interestingly, Amritpal was recently anointed head of the ‘Waris Punjab De’ organisation founded by actor-activist late Deep Sidhu and the event was held at Moga’s Rode, the native village of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale. It was enough to send shudders down the spine of all those who went through those stormy years from 1984-92 when Punjab became a hub of terror with a more than generous helping hand from across the border. Thousands of misled youth were thrown into prison or fell to bullets of the forces till militancy ended. So is there a familiar pattern emerging in the actions of those like 29-year-old Amritpal Singh? His organisation says it is committed ‘to protect the rights of Punjab and raise social issues’ while the Dubai-returned Amritpal unabashedly claims to be a follower of Bhindranwale.

In a state that thrived riding the crest of the Green Revolution decades ago and where rich farmers made it a point to send their kin abroad, the Sikhs are no longer a community confined to the four borders of Punjab. Their reach – both political and economic – has spread far and wide and they command enormous clout in countries like Canada and Britain. There are enough wealthy Sikhs with deep pockets who can fund any movement that serves and protects their interests.

So the Central government run by the BJP and the Punjab government run by its sworn enemy, the AAP, have their task cut out in making sure these militant tendencies are snuffed out in the bud. It is always easy for hostile neighbours to fish in troubled waters when there is a threat to peace in a border state and we have seen this happening in Jammu and Kashmir. The last thing peace-loving citizens would want is a return to an age of militancy and unrest for which the governments at the Centre and in the state, forgetting their political differences, will have to come down with an iron hand on any sinister attempt to foment terror and fear.