AAP Wins Amid Amritpal Controversy

On 13 Jul, AAP’s Mohinder Bhagat won the Jalandhar West assembly by-poll with a margin of over 37,325 votes which adds to 58% of the total 54.98% voter turnout. After winning just three seats in the general elections, this result comes as a booster for AAP. BJP’s Sheetal Angural came in second; he had switched parties from AAP to BJP before the general elections. In the thirteen assembly seats in seven states that went to polls, the opposition won ten. The BJP secured two seats, one seat in Bihar went to an independent. The Trinamool Congress swept Bengal, and INC won two seats in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand. The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam won one seat in Tamil Nadu. The results do not bode well for BJP, which is going into three state elections in October this year. Khadoor Sahib MP Amritpal Singh made headlines again on July 12 when Jalandhar police arrested his brother Harpreet Singh and Lovepreet Singh for drug possession. They were caught with 4 grams of methamphetamine (ICE) on the Jalandhar-Panipat highway. Jalandhar Rural Superintendent of Police Ankur Gupta said, ‘The accused bought the contraband from Ludhiana-based Sandeep Arora.’ Arora has been arrested and the police have found a Unified Payments Interface trail for the drugs. The accused have tested positive for drugs and have been booked under Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985. Harpreet's father Tarsem Singh alleged that ‘certain forces have conspired to hinder Amritpal's progress’ but did not name anyone. MP Amritpal Singh, in jail under the National Security Act, has been a vocal anti-drug advocate. His associates – Kulwant Singh Raoke, Bhagwant Singh and Daljeet Singh Kalsi – have declared their intention to stand for by-polls in Panjab in the next few months (SDW Vol. 2 Issue 28, Story 9).

Indian PM Narendra Modi recently visited Moscow. At a private dinner hosted by Putin on 8 Jul, Modi raised the issue of Indians deployed in the Russia-Ukraine war. He is supposed to have requested Putin to discharge all Indians. Russia agreed and promised to facilitate their return. Nearly two dozen Indians, including Punjabis, were reportedly tricked by agents into going to Ukraine for high-paying jobs, but forced to fight in the war. However, after Modi's departure, Russia did not fulfill its promise. Gagandeep Singh from Panjab’s Gurdaspur is among the many men from India who have claimed that they were inducted into the Russian army against their will. Singh said his commander denied getting any orders from the govt. for their release. ‘After PM Modi went back, now the whole unit is going to the frontline, and I have also been told to join the unit. I request the Indian government to talk to Russia and arrange our visit back to India,’ he said from a camp where he is recovering from a knee injury. Singh said his Indian friends from his unit are already on the frontline. ‘My friends told me that the situation is very serious at the frontline. I have not been able to talk to my Panjabi friends for many days.’ Forty-seven-year-old Urgen Tamang, from Kalimpong in West Bengal, has been with the Russian Army for the last six months. In a video message, he and a Sri Lankan man are the only two non-Russians alive in his contingent that originally had 15 people (SDW Vol. 2 Issue 28, Story 10).

On 10 Jul, the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) submitted a report to the Punjab and Haryana High Court (PHHC) which says farmer Shubhkaran Singh – killed at the Khanauri border on 21 Feb 2024 – was fired upon by a shotgun. The police claim they or security forces on the Panjab-Haryana inter-state border do not possess such a weapon, which is contradicted by a recent weapons exhibition by the Rapid Action Force. The Court has ordered a review of the video footage. Jagjit Singh Dallewal, head of Samyukth Kisan Morcha (SKM) (Non-Political) said, ‘How can a shotgun be fired from the farmers’ side?’ He said plainclothes men without name plates were present and ‘anyone could have fired’ the shot. He has asked for a retired High Court judge to lead the inquiry. Panjab govt. has offered Shubhkaran’s family $120K and his sister a police job. On 17 Jul, farmer unions called for a protest at Ambala for the release of Navdeep Jalbera a.k.a. water cannon boy from the Farmers’ Protest in 2020-21. On 16 Jul, as farmers were preparing for the protest, the PHHC granted Navdeep bail and released him late evening. Meanwhile, SKM says they will resume the farmers’ protest. Between 16-18 Jul the SKM delegations will meet PM Narender Modi, Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi, and other Parliamentarians to submit their charter of demands. Panjab CM has requested the farmer unions to end their protests, while the unions have asked him to ‘mediate and get issues resolved.’ Upon PHHC orders to remove barricades on the highway, the Haryana govt. has appealed the decision in the Supreme Court.

A Special Investigation Team (SIT) of Panjab Police on 10 Jul told the Punjab and Haryana High Court that out of the two TV interviews of jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi in March 2023, one was conducted in Bathinda central jail. The interview was conducted via Signal, and the SIT has requested more time to complete the investigation. Bishnoi earlier admitted planning singer Sidhu Moosewala’s death. He repeated this in the interviews and said he was a Hindu nationalist. The interviews have since been scrubbed off the Internet. The police report contradicts Panjab Director General of Police Gaurav Yadav’s statement in March 2023 that Bishnoi was not interviewed in Bathinda jail. While the police’s reputation is at stake, the Panjab police is now planning to build a radial jail in Ludhiana to lodge terrorists, high-risk prisoners, gangsters, and serious criminals. According to the prisons department website Panjab currently has 25 jails of which 10 are central Jails, one district jail, one open jail, one maximum security jail, and one women’s jail. The list notes the high-security prison is empty, raising the question of why build a radial jail, a 19th-century European design. The purpose of a radial jail is to allow all prisoners of an institution to be observed by a single corrections officer, without the inmates knowing whether or not they are being watched. This design is a violation of the inmates’ basic rights and is linked to the rise of totalitarianism.

On 26 Jun, the Haryana govt. demolished four Sikh homes in village Amupur, district Karnal, Haryana without prior notice. The reason given was that the homes were not built with adequate permission 77 years ago when the family’s ancestors moved to Haryana from west Panjab (Pakistan) during the Partition of India. Haryana officials claim the houses were built on encroached land, despite families living there without issues since Partition. Haryana Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (HSGMC) president Bhupinder Singh Assandh said on 10 Jul that the Sikh body will get the houses of Sikh families constructed by the govt. Assandh stated that if the government doesn't build the houses, HSGMC will develop them at its own cost. A delegation of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) Amritsar visited the site and met the displaced families on 11 Jul. After inspecting the demolished houses and cattle sheds, they expressed their commitment to stand with the families, strongly opposing the demolition. The SGPC announced an initial assistance of $1,200 each to the four families. Bulldozer politics has become a trademark of the BJP govt. A similar demolition of a Gurdwara langar hall (communal kitchen) and some homes had taken place in Moradabad, UP in Jun 2022. In recent years, in various states of India, bulldozers have been repeatedly used against minority communities to cater to majority appeasement. Another such major demolition took place in Aug 2023 in Muslim dominated Nuh district in Haryana, which was celebrated by Hindutva groups in the US.

Italian police freed 33 Indian farm workers from conditions of modern slavery in Verona, near Rome. They also arrested two immigration agents acting as gang-masters following Satnam Singh's death due to negligence (SDW Vol. 2 Issue 27, Story 8). The identity of the workers and agents is concealed for legal reasons. However, given Panjabi migration to Italy for agricultural and dairy labor, it is likely many are from Panjab. The police also seized $545,300 from the two gang-masters. The gang-masters, also from India, brought fellow nationals to Italy on seasonal work permits, asking them to pay €17K each and promising them a better future. The victims were found living in cramped, unsanitary conditions and were forced to work under various threats, the biggest being an expulsion from Italy due to their illegal status. In the last six months, Delhi police have arrested 108 immigration agents. The number of arrests in six months is double the 51 made in 2023. These agents exploited visa-on-arrival schemes, created fake documents, and facilitated illegal crossings into the US and Europe. Arrests spanned multiple states, including Panjab, Haryana, Gujarat, Maharashtra, and West Bengal. This crackdown revealed deep-rooted networks abusing immigration systems. Delhi Police have even returned to earlier cases where only passengers were arrested to nail the immigration agents involved. The rates the agents charge range from $18K for Portugal to $72K for the US. The Indira Gandhi International Airport Police probe revealed how methods like affixing fake departure stamps, fake visas, and forged passports and work permits are created for illegal immigration. 

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is developing 1,500 kms of roads in Panjab. However, delay in land acquisition has proved to be a major hurdle. This has forced NHAI to terminate three national highway projects worth $395M, while the process has been initiated to scrap another four that are worth $591M. A total of 31 projects worth $5B are facing delays. After meeting with NHAI regional officer Vipnesh Sharma, MP Sanjeev Arora revealed that land acquisition is hindered by farmers' reluctance to sell, despite increased compensation as per their demands. Arora said for the Delhi-Katra Expressway project, land is not available for around 100-km long out of 400-km stretch passing through Panjab. The Delhi-Amritsar-Katra Expressway is a multi-state project with 11 of the total 18 parts criss-crossing Panjab. This delay is happening despite the Punjab and Haryana High Court (PHHC) directing the state govt. to facilitate the take over of the already acquired land on 18 Oct 2023 (SDW Vol 1 Issue 6, Story 6). NHAI Chairman, Santosh Kumar Yadav, said, ‘Despite huge capital investment, the highway corridors will not be put to effective use due to multiple missing links. The NHAI will have to face legal and financial implications.’ Now both PM Narender Modi and Road Transport and Highways Minister, Nitin Gadkari, have called for separate meetings to solve the impasse. The NHAI has also filed an application in the PHHC seeking compensation for losses incurred due to the unauthorized closure of toll plazas during the multiple Farmers Protests. The court has asked Panjab govt. to respond. 

The Panjab govt. has opted out of the PM-Schools for Rising India (PM-SHRI) project, leading to a loss of $61.87M in federal funds under the Samagra Shiksha initiative. The AAP govt. says it prefers its ‘Schools of Eminence’ initiative to revamp 117 state-run schools. Despite signing a 2022 Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the union govt., Panjab cites existing schemes like ‘Schools of Brilliance’ and ‘Schools of Happiness’ as reasons to decline participating in the PM-SHRI project. The union govt. has since withheld its grants. Amrinder Singh Raja Warring, the MP for Ludhiana and president of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) has expressed deep concern and disappointment over the AAP government’s decision to withdraw from the PM-SHRI project. He said, ‘The ground reality of the AAP government’s project shows that existing schools are merely being repainted and new boards installed as a means of advertisement, with no actual work done to revamp the schools. Only 117 schools come under the AAP project, whereas a total of 241 schools were selected for the PM-SHRI project.’ This year, after three rounds of counseling for Class 11 admissions, 40% of the seats – 6,060 out of the total 15,104 seats – are still vacant in 118 Schools of Eminence. Of the total vacant seats, 3,909 are under govt. quota while 2,151 are under private school student quota. The issue seems to be similar to Aam Aadmi Clinics where the national govt. also withheld funds because the state govt. was more interested in its experiments than complying with nationwide policies (SDW Vol. 2 Issue 1, Story 7).

On 13 Jul, the apex Sikh body Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) organized a prayer service for Bhai Gajinder Singh, founder of Dal Khalsa. It is for the first time that the SGPC has organized a prayer meet for a Sikh leader who died in Pakistan. At the meeting, Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Raghbir Singh, announced the decision to confer the title of Jilawatan Sikh Yodha (Sikh warrior in-exile) on Gajinder Singh (SDW Vol. 2 Issue 28, Story 7). Giani Raghbir Singh has also directed the SGPC to display portraits of three Khalistan activists – Hardeep Singh Nijjar, Paramjit Singh Panjwar, and Gajinder Singh – at the Central Sikh Museum in the Golden Temple complex. Nijjar and Panjwar were killed in 2023, and Singh was involved in a 1981 hijacking of an Air India plane to Lahore. Giani Raghbir Singh said, ‘Gajinder Singh was a warrior of Sikh struggles who dedicated a significant part of his life to the cause of the community. Despite his life as an exiled warrior, he never compromised on his firmness and dedication towards the struggle for freedom for the community. I regret that governments in the country where we reside have never truly considered our rights.’ Meanwhile, the Panjab Police has claimed it is addressing a surge in online hate speech cases targeting Sikhs by providing advanced training to 120 police personnel at 28 new Cyber Crime Police Stations. The SGPC has questioned the claim saying, ‘A number of social media (handles) using hate mongers with known and unknown identities, ghost accounts are using foreign land as safe haven to spread hatred against Sikh community... No concrete action has been taken on our complaints, despite concrete evidence.’

Thought to have been popularized in the Mughal era, when pigeon-keeping was a favorite pastime of the elite, the folk sport kabutarbazi (pigeon racing) still exists in parts of India and Pakistan. Panjab has a variation of the game — keeping the birds in the sky for as long as possible and the prestige and money associated with winning. Although kabutarbazi is not recognized as an official sport, village-level rules are largely followed across rural Panjab. Usually held in May and June, the races are even broadcast on around 100 YouTube channels. The sport has started attracting sponsorships from the Panjabi diaspora in Canada and the UK. While winners typically get cash prizes upwards of $240 and trophies. In the case of sponsors, there are other prizes, including tractors, cattle, ACs, refrigerators, and two-wheelers. The growing popularity of kabutarbazi has given impetus to pigeon breeding. A pair of pigeons can cost between $6 to $2,400. The birds are fed a mix of almonds, grains, and other dry fruits to prepare them for the races. However, animal rights activists have sought a ban on the sport, calling it cruel. To prepare for the race, activists say pigeons are deprived of food and water so they stay airborne for longer, crammed into small boxes or cages, and their feathers are ripped out so they grow new ones. Birds are also given laxatives so they are lighter and can fly longer. ‘At times, they are given drugs to boost stamina,’ claims Vipan Bhatia, who runs the Pakshi Sewa Samiti in Ludhiana. Ludhiana Deputy Commissioner Sakshi Sawhney says, ‘Pigeons are not covered under the Wildlife Protection Act. Permission is required only if birds are exotic.’