Panjab Faces Constitutional Crisis

Within 20 months of its tenure, the AAP government in Panjab, India has landed in a Constitutional crisis. The government keeps calling Legislative Assembly sessions but the Center’s appointed Governor does not prorogue the sessions – call for the end of a session. Hence, every subsequent session can either be considered an extension of the previous session or an invalid session. This started with the February session in 2023. The Governor did not give his assent to conduct the session, nor did he call its end. The government then called a session in June and now has called for another session on 21-22 Oct. In the June session, the government passed four Bills. The Governor has not given the Bills his assent. In the upcoming session, the government wants to bring in a new Bill – the Goods and Service Tax. It is unclear how the Governor can accept the Bill(s) without accepting the legality of the session. On the other hand, government representatives are calling the session legal. These are not matters dependent on the whims and fancies of the government and Governor to be debated in the media. Panjab has a government with a four-fifth majority – unprecedented in the history of the state – but might just end up with not being able to get the Governor’s nod on any Bill, and according to rules, they will lapse.

On 24 Sep, senior columnist Tavleen Singh published her syndicated Fifth Column in The Indian Express. It was titled India's Canadian Problem. In her column, she asserted that Guru Gobind Singh was a Hindu and Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale ran a ‘reign of terror.’ Singh’s column starts with questioning the Indian prime minister over the Canada fracas and asks why he is reviving Khalistan but then moves into furthering falsities about the Sikh religion regularly perpetuated by the Indian media. Issuing a statement on X, the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) refuted Singh’s assertions. However, the timing of the statement is questionable because the SGPC’s patron political party – the Shiromani Akali Dal – is now recovering some space in Panjab over the Satluj Yamuna Link canal issue. Meanwhile, the SGPC fumbled over recovering Sikh articles of faith from a Gurdwara in Sikkim. On 10 Oct, the Sikkim High Court dismissed a writ petition filed by Sri Guru Singh Sabha seeking the restoration of the Guru Granth Sahib and other religious articles at Gurdwara Gurudongmar Tso at Chungthang. While there is some historical evidence of Guru Nanak having visited the site, the Gurdwara was under the care of the Indian Army. In 1997, the Sikkim Forest Department’s inspection found the Gurdwara occupying forest land. The Army handed over the Gurdwara to the department but the articles of faith went missing. Justice Meenakshi Madan Rai said the case raised multifaceted questions of fact and legality that required examination in a civil court and was thus not suitable for resolution through Article 226 of the Constitution.

On 13 Oct, Justice Manjari Nehru Kaul of the Panjab and Haryana High Court, made a statement suspecting the complicity of police and mafia. She said that while the police arrest drug addicts, peddlers, and smugglers, and file cases under the draconian Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, the police fail to appear in court as witnesses. In the past 20 months, the Panjab police has arrested 20,979 drug smugglers, including 3,003 bigger ones. 15,434 FIRs have been registered, of which 1,864 are related to a commercial quantity. Earlier in September, the police decided to implement Section 64 (A) of the NDPS Act that provides immunity from prosecution to addicts. The figures beg the question, if only 10% cases are commercial quantities, are the other 90% addicts and not peddlers or smugglers? Recall, during previous regimes, the SAD arrested 30,422 people and the INC arrested 67,081 people for drug related offenses. Another worrisome trend is – just as during militancy days when police officers were given targets to slay militants and thousands of innocents were killed – now in Faridkot, police orders reveal officers are given monthly targets to file NDPS cases. Faridkot Senior Superintendent of Police Harjit Singh later denied the targets and blamed them on a ‘clerical error.’ Clearly, arrests are no indication of the spread of drugs being contained, and courts are now seeing the police-mafia nexus. But making arrests to achieve targets and letting prisoners languish in jail shows the police’s role in society is, in the judge’s words, ‘a betrayal of trust.’

At a recent National Investigative Agency conference, Panjab Police Inspector General of Police (Internal Security) Nilabh Kishore reported a set of outlandish numbers of those involved in anti-India activities. The police revealed that 56 Pro-Khalistan Entities (PKEs) are operating in various countries. The Panjab Police said they have taken significant actions against these groups by filing 130 First Information Reports (FIRs) under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and arresting 580 individuals. A further breakdown of these PKEs reveals 13 in the United States, 12 in Canada, 7 in Germany, 6 in the United Kingdom, 6 in Pakistan, 2 each in Philippines, Armenia, Portugal, and Malaysia, and four in different other countries. It is not clear what ‘other countries’ means. The report further said that some of these entities were linked to 15 targeted killings in Panjab over the past six years (2017-2023). Suddenly, the report takes a turn and begins equating PKEs with gangsters. A major difference is that unlike Khalistan activists, gangsters have no issues with the Indian state. The police confirmed they have arrested 4,597 gangsters and neutralized 22 in encounters. The arrested gangsters come from various states. Furthermore, 11 pro-Khalistan activists have been deported, red-corner notices have been issued against 13 individuals, and properties of four persons have been forfeited under UAPA. The police are processing red-corner notices for 40 more people. The wild numbers, the easy equation between Khalistan activists and gangsters, and the fact that only The Indian Express from mainstream media and one right-wing outlet has carried this report, casts a shadow of doubt on its validity.

A new study reveals Panjab is suffering from high levels of groundwater pollution, gravely affecting the people living in the region. The study was conducted by the Indian Institute of Technology Mandi and published in the journal Environmental Science and Pollution Research. The study is based on 244 and 152 groundwater sampling sites in the years 2000 and 2020, respectively. The study reveals that the total acreage under rice crop has increased from 5,000 hectares in the years 2001–2002 to 28,400 hectares in the years 2019–2020. The study is also confirmed by an independent media in an in-depth report on one southwestern village in Fazilka district. The village receives water from two sources – groundwater and the river Satluj through the canal system. Overexploitation of groundwater has resulted in contamination from geological sources, causing highly toxic elements such as uranium, arsenic, manganese, zinc, copper, lead, and iron to leach from aquifer rock or sediment into the water. The leather tanneries in Jalandhar, the garment and dyeing industries, and dairy farms in Ludhiana pollute the river waters with toxic chemicals. Because of the high toxicity in the drinking water, Panjab, once known as the bread basket of India, is now frequently referred to as the cancer capital.

The Financial Times, in a detailed investigation The Mystery of the Adani Coal Imports that Quietly Doubled in Value, found that industrialist Gautam Adani, who is India’s ‘largest private coal importer, has been inflating fuel costs,' leading to 'millions of Indian consumers and businesses overpaying for electricity.' The investigation points to Adani’s use of 'offshore intermediaries' from Taiwan, Dubai, and Singapore to import $5 billion worth of coal at prices that were at times more than double the market price. The allegation of inflating fuel costs was first made seven years ago in a probe by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, the Indian finance ministry’s investigative unit that polices economic crime. But like with the Hindenburg revelations which the Security and Exchanges Board of India did not probe in 2014, even this misdemeanor has not been probed. Referring to his sharply rising fortunes in the past ten years, as his ten listed companies have thrived and he has emerged as 'India’s biggest private thermal power company and biggest private port operator,' the investigation called Adani Modi’s Rockefeller. Like the rest of India, Panjab too suffered because most of its electricity is from thermal plants and the state paid a higher price for raw coal, but its financial woes have been blamed on electricity subsidies to small and marginal farmers and laborers.

Recently, Amit Shah addressed a meeting conducted by Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee in New Delhi. He made a few assertions: one, he praised the community’s service to society and nation; two, he said the community has found justice over the 1984 anti-Sikh genocide only after 2014 when BJP came to power; three, he added, Sikhs from Pakistan and Afghanistan will benefit from the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). On Shah’s second statement, overall 650 cases were filed with the Delhi police. In Feb 2015, a new Special Investigating Team was constituted which recommended the closure of 241 cases. However, the Supreme Court tasked a two-member team of retired judges to reopen those cases. Contradicting Shah’s assertion that justice was delivered only after the BJP came to power, the BJP Minister of State for Home Haribhai Parathibhai Chaudhary stated in the Rajya Sabha that 442 people have been convicted until date and a compensation worth about $9M (today’s value) has been distributed to families of victims. Under the BJP’s rule, in 2018, the Courts upheld convictions of 70 out of 89 people involved in the genocide. But barring one high profile leader Sajjan Kumar, no senior leader or mastermind of the genocide has ever been convicted. Some of those leaders are now dead from natural causes. The genocide is clearly summed up with justice delayed is justice denied. No political party should be able to score brownie points over it. On Shah’s third statement, the CAA, which was passed in 2019, will help Sikhs but the law is yet to be implemented. The speech was BJP’s outreach to Sikhs where the intent was not justice but to please the community. Sadly, Shah kept using the term riots for massacre, pogrom, or genocide.

While seeking admission into Canada, an Indian citizen, Kamaljit Ram, told Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) officers about his having supported militants in Panjab between 1982 and 1992. Ram also told officers that he supported the ideas promoted by followers of Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale for a separate Khalistan state and other social issues. The CBSA denied him entry for his support to those who waged war against India. The case went to the Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB). In a recent hearing, IRB tribunal member Heidi Worsfold said the federal government did not have reasonable grounds to declare ‘Indian citizen Kamaljit Ram inadmissible to enter Canada.’ She took the humane view that Ram’s support to Khalistani militants by providing them a 'safe house' and other 'logistical support' was 'mostly out of necessity.' The judgment displays a deep understanding of societies in conflict and a nuanced view of how citizens are often forced to provide help to radicals against their will. Such actions by citizens caught between a mountain and a deep sea must not themselves be considered acts of militancy or waging war against the state. However, given Canada’s recent accusation on India being involved in the killing of Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, and India calling Canada a safe haven for Khalistan-related activities, Indian media released this story as a toolkit template with various media houses publishing the exact same wording: ‘the ruling comes amid a diplomatic standoff between India and Canada.’

On 26 Sep, The Washington Post published a damning indictment on how the Facebook parent company Meta ‘did not stop hate speech or calls for action ahead of the Delhi violence in 2020, including a bloody religious riot that was incited by Hindu nationalist leaders and left more than 50 people, mostly Muslims, dead.’ It said, like Nigeria, Brazil, and Turkey, India is at the forefront of a worrying trend where 'the Modi administration is setting an example for how authoritarian governments can dictate to American social media platforms what content they must preserve and what they must remove, regardless of the companies’ rules.' On 12 Oct, India’s Opposition alliance – the INDIA bloc – wrote to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Google CEO Sundar Pichai and asked in light of the upcoming national elections in 2024, ‘It is our earnest and urgent plea to you to consider your operations in India remain neutral and are not used wittingly or unwittingly to cause social unrest or distort India's much cherished democratic ideals.' The letter carried fourteen names from most of the parties in the INDIA alliance, it is of concern that AAP did not sign the letter. In the past few months in Panjab, AAP has taken down many contrarian social media accounts. The government itself indulges in huge advertisement spend over social media, that too in other states. Such a letter does not suit the party. This displays AAP’s lack of support for freedom of speech.

On 21 Oct 2010, a one-day seminar was held at the LTG Auditorium, Mandi House, New Delhi by the Committee for the Release of Political Prisoners. It was held in the aftermath of a brutal summer in Kashmir where more than 100 teenagers were killed by security forces. The seminar was titled Azadi: The Only Way. Thirteen speakers, including SAR Geelani, Booker Prize winning author Arundhati Roy, and former professor of international law at Central University of Kashmir Sheikh Showkat Hussain spoke at the seminar; two speakers included members of Dal Khalsa, Amritsar. Roy clearly called the Kashmiri Pandit exodus a tragedy and spoke about justice for all. Soon after, right-wing Kashmiri Pandit Sushil Pandit filed a case with the police accusing Roy and others of sedition. The case languished until recently when VK Saxena, the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi, approved the case to proceed before the courts against two speakers – Roy and Hussain. Roy, 61, is one of India’s most famous living authors, but in her writing and activism, she is also known for her trenchant criticism of PM Modi’s government. This case against her being reopened now seems vindictive as it has come on the heels of Roy being present in the demonstrations against NewsClick’s editor Purkayastha and human resource head Chakraborty’s arrest under UAPA with a sign around her neck that read Free the Press. Panjab – especially farmer unions – also protested these arrests because the FIR linked the raid and arrests to NewsClick’s support for the Farmers’ Protest 2020-21.