Panjab Police Revive Old Case

Twenty-nine years after Panjab Police claimed to have killed militant Gurnam Singh Bandala (alias Neela Tara) in an encounter, a Special Investigation Team (SIT) has informed the Punjab and Haryana High Court (HC) that the encounter was stage-managed and the First Information Report (FIR) in the case was ‘registered by falsifying facts.’ Special Director General of Police (DGP) Gurpreet Kaur Deo made the submission through an affidavit in the case registered on 29 Jul, 1994 pertaining to a police encounter stating an unrelated person Sukhpal Singh was abducted and killed in Ropar. Subsequently, it came to light that Bandala was alive. A fresh criminal case has been registered against former Inspector-General (IG) Paramraj Singh Umranangal, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Jaspal Singh and Assistant Sub-inspector (ASI) Gurdev Singh. The petition was filed in 2013 by the victim’s wife, Dalbir Kaur, and his father Jagir Singh of Kala Afghana village through counsel R. Kartikeya. During the 2015 protests against the sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib, two innocent protestors were killed at Behbal Kalan. In 2019, the SIT investigating their deaths arrested IG Umranangal. He is currently suspended, but it goes to show how a tainted official can rise high in the police system. Many Sikhs maintain that in the 1980s-90s, the police turned Panjab into killing fields through rampant enforced encounters and extrajudicial killings. While the government keeps denying facts and numbers, Sikh organizations and human rights activists have pursued the cases relentlessly. For example, Pilibhit (1991) which was later commuted from 10-years rigorous imprisonment to 7-years, or even a case as late as September 2023. Here is a partial list.

On 4 Dec, the US Principal Deputy National Security Adviser (NSA) Jonathan Finer met Indian External Affairs (EA) Minister S. Jaishankar and Indian NSA Ajit Doval. A readout from the EA Ministry described the consultations as a follow-up to US NSA Jake Sullivan’s visit to India in June and Indian NSA Doval’s trip to the US in January. This was the first publicly acknowledged contact between a senior US security official and the Indian leadership since US prosecutors filed a case against Indian national Nikhil Gupta for conspiring to kill Sikhs For Justice (SFJ) leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun. On 5 Dec, Australian Greens MP David Shoebridge said the Australian government needs to give ‘a clear and direct assurance’ that proactive measures are being taken to ensure the safety of Sikhs in the country. On 6 Dec, a bipartisan group of influential American senators criticized India when they met at a Congressional hearing on Transnational Repression: A Global Threat to Rights and Security organized by the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee under chairman Ben Cardin. Meanwhile, on 7 Dec, Pannun released a video threatening to attack the Indian Parliament on or before 13 Dec. The video featured a poster of the 2001 Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru with the caption Delhi Banega Khalistan (Delhi will turn into Khalistan). The Parliament is holding its Winter Session until 22 Dec. The threat comes a day after the US Ambassador to India, Eric Garcetti announced on 6 Dec the FBI Director Christopher Wray will visit India soon. The dominant response to the video is that Pannu is weakening his own case.

On behalf of the coalition of South Asian American civil society organizations, recently the US-based Hindus for Human Rights wrote to the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s chairman about the excesses of the Hindu nationalist BJP government in India (SDW Vol. 1 Issue 11, Story 1). The letter says, ‘We also write to express our concerns about the rise of such repression from the Indian government. In 2023, this repression greatly accelerated, with the worst brunt of this repression affecting minority religious communities in the United States.’ The list of excesses the letter presents is exhaustive and includes Panjab in March 2023, when ‘the Indian government conducted the largest known internet shutdown in the state.’ It also references the clampdown on social media handles, including of famous journalists, politicians, writers and others. The letter concludes with: ‘As India becomes a closer security partner, the US must make clear that this partnership cannot come at the cost of the civil rights of Americans or the security of our democratic ideals as a nation.’ Four Sikh organizations from the US - Ensaaf, Jakara, SALDEF, and SikhRI - have also made an appeal to the US government and ‘people committed to democratic principles to come forward to ensure that Sikhs and all Indian minority communities living in the US are safe from India’s transnational repression.’ The statement reads, ‘Sikhs and all Americans living in the US should be able to practice their constitutional and human rights without experiencing repression from a foreign power. They must be able to gather, protest and speak out, free from intimidation, harassment, surveillance and violence from other nations and their agents.’

On 7 Dec, in view of international Human Rights Day (HRD), Sikh lawyer and human rights activist Advocate Jaspal Singh Manjhpur called on the global Sikh community to mark 10 Dec as Black Turban Day to express support to Bandi Singh (Sikh political prisoners) (SDW Vol. 1 Issue 9, Story 4). Notably, the United Nations theme for 2023 is Freedom, Equality and Justice for All. On 9 Dec, Dal Khalsa held a protest demon­stra­tion in Bathinda in the wake of the re­cent US in­dict­ment im­pli­cat­ing In­dian agents in a plot to as­sas­si­nate Gur­pat­want Singh Pannu. On 5 Dec, Balwant Singh Rajoana began a hunger strike at Patiala Central Jail against SGPC which turned down his request to withdraw the mercy plea it filed on his behalf. On 6 Nov, the Akal Takht requested Rajoana to end his hunger strike and sought the withdrawal of the mercy petition filed before the President in 2012 in view of its prolonged pendency. The SGPC has appealed to farmer unions to participate in a protest march on 20 Dec in Delhi. On 7 Dec, the All-India Sikh Students Federation leaders committed to participate in the protest march. On 8 Dec, Rajya Sabha MP Vikramjit Singh Sahney raised the issue of release of Sikh prisoners in Parliament. The AAP MP said the issue ‘was complex and rooted in historical, political and legal considerations.’ He said, if Bilkis Bano convicts can be released after 15 years and assassins of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi can be released after 30 years, Bandi Singhs should also be released.

Panjab Vidhan Sabha (State Assembly) staff has been on strike since 8 Nov. Over 50,000 employees working in more than 50 government departments are demanding the implementation of the old pension scheme, release of pending dearness allowance, and regularization of employees. Salaries of nearly 200,000 government employees have been delayed. The cabinet sub-committee led by Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema held a meeting with the representatives of the Panjab State Ministerial Services Union (PSMSU) on 5 Dec. After the meeting, the PSMSU chief Amrik Singh said, ‘The response from the state government was not positive.’ The employees extended the strike to 11 Dec. On 9 Dec, Panjab CM Bhagwant Mann agreed to meet the striking employees on 4 Jan. Meanwhile, on 10 Dec, the CM announced the Bhagwant Mann Sarkar, Tuhade Dwaar (Bhagwant Mann Govt., At Your Doorstep) plan. He said the plan is aimed at providing people with citizen centric services on their doorstep. It is strange that the new plan is being launched in the name of CM Mann when these services are the rights of citizens. The larger question is how the government will fulfill its promise when its staff is on strike. Meanwhile, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has directed the Panjab government to stop the salaries of the heads of its education and finance departments as long as they do not grant service benefits to a group of teachers who had moved court over a decade back. Despite a court order in the teachers’ favor in 2018, the petitioners were not given the benefits.

On 6 Dec, Panjab CM Mann asked administrative secretaries to explain how the state had managed to utilize only $360M from $1,319M worth of central grants for different departments in the ongoing fiscal year. This is another administrative lapse when the CM uses every opportunity to blame the Center for discriminating against the state (SDW Vol. 1 Issue 12, Story 5). Meanwhile, according to data by the Union Minister of Rural Development in the Parliament, in the last two years, Panjab has witnessed a 385% surge in identification and cancellation of fake job cards under MGNREGS. The state contributes to over 71% of such identified fraudulent cards in north India. The 2022 NCRB annual report says Ludhiana is the most unsafe for minors in Panjab, reporting a total of 275 cases of crimes against minors. Of the total 2,494 cases  registered in Panjab in 2022, 11% were reported from Ludhiana alone. Additionally, in 2022, Panjab had the highest number of drug overdose deaths, with the death toll being 144. At 12,442 cases, the state had the third highest number of overdose cases of all states registered under the NDPS Act. In addition, Panjab saw 204 suicides in the farming sector, including 136 farmers who cultivated their own land. In 2022, a total 2,441 suicides were recorded in Panjab. Note that due to stigma, all figures for violence against minors, drug overdose deaths, and suicides are often underreported. The latest statistics clearly show poor policing in the state.

According to data shared by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) with Parliament on 8 Dec, Panjab has the highest number of widows of armed forces personnel amongst all states in India. Panjab accounts for 10.63% of the total number of such widows. The number of registered widows of ex-servicemen in Panjab is 74,253. This includes 60,261 from the Army, 4,236 from the Navy and 9,756 from the Air Force. The total number of widows of ex-servicemen in India from the three services is 698,252. Panjab is followed by Kerala with 69,507 widows and Uttar Pradesh with 68,815 widows. While this is the case, in Panjab, this year, the Armed Forces Flag Day was not observed on 7 Dec. The day is usually marked in each district by the respective District Sainik Welfare Department. No show was organized in Jalandhar — otherwise held every year on this day — by NCC cadets, school and college students, and staff. The reason for the lack of  celebration was that 24 out of 25 posts of Deputy Director Sainik Welfare have been lying vacant since 2017. There are 23 posts (one for each district) besides two for the headquarters. Now there remains a lone Deputy Director Sainik Welfare in Fatehgarh Sahib — Commander BS Virk (retd). He is practically handling the work of the department in the entire Panjab. Going forward, with the new Agniveer scheme – short service commission for soldiers – the veterans will be left even more bereft in the coming years.

The Union Environment Ministry said on 6 Dec that compared to last year, this year stubble burning in Panjab and Haryana declined by 27% and 37% respectively. From 83,002 fires in 2020, the count in Panjab dropped to 71,304 in 2021, 49,922 in 2022, and further to 36,663 in 2023. When compared to 2022, there was a 27% reduction in farm fires in 2023. The reduction was even higher, standing at 49% and 56%, respectively, when compared to 2021 and 2020. The data showed in 2023, Panjab had only four days where fires exceeded 2,000 counts, down from 16 in 2020, 14 in 2021, and 10 in 2022. This is a clear indication that farmers are cooperating, and the government is not (SDW Vol.1 Issue 4, Story 6). Despite this, three weeks after paddy has been harvested and wheat sowed, Delhi AQI is around 400. On the other hand, despite seven districts of Panjab being flooded thrice in July and August this year, Panjab is expecting a bumper output of paddy crop in 2023-24. The state is expecting paddy output to cross 20.5M MT with average yield going up by more than four quintal per hectare as compared to last year. One of the reasons for the high crop yield is that after the repeated floods, Haryana and Panjab farmers helped each other resow seedlings on more than one lakh hectares of land. Farmers also took to PR-126 and PUSA Basmati 1509, both short duration paddy varieties.

In Panjab, 10 out of 23 districts now have women as Deputy Commissioners (DC) an an additional four districts have women as police chiefs. The Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) at the joint capital Chandigarh is also a woman IPS officer from Panjab. At least eight of these women officers have roots in Panjab. While Fatehgarh Sahib SSP Ravjot Grewal is from Patiala, Muktsar DC Ruhee Dugg is from Jalandhar, her Malerkotla counterpart is from Bathinda, while Fazilka DC Senu Kapila Duggal is from Ludhiana. Khanna SSP Amneet Kondal, Patiala DC Sakshi Sawhney, Fatehgarh Sahib DC Parneet Shergill and Barnala DC Poonamdeep have roots in Panjab. Nine of the ten DCs are posted in the Malwa region with districts neighboring Chandigarh – Mohali, Patiala, Ropar, and Fatehgarh Sahib – all led by women DCs. These officers were at the forefront when the state battled its worst-ever floods in decades earlier this year. These facts mark a significant social change in Panjab, once infamous for female foeticide with one of the lowest male-female ratios in India. According to 2001 census data, the child sex ratio was 798 which improved in 2011 to 846. The next census has now been due for the last two years but the figures are going up to 895 in 2020. The social change was most visible during the Farmers’ Protest with women farmers and students claiming their space. The change is evident in education where habitually Class X and XII toppers are young women. Even in medical courses, young women are outshining young men. The shift in families where increasingly daughters are taking care of the elderly needs to be studied.

The Hindi movie Animal was released on 1 Dec. While most of the Indian print media has given the action movie with a father-son conflict a average or low ranking, in over a week and a half, the movie has earned over $85M. Arjun Vailly, a song from the movie, gathered a lot of attention partly because it depicts a fight sequence but also for its dhadi-vaar (heroic balladeering) music and lyrics. While the movie protagonist is named Arjun, a story started circulating that Arjun was the name of legendary Sikh fighter Hari Singh Nalwa’s son who was also a warrior. Characters are often inspired from history but why is this character called vailly? The term vailly means lewd, depraved, degenerate, and so on. Arjun Vailly otherwise has references in Panjabi folklore, including his help to Babbar Akalis and as an agitator during the Panjabi Suba movement. The stories in the media attribute the original song to Panjabi singer Kuldeep Manak. That is also false. The song was written by Hardev Dilgir, known by his pen-name Dev Tharike Wala, and sung by Surinder Shinda for the movie Putt Jattan De (1983). History professor Harjeshwar Pal Singh says, despite its banality, the political subtext of the movie is undeniable. The film is an allegory of a family comprising three brothers — a Hindu who leaves the village for the city, builds an industrial empire and then exhorts his Sikh brother from the village to become his sidekick. Then they fight the bad, polygamist, deranged third brother who has converted to Islam. Indeed, the movie is a tribute to the ideology of the current regime.