Punjab | Sikh radicals test waters in LS polls; lack of jobs, Agniveer worry voters

Some distance away from Tarn Taran in Punjab, as a roadshow for Sikh radical Amritpal Singh passes by, a shopkeeper sells water and cold drinks to onlookers in the blazing heat.

“Changa si,” is all that she said politely in response to a question on Amritpal as her son and husband watch. The family are scheduled caste Hindus. After some prodding, the son opens up. Disapprovingly, he said, “What’s happening is not good. It is bad for us and Punjab.”

Amritpal, who did an about turn on his demand for a separate state, is currently lodged in jail in Dibrugarh in Assam. His campaign for the June 1 election is being run by his family and sympathisers in his absence.

The BJP has fielded an SC candidate in this Jat Sikh dominated constituency in a clever bid to polarise the 70,000 odd Hindu votes. But the woman said she will vote for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) that has given her husband a government job.

Sikh radicals in poll fray

No one in Khadoor Sahib is willing to speak out against the radical preacher. In fact, no one is willing to go on camera hundreds of kilometres away apparently for fear of being identified. But the underlying sentiment is the same. No one wants Khalistan, no one wants to disturb the hard-won peace after bloody years of battle with terrorism in the state.

But that’s not stopping Sikh radicals from testing the waters. Khadoor Sahib, or erstwhile Tarn Taran Lok Sabha constituency till 2009, has been the hotbed of radicalism. Faridkot from where the son of Beant Singh, the assassin of late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, is contesting is another “anti- establishment” seat to watch out for. And, so is Sangrur, where sitting MP Simranjit Singh Mann of the Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar), a known radical, is in the fray again. Interestingly, Mann too contested from this constituency 35 years ago, lodged in a jail in Bhagalpur in Bihar and won with a landslide.

Which way these seats go will be an indication of which way the wind is blowing in Punjab.

Burning issues in Punjab

The majority angst in the largely agrarian state, however, is the lack of jobs, the Agniveer scheme, high drug addiction and increasing migration. Added to this tinderbox is the farmers’ protests for the minimum support price (MSP) for crops. Mainstream politicians were shown the door when they came out in support of the farmers and have been losing ground ever since which is why the vacuum is being filled with radical elements, said political watchers.

But now, the major political parties are fighting back. SAD candidate, Virsa Singh Valtoha, an erstwhile Sikh radical, said, “Amritpal has the backing of the RSS and the BJP. His ticket was announced from outside Dibrugarh jail by an RSS worker. And the committee set up to investigate the “beabdi” (sacrilege) by Amritpal when he carried the Guru Granth Sahib on his head to the Ajnala police station, gave a report that was never made public. The Akal Takht Jathedar was in direct touch with the BJP leadership. Why are they with the BJP?”

Traditionally, governments of the day have tried to balance “Panthic” or the captive vote bank of the Sikh panth and Hindu politics of the state. Said a Punjab watcher, “The Sikh Gurdwaras Act of 1925 was created by the British that gave legal backing to Sikh gurdwaras. The SGPC elections follow the same process as Parliament and state assemblies. And the SGPC chief has a position as per a Central law which makes them a very powerful lot. That privilege is not accorded to even the RSS or other religious groups. And this is why the deras, which are unique to Punjab, were encouraged to counter ‘Panthic politics’ and were initially even funded by the government.”

Polarisation of the Hindu and Sikh vote has not succeeded in the state because the two communities are intertwined in several other ways including economic, and this helps keep each other in check, he added.

“Jat Sikhs are 20 per cent of the population but control 80 per cent of the land. The Dalits on the other hand are 30 per cent of the population but their land holdings account for a mere 6 per cent. The two are interdependent for trade and the agriculture sector. When there is economic interdependence, polarisation becomes difficult,” he said.

Betting on radicals

But in Khadoor Sahib the bets are in favour of radicalism. While the ‘Panthic’ vote is behind Amritpal, the other radical, Sangrur MP Simranjit Singh Mann has withdrawn his candidate in favour of Amritpal. Paramjit Kaur Khalra, who contested as an independent in 2019 winning over 2 lakh votes, is now Amritpal’s campaign manager.

Khalra, like Amritpal’s father, has taken a complete U-turn on whatever Amritpal stood for. She said they believe in the Indian Constitution and Khalistan is all about fighting for the interests of the people of Punjab and not about a separate state. She skirted questions whether the storming of a police station with the Guru Granth Sahib was sacrilege. “The Akal Takht Sahib should have declared it ‘beabdi’. They should have said whether what Amritpal did was wrong but they did not. So ask them.”

Amritpal’s father, Tarsem Singh, bristled at the very mention of the word Khalistan. He is ill at ease with visiting journalists and strangers and wanted a narrowly focused narrative about his son’s campaign. When this reporter tried asking a question on Khalistan, she was heckled and pushed around. Notably, espousing the cause of Khalistan will invite automatic disqualification by the Election Commission.

Pramod Kumar of the Institute of development and Communication said, “It is only the diaspora that is energised by Khalistan. The Centre’s ham-handed attempts to ward off the “enemies of the country trying to create Khalistan” with their “ghar mein ghus kar marenge” (will kill the enemy in their own backyard) narrative hasn’t really found an audience in Punjab.”

But Amritpal is nevertheless viewed with suspicion in several quarters. He’s being seen as a stooge of the BJP and a ‘creation’ of the Intelligence agencies. By raising the bogey of Khalistan, many believe that Hindu votes will swing towards the BJP. And the rise of radicalism will be used as a stick to beat the Bhagwant Mann government for its inability to keep Punjab safe.