Amritpal, Sarabjeet Singh Khalsa — Sikh radicals’ poll victories pose challenge for Mann govt

Chandigarh: Two of the three prominent Sikh radicals in the Lok Sabha election fray have won the seats they contested — a mandate that has portentous implications for the Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann-led government in Punjab.

Jailed Sikh hardliner Amritpal Singh won the Khadoor Sahib LS seat as an Independent, defeating his nearest rival Congress’s Kulbir Singh Zira by nearly two lakh votes, a margin unsurpassed across Punjab in the current Lok Sabha election.

Khalistan ideologue Simranjit Singh Mann, however, lost his Sangrur seat to Aam Aadmi Party cabinet minister Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer, who won with a whopping 1.7 lakh votes against his nearest rival, Congress’s Sukhpal Singh Khaira. Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) president Mann could manage the third position.

Amritpal Singh remains incarcerated in the Dibrugarh jail in Assam under the National Security Act (NSA) for more than a year on the grounds of activities “prejudicial to the security of India and the maintenance of public order”.

Amritpal’s parents — father Bapu Tarsem Singh and mother Balwinder Kaur — campaigned for him ahead of the polls.

Sarabjeet Singh Khalsa is a resident of Mohali, and the 45-year-old has unsuccessfully contested three elections in 2004, 2007 and 2014 — the former two on a Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) ticket and the last on a Bahujan Samaj Party ticket.

His family members had successfully contested elections years earlier. In 1989, his mother, Bimal Kaur Khalsa, won the Lok Sabha polls from Ropar, while his grandfather Sucha Singh won the Bathinda seat — both on Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) tickets.

Both Khadoor Sahib and Faridkot are parliamentary seats on the international border with Pakistan. The victory of radicals on these seats will likely give a strong fillip to the consolidation of the otherwise marginalised extremist forces in the state.

“The rising popularity of the radicals, as it may seem from the election results, is going to pose the biggest problem for the Bhagwant Mann-led AAP government in the state. Does Mann have the political maturity and the sagacity to deal with the possibility of the emergence of such forces remains to be seen,” said professor Jagrup Singh Sekhon, formerly with the political science department of the Guru Nanak Dev University in Amritsar, speaking with ThePrint Tuesday.

Professor Paramjit Judge, a renowned historian, told ThePrint that while this development in the election results isn’t expected to have much of an immediate impact on Punjab politics, it was the direct result of the failure of the AAP to stitch up an alliance with the Congress in Punjab as had been done at the national level. “The alliance would not have given space to any other force to rise. But the personal egos of the leaders involved did not allow that to happen,” said Judge.

“Combined with agrarian distress and the continuing farmers’ struggle in rural areas, the development could also lead to a potent, if not an immediately explosive situation in Punjab, a grim reminder of the period of militancy in this state in the 1980 and 1990s,” said Dr Kanwalpreet Kaur who is with the political science department of DAV College, Chandigarh.

“All eyes will be on the Mann government — how it handles this sentiment. Though, they do not have much of a reputation in this field. More often than not, they have been criticised for flirting with the radical elements themselves,” added Kaur.

Also read: Congress’s Manish Tewari wrests Chandigarh from BJP after 10 yrs, Sanjay Tandon loses by slim margin

Pressure to release Amritpal set to increase

Amritpal (31) was the hot favourite in the run-up to the elections on the  Khadoor Sahib seat, which saw a close five-cornered contest. While Amritpal secured a little over four lakh votes, Congress candidate Zira got more than two lakh votes, Punjab minister and AAP candidate Laljit Singh Bhullar got close to two lakh votes, Akali candidate Virsa Singh Valtoha got 86,416 votes, and BJP’s Manjit Singh Manna got 86,373 votes.

The resentment of the masses in Punjab led to Amritpal Singh’s victory, Lawyers for Human Rights International advocate Navkiran Singh said in a statement.

“Punjabis reacted to the atrocities and highhandedness of Punjab and central governments. Hope lessons are learnt by both and Amritpal Singh and his associates are released… the state government can opt for not confirming the orders passed under NSA. The power lies with Punjab state under Section 14 of The National Security Act 1980,” said Singh.

Amritpal’s victory could well turn out to be the most significant political development in the border state, indicating the return of the Khalistani ideology after four decades.

In the 1980s and 1990s, Punjab witnessed a violent separatist movement led by Sikh militant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, and the electoral victory of Amritpal, who projected himself as Bhindranwale 2.0, can be seen as a revival of Bhindranwale’s cult.

However, such implications remain tempered since Amritpal’s entire election campaign was centred only on the menace of drug abuse, and his family did not make any reference either to Khalistan or Bhindranwale.