Should have ended Amritpal’s run earlier

Radical preacher Amritpal Singh’s run from the law finally ended Sunday morning in a gurudwara in Punjab’s Moga, also the hometown of slain Sikh terrorist Jarnail Singh Bhindrewale, who advocated a separate state of Khalistan. Bhindrewale suffered an ignominious end falling to the bullets of the Indian armed forces during ‘Op Blue Star’ soon after the takeover of the Golden Temple in Amritsar after it had become a den of Sikh terror in 1984.

Amritpal who was dubbed Bhindrenwale 2.0, did not suffer the same fate and has been safely whisked away to Dibrugarh jail in Assam where he will have to face the several cases filed against him including one for attempt to murder. His associates are already cooling their heels in the prison, which is thousands of kilometres away from their native Punjab. It took over a month for the Punjab police to arrest Amritpal, which does not speak highly about the efficiency of the Aam Admi Party (AAP) government in the state.

Quick action to nab the preacher, who has made no secret of his desire for a Khalistan state, would have sent a reassuring message to all those who lived through the tortuous years in Punjab from 1984 to the early 1990s. It was a time when terror ruled Punjab with nearby Haryana and Delhi too bearing the brunt. In fact, if the government had with the assistance of the Centre, ended Amritpal’s run soon after he went into hiding, it would have sent out a clear and stern message that there is no room in the country for those who brook pro-Khalistan sentiments.

That however did not happen for reasons best known to those in power. In a state where martial traditions are revered and almost every Sikh family sends its men to fight off foes on our northern borders, a movement hostile to the integrity of the nation that a demand for a separate state cannot and should not be allowed to surface. It was widely believed that the pro-Khalistan movement and the dream of a Sikh nation had died out after our forces ended the reign of terror in the 1990s.

However, the recent spectacle of arms-wielding youth thronging the streets in Punjab cities and even getting involved in clashes with cops, shows that peace could be a casualty unless the state nips separatist tendencies in the bud. We should also be wary of the fact that neighbours like China and Pakistan would always like to keep anti-India sentiments bubbling and alive for their own reasons in a border state.

In fact, the Bhindrewale-led movement would have been snuffed out much earlier had it not been for a generous helping hand in the form of arms and equipment from across the border for the misguided youth. There is also a pro-Khalistan lobby abroad, which ensures it gives our diplomatic missions pinpricks now and then by bringing down our flags and holding protests.

A bit of tough talking with those wielding power in countries like Canada, the UK, Australia and the US where Sikhs are present in fairly large numbers, would help to put the lid on such jingoistic outpourings that do no good to the cordial ties we have with these countries. The law has to prevail and the guilty have to be punished – be it the assailants of Atiq Ahmed, or Amritpal – for that is the edifice on which our democracy rests.

A wavering of the stand we take on any individual or outfit out to wreck peace and spread fissiparous thoughts would do no good to anyone – whether it is the AAP government in Punjab, the BJP-led government at the Centre or people of this great nation at large. The Khalistan question was settled and buried long ago, and it cannot be allowed to return in fits and spurts, now or ever.