The agitation against farm bills has once again captured the national headlines. The farmers mostly from Punjab are marching to Delhi to camp themselves agitating till such time their demands would be met. There is also a contingent from Haryana that is marching with them. The response from other states has been muted or silent. Of course, it is the farmers from Punjab with the support of the Chief Minister that has hogged the limelight. Without doubt, there is a strong support from the Delhi government which wants to capitalise on the same and capture power in Punjab in 2022. The Akalis are not to be left behind and they too are vociferous in their support. The farmers have had clashes with the Haryana police and now are being allowed to enter Delhi. However, in the midst of the farmers’ protests it is evident that Khalistani supporters have infiltrated into the same. While the number might be small and yet as on date inconsequential, the fears of the Khalistani movement have once again sprung. It is been nearly 18 years since Punjab returned to normalcy but the decade long terrorist violence still has left a scar on the minds of both Punjabis as also other Indians. The question that again springs up is whether the farmer protests will lead to the violence that rocked the state for more than a decade starting 1980 or so. To understand this, it would be right to look at the origins of the Khalistani movement and the rise of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale.
The Congress led ecosystem has been smarting since the IAC agitation of 2011. The Ram Lila Maidan fast of Anna Hazare virtually undid the Manmohan Singh government. The Congress wants a turn the tide by creating a similar protest to undo the Modi government. From the JNU protests of Kanhayia Kumar to anti-CAA protests of Shaheen Bagh to the current anti-farm bill protests, the modus operandi is the same. The objective is to shake the Modi government and thus an opening for its defeat in 2024. The parallels were not dissimilar to the ones that prevailed in the aftermath of 1977 defeat of the Congress. Sanjay Gandhi wanted to exploit the fissures in the Janata government which he did successfully in 2.5 years of time. He wanted to isolate and weaken the Akalis, the thorn in the flesh of the Congress predating the Emergency. During the Emergency, it was the Akalis led by Harchand Singh Longowal that symbolized the defiance of the Congress. Indira was wary of the Akalis who had rebuffed her offer for co-opting them.
On the advice of Punjab Congress strongman, Giani Zail Singh, Sanjay Gandhi set to work to discover a new Akali face which he found in a young preacher answering to the name of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale. He belonged to Damdami Taksal, a religious fanatic movement. The opportunity came on the Baisakhi day of 1978 when Bhindranwale and his followers marched on to the Golden Temple to stop the congregation of Nirankaris. The Nirankaris, orginially revivalists had their own structure which had made them declared heretics by the conservative Sikhs thus ineligible to congregate in the Golden temple. All that Bhindranwale did was to create clashes in which a number of his supporters were killed. It is widely rumoured that Bhindranwale himself slipped away from the procession at the entrance of the Golden Temple. The Congress used the clashes and the deaths that occurred to pin point the blame on the Akalis and their inability to protect the Sikhs. Bhindranwale was encouraged by Zail Singh to form Dal Khalsa, a political party aiming to creating an independent Khalistan. Apparently, it was Zail Singh using his network in the media gave it sufficient traction making it appear as Bhindranwale’s party. It is different matter Bhindranwale kept consciously away from the party.
Meanwhile the split in the Janata and the consequent elections led to Mrs. Gandhi returning to power with Zail Singh as the Home Minister. The Punjab assembly elections that followed soon after saw Congress returning to power replacing the Akalis. Indira Gandhi chose Darbara Singh as the Chief Minister. Darbara Singh was secular whereas Zail Singh built his base on appealing to Sikh sentiments and thus clash between was inevitable. The tragedy was it began to be a game of one-upmanship between Zail Singh and Darbara Singh over Bhindranwale. The head of Nirankaris was murdered in Delhi with Bhindranwale’s name being among the suspects. While Darbara Singh wanted to arrest him, Zail Singh gave him a clean chit. This emboldened Bhindranwale to now target Lala Jagat Narain of the Punjab Kesari group. Lala Jagat Narain was killed by Bhindranwale supporters. The Punjab police went to arrest him in Chando Kalan in Haryana where he had been holed up. Yet, apparently due to a tip off, Bhindranwale had escaped from there to move to his Gurudwara at Mehta Chowk near Amritsar. In the ensuing violence in Chando Kalan, his papers were burnt. Those papers were his notes on religion etc. and to him, it carried significant importance. This made him turn against the Congress whom he held responsible for the same. While Congress found utility in him, he had little utility from the Congress. Darbara Singh sent the police to arrest him in Mehta Chowk where he surrendered on his terms in September 1981. It was however not before he made a provocative speech that led to the violence across the state post his arrest. In the meantime, Zail Singh used it to score back at Darbara Singh by giving clean chit to Bhindranwale in parliament thus ordering his release. The stage was set for Bhindranwale to increase his stature among the Sikhs. Furthermore, when his close associate was killed in Delhi, Zail Singh and Rajiv Gandhi ensured they attended memorial ceremonies. At this time, Bhindranwale’s men had been involved in violence that seemed spiralling out of control but Zail Singh and Rajiv Gandhi attended memorial ceremonies where Bhindranwale was present. Bhindranwale used this to take repeated digs at Zail Singh who kept silent. All this further emboldened him to make his next moves. The rest as one said was history with Punjab losing a decade to violence.
Therefore as one looks at the current instigation and provocation, it is all but natural that the fears of the violent 1980s would come back. It is a different story that the idea of Khalistan hardly finds traction in the state except that it carries on in the minds of few overseas Sikhs in Canada and UK. Yet, they have lost no opportunity to hijack or make their presence felt in any agitation. AAP must remember that its association with the Khalistani groups in the run up to 2017 polls caused its defeat with the Hindu voters shifting to the Congress. The political ramifications of the farmer protests would take time to unravel in the complex dynamics of Punjab politics yet what would be unmistakable would be an urge to put strong end to any embers of Khalistan that might remain.
Thoughts on Theory and Practice 