The removal of Special Investigation Team key member Inspector General Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh from his post on a complaint of the Shiromani Akali Dal by the Election Commission of India, while he was conducting investigation in the murder of two Sikhs in October 2015, after indiscriminate firing by Punjab police, following protests relating to desecration of Guru Granth Sahib by Sauda Dera followers, has sent shock waves amongst Sikhs. WSN editor Jagmohan Singh writes an Open Letter to ECI chief Sunil Arora protesting the move and seeking immediate reversal of the decision.

 Dear Shri Sunil Arora:Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh! I have no illusion about the strength of the Election Commission of India.  From the Prime Minister downwards, all leaders, especially the ruling party leaders have been spewing venom against each other, taking the hate-filled campaigning and rhetoric to its nadir.  The Model Code of Conduct of the ECI is and has always been a cosmetic tool which gives the impression to the common man that there is an authority checking the utterances and work of the political party, but acts of omission and commission by the ECI prove otherwise.

I write this open letter to strongly protest the interference in the course of justice in a very sensitive case by the Election Commission of India in the Punjab, prompting me to call it the Election Commission of the BJP.

The alacrity with which the Election Commission has acted on a frivolous complaint is downright reprehensible.

The people of Punjab have no love lost for the Election Commission of India. We still remember the dark night of 17 September 1991, when less than 10 hours before the people of Punjab were to exercise their franchise, the then Chief Election Commissioner T. N. Seshan, cancelled polls in Punjab, without assigning any reason whatsoever. Every time the ECI does something horrible in Punjab, this episode haunts us.

Even if the SIT member Kunwar Vijay Partap Singh spoke about the possible accused in the Behbal Kalan firing case to the media, what wrong did he do? The complainant political party –the Shiromani Akali Dal has been crying hoarse since its culpability has come to the fore, making insinuating personal remarks about the upright officer. How did this escape the attention of the Election Commission of India?

 

I thought that as a Punjabi, you would be aware of the sensitivity of a case which involves the Sikhs and Guru Granth Sahib. The people of Punjab expected that in such a sensitive case, the ECI would seek a report from the government of Punjab before embarking on the route of removal of the SIT investigator in a heinous crime.

I am sure that you know that the Sikhs have the highest regard for Guru Granth Sahib –revered as the Living Guru –World Teacher by the Sikhs.  Perhaps you also know that, since the last decade, in Punjab and around have thrived a group of thugs –with an avowed anti-Sikh agenda –roaming around the Malwa region of Punjab, whose rapist-leader of the Sirsa Dera is on a long jail term. You must have not missed the story that when the followers of this Dera indulged in sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib in 2015, Sikhs in Punjab became restless and protested. In October 2015, when Sikhs were peacefully demonstrating at Behbal Kalan, Faridkot, Punjab police personnel opened unprovoked, indiscriminate firing and killed two protesters –Krishan Bhagwan Singh and Gurjeet Singh Sarawa.

The government of the day, presided over by Parkash Singh Badal and Sukhbir Singh Badal, whose party MP Naresh Gujral is the present complainant to the Election Commission, did everything possible to dismiss the incident –first attempting to show it as an attack by the protesters, then setting up the Zora Singh Commission but not releasing its report or acting upon its findings, et al.

Earlier this year the matter reached the Punjabi Assembly, where after discussion of the Justice Ranjit Singh Commission Report, a unanimous resolution was passed to constitute the SIT, which was then done by the Punjab government.

‘Such crass behaviour of the ECI is yet another injustice to the Sikhs and we will not take this lying down.’

Dal Khalsa

The victim families in particular and Sikh organisations in general have been following the case on a regular basis and as a face of the SIT, Kunwar Vijay Partap Singh has been regularly briefing the media for purposes of information and transparency.

Though belatedly today, the Captain Amarinder Singh government has already shot a missive to you seeking reversal of the ECI decision. It is in the fitness of things that the ECI should not stand on prestige and reverse its illegal order.

The victim families, the Bargari Morcha, the various political parties contesting elections in Punjab, religious organisations other than those owing allegiance to the Shiromani Akali Dal and its controlled bodies -the SGPC and DSGMC, all have come on to the streets, protesting the move of the Election Commission.

Dal Khalsa has said that ‘such crass behaviour of the ECI is yet another injustice to the Sikhs and we will not take this lying down.’ Sukhraj Singh –the son of martyr Krishan Bhagwan Singh said, “I am deeply pained. I have been attending almost every hearing of the SIT with the hope that justice will be done to our family. The ECI has derailed justice and this is unfair, unjust and grossly partial.’ The Election Commission of India is likely to be flooded with more protests from Sikhs in Delhi and Chandigarh.

‘The ECI’s independence, fairness, impartiality and efficiency are perceived to be compromised today, thereby endangering the integrity of the electoral process which is the very foundation of Indian democracy.”

Senior Bureaucrats in a letter to President of India

As you know, just a day back, a large group of senior former bureaucrats have written to the President of India questioning the integrity of your Commission, raising pertinent questions regarding the clean chit given by the ECI to Prime Minister Modi and his party BJP, citing many instances of transgression of not only the Model Code of Conduct but also time-tested norms of electioneering and rule of law.

Their letter reads, ‘The ECI’s independence, fairness, impartiality and efficiency are perceived to be compromised today, thereby endangering the integrity of the electoral process which is the very foundation of Indian democracy.”

Sir, please ponder:

1. The Chief Minister of UP Shri Adityanath Yogi, alluding to the Indian army says, ‘Modi ki Sena.’ The ECI only asks him to be careful in future. Referring to Muslims, today he reportedly said, “You have ‘Ali’, we have ‘Bajrang Bali”. Why does the ECI not stop him from campaigning? Taking the sensitivity of the present sacrilege case into account, the ECI could have just asked the Punjab government to ask Kunwar Vijay Partap Singh to refrain from speaking to the media till the elections are over. Don’t you think that should have been sufficient? Did the ECI not jump the gun?
2. The incendiary speeches by BJP and allied parties in Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh should make the ECI sit up and take prompt notice. Why is it not being done?
3. How on earth does the ECI allow BJP’s deft exploitation of some loophole in the rule book and force DTH subscribers to watch BJP’s channel NAMO TV? Upon complaints, the ECI is simply looking the other way as the pigeon closes its eyes upon seeing a cat.

“I am deeply pained. I have been attending almost every hearing of the SIT with the hope that justice will be done to our family. The ECI has derailed justice and this is unfair, unjust and grossly partial.’

Sukhraj Singh, son of martyr Bhai Krishan Bhagwan Singh

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On a larger canvas, Is it not disturbing the ECI that the Shiromani Akali Dal is contesting the present general elections as a Sikh religious body!  May I remind you that the Election Commission of India has been prevaricating about the religious/political and religious/secular status of the Shiromani Akali Dal for the last 9 years? The Election Commission is the main respondent in a case filed by a socialist activist in 2010 in the Delhi High Court but the ECI has not had the guts to present a clear note on this. How is it that in some cases it takes less than 9 days and in others, the case lingers on for 9 years and more?

The people of Punjab have no love lost for the Election Commission of India. We still remember the dark night of 17 September 1991, when less than 10 hours before the people of Punjab were to exercise their franchise, the then Chief Election Commissioner T. N. Seshan, cancelled polls in Punjab, without assigning any reason whatsoever. Every time the ECI does something horrible in Punjab, this episode haunts us.

Kunwar Vijay Partap Singh is working with his back to the walls as a genuine police officer and after a very long time, the people of Punjab are rallying behind a police officer for his uprightness and honesty.  The ECI will do well to reinstate him.

Sincerely

Jagmohan Singh
Editor, The World Sikh News