While the Badal Dal has nominated conspiracy-to-murder accused Darbara Singh Guru as its candidate for Fatehgarh Sahib, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has postponed the hearing of a petition against him and others to 8 May.  Eventually, will he go to parliament or jail?

Testing times ahead for the people of Punjab as parties announce human rights violators as candidates.  If the voters in Fatehgarh Sahib, Jalandhar and Khadur Sahib want to change the political narrative in Punjab, they will have to rebuild their shrinking moral fibre and denounce those who are holding Punjab to ransom. The ball is in the court of the voters. They will get what they vote for.

Despite protestations and shame slammed on the party in the media and on social media of the proposed candidate’s alleged involvement in the extrajudicial killing of four Sikh youth in Nakodar in February 1986, the Badal Dal, officially the Shiromani Akali Dal, has nominated former bureaucrat turned politician and a friend of the Badals –Darbara Singh Guru, as its candidate for the reserved Fatehgarh Sahib constituency. He will be the official joint candidate for the Shiromani Akali Dal and Bharatiya Janta Party.

Speaking to media after his nomination, Darbara Singh Guru has denied any association with the Nakodar killings.  He called the campaign against him ‘false propaganda.’

While the party was announcing the candidature, the petition filed against Darbara Singh Guru and others was posted for 8 May, as Part II of the Justice Gurnam Singh Commission Report is yet to become part of the Punjab and Haryana High Court record in this case.  In the brief hearing in the court today, where Baldev Singh, the father of the one of the killed youth -Ravinder Singh, was present, the bench of Justice Mahabir Singh Sidhu orally observed, “being an extremely serious matter, the court will also like to see Part II of the Inquiry Commission Report.”

Who will the voters in Fatehgarh Sahib vote for may still be a decision that they are thinking about, but who they will not vote for should not be difficult to decide.  Darbara Singh Guru definitely falls in the second category.

WSN learns that Part II of the report, which contains affidavits, annexures and articles, was not tabled in the Punjab Assembly by the then speaker of the Punjab Assembly -Charanjit Singh Atwal, when Part I was clandestinely tabled without the Action Taken Report, in violation of the provisions of the Commissions of Inquiry Act.  Charanjit Singh Atwal and his team has already fumbled while taking questions from the media following his nomination. He went to the extent of saying, “It was long time back, I don’t remember it and followed it with another lie that no report can be tabled in the House without an Action Taken Report.”

If we buy his lie, was the report actually tabled in the house? As per the response received from the Secretary Vidhan Sabha by Ludhiana legislator Simarjit Singh Bains, no discussion took place on 5 March 2001 when the report was purportedly tabled in the Punjab Assembly. WSN fears that it was only entered into the records and all lawmakers were kept in the dark. Badal Dal in conspiracy with the Speaker is capable of this.

However, it may be noted that it is a traditional practice that only the first part of any commission of enquiry report is tabled in the Assembly or the Parliament as the case may be, while the bulk of the matter and the material evidence, collected by any commission stays with the respective Home department.

The lawyer for the victim family Hari Chand Arora has informed that their application under Right to Information -RTI for Part II of the Justice Gurnam Singh Report still rests with the Home Department and their reply is awaited. It is a public document and those desirous can have access after seeking permission. It will be interesting to know how the Home department of the Captain Amarinder Singh government responds to this.

Bibi Paramjit Singh Khalra, wife of martyred human rights defender Jaswant Singh Khalra has condemned the nomination of Darbara Singh Guru in a Facebook post.

Who will the voters in Fatehgarh Sahib vote for may still be a decision that they are thinking about, but who they will not vote for should not be difficult to decide.  Darbara Singh Guru definitely falls in the second category.