7 October 2018 will go down in contemporary history as a day of rallies. Thousands of devout Sikhs, Hindus and Muslims, men and women participated in the Panthic rally at Bargari, whereas thousands of party workers participated in the rallies of the Akali Dal Badal and Congress. Expectations of results from peaceful and democratic protest is at an all-time high but what turn events will take in Punjab, only time will tell.

They came on foot, cycles, scooters, motorcycles, cars, tractors, trolleys, trucks and buses. They came with food packed from their villages. They were thirsty and walking. They sat wherever they got space -within the pandal, outside the pandal, in the fields, on the vehicles, on the roads, wherever. They were chanting the name of the Guru, praying for justice. They were the devout Sikhs, men and women, a good section of Hindus and Muslims, who participated in the Panthic rally at Bargari and overshadowed Badal’s Patiala and Amarinder’s Lambi Rallies.

7 October 2018 will go down in contemporary history as a day of rallies. Three prominent groups -the Panthic parties, including a section of the AAP party and Lok Insaf Party formed one group, the other two being the Akali Dal Badal and the Congress party.  The thousands of marchers from Kotkapura to Bargari led by Sukhpal Singh Khaira and Kanwar Sandhu of AAP and the Bains brothers of Lok Insaf party, clearly pushed the other faction on the sidelines.

While the Badal Dal, with its love and association for Bharatiya Janata Party, has started singing the tune of “Hindu-Sikh unity in danger”, a sizeable number of Hindus and Muslims, men and women attended the Bargari meet mocking the old guard and sending a message to the doubting thomases that their doubts are baseless and only a pernicious and defamatory electoral ploy.

““Under no circumstances will this Morcha end till the guilty are punished. This is a fight to the finish.”“

Bhai Dhian Singh Mand

While the Panthic Rally speakers extolled the need for Panthic unity, the Badal Dal leaders dwelt on Congress and the Congress leaders overreached the arch and discussed their prospects for 2019 general elections.  

The more than a hundred thousand people who gathered at Bargari outnumbered the strength of respective party workers in Patiala and Lambi. The massive crowd here forcing people to walk for 5 kms to reach the venue was a spontaneous outpouring of thousands of people rejecting the divisive politics of both the Badal Dal and the Congress.

The Badal Dal is virtually under the magical sway of the ISI. Whoever is not in their way is an ISI agent. Such nasty allegations were earlier made by the government of India against those who dissented against established nationalistic opinion. Sadly, the Badal Dal has taken up this role and is out to condemn all and sundry.

“The hopes and expectations of the people of Punjab are at an all-time high. Who will consolidate and deliver, only time will tell.“

The Congress party at its rally was playing to the gallery. Apart from the rhetoric of “we will not spare anyone responsible for sacrilege”, there was nothing to offer, except kicking off their campaign for the almost a year afar 2019 general elections.

Holding both the Badal Dal and Congress fully responsible for injustice to the Sikhs -one for perpetuating the sacrilege and killing of innocent protestors and the other for delaying the justice machinery, the Barghari Morcha leader Dhian Singh Mand roared, “Under no circumstances will this Morcha end till the guilty are punished. This is a fight to the finish.”

Justice for victims of police killings at Behbal Kalan, detention and trial of those responsible for sacrilege at Bargari and other places, release of detenues who have completed jail terms are the foremost agenda items of the Bargari Morcha. What was conceived as a pressure mechanism for release and action on Commission reports has now become a peoples’ movement for justice.

The Dal Khalsa and many others who spoke at the Bargari rally demanded the arrest of former Punjab police chief Sumedh Singh Saini for his role in directing the police to fire at peaceful protestors at Behbal Kalan.

The expectations are that on 14 October -the third anniversary of the Behbal Kalan killings and harassment, the numbers could go beyond the hundred thousand and that may mark a turn in the politics of the state.

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In any political development, the participation of the youth can be a game changer. This has been happening over the last few weeks. The hopes and expectations of the people are at an all-time high. Who will consolidate and deliver, only time will tell.