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.