Up in arms against the Pun­jab and Haryana High Court ver­dict on the Spe­cial In­ves­ti­ga­tion Re­port on the Kotka­pura fir­ing of 2005 fol­low­ing protests against des­e­cra­tion of Guru Granth Sahib, by the fol­low­ers of pseudo-Baba Ram Rahi, a string of Pan­thic groups led by for­mer Akal Takht Jathedar Bhai Ran­jit Singh to­day burned the copies of the judge­ment terming it as po­lit­i­cal and flawed. A WSN Bu­reau re­port.

PAN­THIC AC­TIVISTS FROM ALL OVER PUN­JAB, cut­ting across party lines gath­ered at the Main Chowk of Kotka­pura and raised slo­gans amidst vol­un­teers tear­ing and burn­ing the copies of the judge­ment by Judge Jus­tice Ra­jbir Sehrawat, which went be­yond the brief un­der dis­cus­sion and quashed the re­port of the Spe­cial In­ves­ti­ga­tion Team un­der Pun­jab IG Po­lice Kun­war Vi­jay Par­tap Singh.

Hit­ting the bulls’ eye, one of the plac­ards read, “Jus­tice does In­jus­tice to Sikhs.” Not minc­ing words, an­other ban­ner read, “No Jus­tice for Sikhs in Hin­dutva In­dia.”

The rep­re­sen­ta­tives of Pan­thic groups al­leged that the In­dian ju­di­ciary was bi­ased and that the Pun­jab and Haryana High Court had crossed all lim­its with this re­gres­sive or­der. They fur­ther chas­tised the Amarinder-led gov­ern­ment for hav­ing be­trayed the Sikhs in sac­ri­lege re­lated cases and also the Maur bomb blast case.

For­mer leader of op­po­si­tion in the Pun­jab As­sem­bly, MLA Sukh­pal Singh Khaira, while speak­ing to the me­dia said, “By burn­ing the copies of the ret­ro­grade judg­ment, we have reg­is­tered our protest and anger against the flawed judge­ment. This or­der is to­tally un­ac­cept­able to Sikh peo­ple.” The Sikhs are deeply up­set over this mis­car­riage of jus­tice,” he added.

Giv­ing ex­pres­sion to the anger of the peo­ple against the in­sult to in­jury by the court, Khaira com­pared their ac­tion of burn­ing the or­der to the burn­ing of the three con­tentious farm laws in Pun­jab by the ag­i­tat­ing farm­ers.

“No­body should have any il­lu­sions. This is a de­mo­c­ra­tic form of protest as this judge­ment has killed all hopes of jus­tice to the ag­grieved fam­i­lies in par­tic­u­lar and the Sikh com­mu­nity in gen­eral.

Dal Khalsa spokesper­son Kan­war Pal Singh feared that the Badal Dal party lead­er­ship may have in­flu­enced the judge­ment and the judge may have de­liv­ered the same with an eye on a post-re­tire­ment po­lit­i­cal set­tle­ment.

“By burn­ing the copies of the ret­ro­grade judg­ment, we have reg­is­tered our protest and anger against the flawed judge­ment. This or­der is to­tally un­ac­cept­able to Sikh peo­ple.” The Sikhs are deeply up­set over this mis­car­riage of jus­tice,” 

Sukh­pal Singh Khaira, MLA Pun­jab As­sem­bly, for­mer Leader of Op­po­si­tion 

“Such gross de­nial of jus­tice in sac­ri­lege re­lated cases is blas­phe­mous for the Sikhs and will push the state back to the eight­ies of the last cen­tury and the events that hap­pened in those times,” warned Kan­war Pal Singh.

Shi­ro­mani Akali Dal (De­mo­c­ra­tic) leader Par­min­der Singh Dhindsa said we don’t ex­pect any jus­tice from the pre­sent Pun­jab gov­ern­ment as the HC ver­dict has re­flected its ut­ter fail­ure to de­fend the SIT re­port in the court.

Re­li­gious and sen­si­tive is­sues can­not be wished away. Cap­tain Amarinder Singh will do well to act fast or as his Con­gress party leg­is­la­tors have warned him, “Act fast, or else it will be dif­fi­cult to en­ter the vil­lages of Pun­jab.”