Through an Open letter, WSN editor shares unhappiness of Punjabis, upset at the resignation of human rights activist-turned-legislator Harvinder Singh Phoolka, through an open letter to him. He has not only missed a huge opportunity to pursue the cause of justice in Punjab but has once again put his electors in a quandary who will have to choose between Congress and Shiromani Akali Dal Badal as AAP has already lost its sheen.

Dear Sardar Harvinder Singh Phoolka Ji, Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh!   Writ­ing an open let­ter to some­one whom you know well, is an oner­ous task. With a heavy heart, I write to you on the 3rd an­niver­sary of the Be­hbal Kalan fir­ing, as some­times such de­ci­sions im­pact so much that they need to be dis­cussed in the pub­lic do­main.

I am very disturbed and devastated at your email resignation to the Speaker of the Punjab Assembly. I know that attempts were afoot to dissuade you, but you had your say. You have frittered away an opportunity to bring the guilty in Punjab to book as you are doing for the November 1984 carnage victims in Delhi. You have not done justice to the Phoolka Misl Sardars of yore.

For the last many years, those who have the interest of the Sikh community at heart, those for whom the aspirations of the people of Punjab are important, have been trying hard to break the hegemony of the Congress and the Shiromani Akali Dal Badal and enter the political domain. With unrealistic expectations from the Aam Aadmi Party, you and many others won the Punjab Assembly elections and entered the fray and many of you won. A young man who wholeheartedly supported you, on condition of anonymity said, “Sadly, he has betrayed and let us down.”

“You have frittered away an opportunity to bring the guilty to book as you are doing for the November 1984 carnage victims in Delhi. You have not done justice to the Phoolka Misl Sardars of yore.”

First you you resigned from party posts, then as leader of the opposition and now as member of Punjab Legislative Assembly. You were hardly visible in your constituency Dakha, where many activists stood up for you at personal risk to support you. Now you have resigned from the legislature and put your electors, who undertook enmity with the Congress and Badal Dal cadres in the area on your behalf.

Frankly, the rationale of “conscience” and “cases of 1984” is a very weak alibi for not catching the bull by its horns. You have sought the resignation of five legislators of the Congress party -Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa, Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, Navjot Singh Sidhu, Manpreet Singh Badal and Charanjit Singh Channi on the basis of their speeches. You have said that they should listen to the voice of their conscience.

“With your resignation, you have jolted the hopes of “non-political” people like you, who are desirous to have a say in the politics of the state.”

Do you and all of us not know that the conscience of the members of the Congress died long back in June 1984? The Congress party and its leadership may have won the elections since then, but “conscience?” “Congress vaaste zameer ki bala hondi hai?” is the general refrain of any politically oriented person in Punjab. Congressmen know nothing called conscience.

On 28 August, for the Congress party MLAs and ministers, it was a field day to launch frontal attack on Sikh institutions and for the little brave ones like Mr. Bajwa to recite the tell-tale story of the human rights excesses of Sumedh Saini over the decades. In totality, however, it was only a battle to save the legislative battle that day for the Congress. No more and no less. Nothing legally and politically has happened since then and there is very less likelihood that something will happen. In this context, your narrative sounds naive and amateurish, without any political thinking going into it.

Moreover, parallel to the Bargari Morcha, held to uphold the sanctity of Guru Granth Sahib, there was a need to upstage a legal battle to bring the police officers and police personnel to justice who were guilty of the police firing in Behbal Kalan. The police personnel may have taken a reprieve from the courts but it was your turn to up the ante on the legal front, isn’t it?

What applies to the Congress, also applies to the Badal Dal leadership. It was time to initiate a legal battle against the political leadership responsible for issuing wrong and illegal orders. If the Justice Ranjit Singh Commission can allude to Nuremberg trials in its report, what has stopped our human rights activists from taking this up as a crime by the political leaders and the police on the scene who “obeyed” illegal and unlawful orders. Your resignation is a case of a hugely missed opportunity to get back to the police and the politicians of Punjab responsible for muddling the issue of sacrilege, desecration and police firing.

“Sadly, Phoolka ji has betrayed and let us down.”

Staunch supporter on condition of anonymity

To my mind, you and AAP have still to fathom the need to haul up the Dera Sacha Sauda and its chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim and his cohorts as the top conspirators for the sacrilege incidents in Punjab and neighbouring states. Sikh human rights lawyers, including you must explore this angle.

You should have risen to the occasion. It was your chance and that of the Aam Aadmi Party to fan out across Punjab and bolster the call for justice and question the impunity being granted by the state, as no arrest has been made of erring police. The Bargari Morcha may be seen by the AAP as a religious issue, but if the AAP has to remain in sync with the people of Punjab, it better understand that if they do not touch such issues, then they will have to give up their dreams about being a dominant force in the Punjab.

“By resigning you have lost a huge opportunity which the constituents of Dakha afforded you to bring changes in the area.”

With your resignation, you have jolted the hopes of “non-political” people like you, who are desirous to have a say in the politics of the state. We have seen this happening all across India too. Whenever artistes, scholars, prominent lawyers, cricketers and actors are given an opportunity to participate as law makers, they have become salary-collection machines and nothing else. You do not belong to that category but have certainly missed the bus.

I can understand your disillusionment with AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal and his team who have failed to get the legislative team elected to the Punjab Assembly to take their jobs seriously. The lip service by the AAP leadership to the various issues of Punjab and the justice issues of Sikhs in Delhi is likely to boomerang on the AAP if they do not go on a correction course.

“The lip service by the AAP leadership to the various issues of Punjab and the justice issues of Sikhs in Delhi is likely to boomerang on the AAP if they do not go on a correction course.”

While Bargari dominates our discourse, where today nearly a hundred thousand people gathered again to seek justice and pay homage to the two Sikhs who were killed in Behbal Kalan, we have been reminded of a similar case which occurred in February 1986, when four Sikh youth protesting the desecration of Guru Granth Sahib in Nakodar, near Jalandhar, were shot and killed in cold blood by rabidly communal Punjab police officers especially chosen for these dastardly inhuman murders. If you would have stayed on as a legislator, you could have questioned the government of Punjab inside the Punjab Assembly, as to why is it not releasing the Justice Gurnam Singh report, submitted by the judge in 1987 regarding the Nakokar killings?

By resigning you have lost a huge opportunity which the constituents of Dakha afforded you to bring changes in the area. There was no to write individually and collectively seeking more sessions of the Assembly and more number of days. During the by-elections to the Dakha seat vacated by you, the electors will again be at the mercy of the Shiromani Akali Dal Badal and the ruling Congress party, who will move heaven and earth and sully your record and that of AAP.

What next? I do not know. Nobody knows. You have kept this in the realm of speculation. Some people have already started to attribute ulterior motives in future.

I hope and pray that you are able to take Jagdish Tytler to Tihar prison. Our conscience will be satisfied, our pain will subside and this episode of resignation will be forgotten.

Rab Rakha.

Jagmohan Singh
Editor, The World Sikh News