Il­le­gally de­tained un­der the Na­tional Se­cu­rity Act in Di­bru­garh Cen­tral Jail, As­sam, Sikh sov­er­eignty cham­pion and ac­tivist, young Am­rit­pal Singh has won the Lok Sabha seat from the highly pub­li­cized Khadoor Sahib con­stituency in Pun­jab by a sig­nif­i­cant mar­gin of 184,088 votes.  Ac­tively sup­ported by slain hu­man rights ac­tivist Jaswant Singh Khal­ra’s wife Paramjit Kaur, this vic­tory adds a new chap­ter to Pan­thic pol­i­tics, and it re­mains to be seen how this chap­ter will ad­vance the is­sues of  Khalsa Panth and the Pun­jab.  WSN ed­i­tor Jag­mo­han Singh pre­sents a quick analy­sis and fore­sees huge changes in Pan­thic pol­i­tics in the com­ing times.

WARIS PUN­JAB DE was founded by ac­tor-turned-po­lit­i­cal ac­tivist Deep Sidhu the first ma­jor farm­ers strug­gle on the bor­ders of New Delhi and in the days to come, though for the pre­sent in­car­cer­ated in the Di­bru­garh Cen­tral Prison in As­sam un­der In­di­a’s no­to­ri­ous Na­tional Se­cu­rity Act, the young fire­brand po­lit­i­cal ac­tivist will en­ter the In­dian Par­lia­ment af­ter win­ning the Khadoor Sahib con­stituency in the Pun­jab by a mar­gin rem­i­nis­cent of the vic­tory of Sim­ran­jit Singh Mann from Tarn Taran in 1989.

The win with a thump­ing ma­jor­ity will give a new im­pe­tus to the Sikh sov­er­eignty move­ment in the Pun­jab and to the cha­grin of the In­dian state, the re­vival of sen­ti­ments for an in­de­pen­dent Sikh state and the calls for rights of the peo­ple of Pun­jab.

Bhai Am­rit­pal Singh’s elec­tion cam­paign was led by Bibi Paramjit Kaur Khalra, the widow of hu­man rights ac­tivist Sha­heed Bhai Jaswant Singh Khalra, who had con­tested from the same con­stituency in 2019. Along with the mother of Am­rit­pal Singh, she col­lected the vic­tory cer­tifi­cate too and the smile on her face shows grat­i­tude to the vot­ers of the re­gion.

The con­stituents in Khadoor Sahib were reel­ing un­der the eth­i­cal pres­sure that they could not re­turn Paramjit Kaur to Par­lia­ment in 2019 and hence they voted with a vengeance.  The Khadoor Sahib Lok Sabha con­stituency had be­come highly promi­nent in Pun­jab, at­tract­ing the at­ten­tion of Sikhs world­wide.  Even the Shi­ro­mani Akali Dal Am­rit­sar also with­drew its can­di­date in sup­port of Bhai Am­rit­pal Singh. The Sukhbir Singh Badal led Akali Dal also had a chance to with­draw their con­tro­ver­sial can­di­date Virsa Singh Val­toha and save face but they lost the op­por­tu­nity un­der the mis­taken be­lief that their vote bank is in tact.

With his gait and style of Sikh icon Sant Jar­nail Singh Bhin­dran­wale, Am­rit­pal Singh is set to usher in a new era in Sikh Pan­thic pol­i­tics.  sig­nif­i­cant tur­ban-ty­ing cer­e­mony held in Rode, the vil­lage of Saint Jar­nail Singh Bhin­dran­wale. By se­cur­ing a sig­nif­i­cant vic­tory in the Khadoor Sahib Lok Sabha con­stituency, Bhai Am­rit­pal Singh has re­peated the his­tory of 1989.

Am­rit­pal Singh se­cured a to­tal of 386,337 votes while Con­gress’s Kul­bir Singh Zira got 201,443 votes, Aam Aadmi Par­ty’s Laljit Singh Bhullar re­ceived 189,485 votes, and Akali Dal’s Virsa Singh Val­toha got 82,988 votes.

Am­rit­pal Singh se­cured a to­tal of 386,337 votes while Con­gress’s Kul­bir Singh Zira got 201,443 votes, Aam Aadmi Par­ty’s Laljit Singh Bhullar re­ceived 189,485 votes, and Akali Dal’s Virsa Singh Val­toha got 82,988 votes..

Drug ad­dic­tion is one of the ma­jor is­sues in Pun­jab to­day. To com­bat the in­creas­ing deaths of youths due to drugs, Am­rit­pal Singh had ini­ti­ated the Khalsa Va­heer cam­paign, which en­cour­aged young peo­ple in vil­lages, towns, and cities to par­take the Sikh bap­tism -Am­rit and quit drugs. A sea change had started hap­pen­ing on the hori­zon.

In­flu­enced by Bhai Am­rit­pal Singh’s charis­matic per­son­al­ity and elo­quence, Sikh youth joined the Khalsa Va­heer group and be­gan fam­i­lies af­fected by drug ad­dic­tion started bring­ing their chil­dren to Bhai Am­rit­pal Singh, seek­ing ad­vice and suc­cour. In a short pe­riod, Bhai Am­rit­pal Singh be­gan re­ceiv­ing re­spect from peo­ple of all classes. Ac­cord­ing to lo­cals, as long as Khalsa Va­heer was in­flu­en­tial, drug sales in many ar­eas sig­nif­i­cantly de­creased, though this is not sub­stan­ti­ated with sta­tis­tics.

This vic­tory will in­evitably lead to calls for re­peal of the dra­con­ian un­de­mo­c­ra­tic de­ten­tion pro­vi­sions with­out ap­peal un­der the Na­tional Se­cu­rity Act.

Bhai Am­rit­pal Singh’s bold sup­port for an in­de­pen­dent Sikh state and his large-scale ef­forts to help youths quit drugs alarmed the gov­ern­ment. As a re­sult, the au­thor­i­ties sought to sup­press his move­ment. The en­tire In­dian me­dia por­trayed Bhai Am­rit­pal Singh as a sep­a­ratist and provoca­tive leader.

Even­tu­ally, us­ing the pre­text of sur­round­ing the Aj­nala po­lice sta­tion, in Am­rit­sar, the Pun­jab gov­ern­ment, in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the cen­tral gov­ern­ment, launched a cam­paign to de­tain Sikh youth across Pun­jab, in­clud­ing Bhai Am­rit­pal Singh and his as­so­ci­ates. Jour­nal­ists were also not spared. Check­points were set up by cen­tral se­cu­rity forces, and the in­ter­net was shut down, cre­at­ing an at­mos­phere as if a ma­jor ter­ror­ist was be­ing cap­tured. Af­ter sev­eral days on the run, Bhai Am­rit­pal Singh fi­nally sur­ren­dered in per­son.

Dur­ing March-April 2023, Bhai Am­rit­pal Singh and ten lead­ers of his or­ga­ni­za­tion were un­law­fully de­tained un­der the Na­tional Se­cu­rity Act in the Di­bru­garh Cen­tral Jail, As­sam, on the or­ders of the Pun­jab gov­ern­ment and at the be­hest of the cen­tral gov­ern­ment. This led to sig­nif­i­cant protests in Sikh cir­cles, as there were no reg­is­tered cases against Bhai Am­rit­pal Singh and his as­so­ci­ates. Bhai Am­rit­pal Singh’s fam­ily was also ha­rassed, and de­spite be­ing a for­eign na­tional, his wife was not al­lowed to travel abroad.

Like in 1989, when Sim­ran­jit Singh Mann and his as­so­ci­ates de­tained in the Baghalpur prison emerged as Pan­thic lead­ers, the same flavour is likely to un­fold in the com­ing months and years.

About a year later, as the term of the de­ten­tion un­der the Na­tional Se­cu­rity Act was about to ex­pire, the Di­bru­garh jail ad­min­is­tra­tion be­gan ha­rass­ing the de­tenues forc­ing them to go on a hunger strike, which was even­tu­ally called off af­ter a dik­tat by the Jathedar of Akal Takht Sahib -Gi­ani Ragh­bir Singh at Am­rit­sar, started by the fam­ily of Am­rit­pal Singh, who too were be­ing trou­bled by the Pun­jab gov­ern­ment un­der all pre­texts. Dur­ing the Mor­cha as his mother too went on hunger strike, her health had started to de­te­ri­o­rate war­rant­ing a Pan­thic in­ter­ven­tion.

Like in 1989, when Sim­ran­jit Singh Mann and his as­so­ci­ates de­tained in the Baghalpur prison emerged as Pan­thic lead­ers, the same flavour is likely to un­fold in the com­ing months and years.

De­spite protests, the de­ten­tion of Am­rit­pal Singh and his as­so­ci­ates was  ex­tended for an­other year.

As the Lok Sabha elec­tions ap­proached, there was a grow­ing de­mand in Sikh cir­cles for Bhai Am­rit­pal Singh to con­test. Even­tu­ally, re­spond­ing to the San­gat’s de­mand, Bhai Am­rit­pal Singh de­cided to con­test the elec­tion. Al­though some Sikh in­tel­lec­tu­als op­posed this de­ci­sion on ide­o­log­i­cal grounds, the ma­jor­ity of Sikhs wel­comed it. They be­lieved that win­ning the elec­tion could fa­cil­i­tate his re­lease and as it turns out is a slap on the face of the gov­ern­ment as Sikh vot­ers have en­dorsed his cam­paign and agenda.

Var­i­ous vil­lage pan­chay­ats passed res­o­lu­tions in sup­port of Bhai Am­rit­pal Singh. Peo­ple vol­un­tar­ily cam­paigned for him, and dif­fer­ent unions and farmer-worker or­ga­ni­za­tions also sup­ported him. Fam­i­lies dev­as­tated by drug ad­dic­tion viewed Bhai Am­rit­pal Singh as a bea­con of hope.

WSN wishes Am­rit­pal Singh and Sarab­jit Singh well and hope of a sea-change in Pan­thic pol­i­tics af­ter ush­er­ing in a new era in the con­tem­po­rary po­lit­i­cal his­tory of Pun­jab.

Will the In­dian gov­ern­ment re­lease him forth­with?  De­tain­ing a Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment in prison is not go­ing to be easy for the In­dian state.

The sight of the two Pan­thic par­lia­men­tar­i­ans -Am­rit­pal Singh and Sarab­jit Singh, in their tra­di­tional Sikh at­tire to the In­dian Par­lia­ment, up­hold­ing the as­pi­ra­tions of the Sikh na­tion, is al­ready un­fold­ing be­fore the eyes of Sikhs world­wide.

WSN wishes Am­rit­pal Singh and Sarab­jit Singh well and hope of a sea-change in Pan­thic pol­i­tics af­ter ush­er­ing in a new era in the con­tem­po­rary po­lit­i­cal his­tory of Pun­jab.