The In­dian print and tele­vi­sion me­dia goes to town about the ar­rest of Sikh ac­tivist Am­rit­pal Singh, while the Pun­jab po­lice is­sued a late evening re­lease de­clar­ing him a fugi­tive and an­nounc­ing that four scores of his as­so­ci­ates have been de­tained from var­i­ous ar­eas of the Doaba re­gion of the Pun­jab.  Even while the G20 is still on in Am­rit­sar, in­ter­net ser­vices have been sus­pended all across the Pun­jab. Sec­tion 144 has been im­posed sus­pend­ing civil rights of as­sem­bly and protest, taxi ser­vices have come to a grind­ing halt, trav­el­ers within the state and be­yond are hav­ing sec­ond thoughts, and peo­ple are liv­ing un­der a shadow of fear -a vir­tual iron cur­tain sep­a­rates the Pun­jab from the rest of In­dia and the world.

AT THIS HOUR, it is not clear whether Am­rit­pal Singh is in de­ten­tion or has es­caped the po­lice drag­net chas­ing him and his as­so­ci­ates in a con­voy of po­lice ve­hi­cles, or per­haps God for­bid, there is more to it than meets the eye. Our ex­pe­ri­ence over the last decade fright­ens us.

Un­ques­tion­ably the Cen­tral and State au­thor­i­ties did not want the in­ter­na­tional rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the G20 meet­ing to have a taste of how the In­dian sys­tem works or the lack of it.  So, they waited for it to nearly end be­fore pounc­ing on Am­rit­pal Singh and his as­so­ci­ates.

Mock­ing its own 92-25 (in a house of 117 leg­is­la­tors) vic­tory at the polls just a year ago, the AAP gov­ern­ment of de jure Chief Min­is­ter Bhag­want Mann has shame­lessly sus­pended all de­mo­c­ra­tic norms to ar­rest the Sikh ac­tivist Am­rit­pal Singh, who rubbed the au­thor­i­ties the wrong way in the last few months, mock­ing at the dou­ble­s­peak of the state ma­chin­ery and mov­ing in the coun­try­side to stop apos­tasy and raise aware­ness against drug abuse.

This it­self is a huge fail­ure of the AAP gov­ern­ment as it has made a self-goal to prove that it can­not han­dle the sit­u­a­tion with­out re­sort­ing to colo­nial laws, ar­chaic laws, and forces from the Union gov­ern­ment.

Am­rit­pal Singh’s un­equiv­o­cal stand on Sikh rights has not been eas­ily palat­able even though his ra­tio­nale, ex­cept for some aber­ra­tions, is con­vinc­ing and log­i­cal.  His sud­den ap­pear­ance and dom­i­na­tion is ques­tioned by many, yet his stead­fast­ness has won many hearts.

His un­equiv­o­cal stand on Sikh rights has not been eas­ily palat­able even though his ra­tio­nale, ex­cept for some aber­ra­tions, is con­vinc­ing and log­i­cal.  His sud­den ap­pear­ance and dom­i­na­tion may be un­clear to many, yet his stead­fast­ness has won many hearts. 

Notwith­stand­ing his ag­gres­sive style and tac­tics, with his past still un­ex­plored, Am­rit­pal Singh’s tra­di­tional mould has be­come the cyno­sure of all eyes -from the left­ists to the Con­gress party to the ubiq­ui­tous class of mod­er­ates in the Pun­jab and a sec­tion of the In­dian me­dia. The why and the how of his con­duct and role is an­other story and noth­ing  should not be de­cided in the realm of con­jec­ture and hearsay.

De­spite what Pun­jab taught In­dia, at a huge cost of lives, since the eight­ies of the last cen­tury, the whole In­dian state and many In­dian lead­ers -old and young still can­not fathom and di­gest the Sikh tra­di­tional show of Kir­pans and Sikh at­tire. They con­ve­niently for­get that this is in­vari­ably on show dur­ing Sikh fes­ti­vals and that In­dia does not stop cel­e­brat­ing this when­ever it finds it con­ve­nient to do so.

There is no hes­i­ta­tion in say­ing that you have to be born a Sikh or be a true friend of the Sikhs with a truth­ful heart to un­der­stand that high-qual­ity horses and weaponry were the most cov­eted con­tri­bu­tions of Sikhs at the Akal Takht Sahib when the sixth mas­ter Guru Har­gob­ind Sahib set up the throne.  A doubt­ing Thomas can never be con­vinced.

Who is call­ing the shots in the Pun­jab is any­body’s guess. On the se­cu­rity front, the Pun­jab po­lice are play­ing sec­ond fid­dle to the Na­tional In­ves­ti­ga­tion Agency. On the po­lit­i­cal front, lead­er­ship is shared be­tween Bhag­want Mann, Arvind Ke­jri­wal, and the Gov­er­nor of Pun­jab Ban­war­i­lal Puro­hit.

The ad­vent of dark days of Pun­jab  nar­ra­tive is a mar­ket­ing gim­mick for 2024. The Pun­jab Po­lice and the AAP gov­ern­ment must come clean on the is­sue of the ar­rest of Am­rit­pal Singh.