The World Sikh News narrates how a miscarriage of justice is now being furthered with administrative lack of concern in the case of Prof Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar whose case for premature release sits tightly in the files of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

EXTRADITED FROM GERMANY UNDER THE PRESSURE of the Indian government against the German law at the time which prohibited extradition to a country that has the death penalty on its statute, tried and convicted in a split judgment only on the basis of a confession obtained by the Delhi police under duress, Prof. Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar has spent 26 years in prison and is presently arraigned in the Amritsar jail after spending two decades in the Tihar prison.

Prof. Devinder Singh Bhullar’s family had to move heaven and earth to obtain parole and shift to Amritsar on mental health grounds, during the course of which his fighter mother passed away. On the basis of his mental health conditions, presently, he has been in and out on parole.

To win the sympathy of the Sikh community, his prison term was remitted by the Union government of India as a part of the 550-year celebrations of the founder of the Sikh faith -Guru Nanak in 2019. 

On legal grounds, as the case pertains to the city-state of Delhi, it is the prerogative and duty of the chief executive of the Delhi government -the chief minister to sign his premature release order. The ball is in the court of Shri Arvind Kejriwal -the chief minister with a “progressive face” and a “pretty smooth tongue.”

While he was sitting on the files, the self-styled All India Anti-Terrorist Front champion Maninderjeet Singh Bitta filed a writ in the Supreme Court of India, challenging the remission of the government. This was turned down by the apex court last month.

Jaspal Singh Manjhpur -the counsel of Prof. Bhullar has written to the Delhi Chief Minister to at least grant him permanent parole as Kejriwal has been dithering on signing his premature release order. 

Arvind Kejriwal is eyeing the chief ministership of Punjab having “successfully governed” Delhi without touching the matrix of centre-state relations, understanding what constitutes the vexed Punjab problem or even touching the contours of Sikh aspirations. 

Arvind Kejriwal is a cunning trader who misreads Sikh psyche as he continues to play second-fiddle to BJP and get away with it.  The plank of “good governance” and ‘doles to poor Punjabis” without touching the substantive issues will backfire, sooner or later.

We do not want to sound cliched by saying that you have to be born a Sikh to understand the dynamics of Sikh concerns, suffice it is to say, especially with reference to the current topic at hand that Arvind Kejriwal is a cunning trader who misreads Sikh psyche as he continues to play second-fiddle to BJP and get away with it.  The plank of “good governance” and ‘doles to poor Punjabis” without touching the substantive issues will backfire, sooner or later.

Lest you think that it is only Arvind Kejriwal who is the stumbling block, the whole AAP party, including their new and old emerging Punjab leaders, the Sikh faces in Delhi who meddle in Punjab are not likely to touch the case of Prof. Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar.  Sadly, WSN fears that even electoral politics may not convince them to change their stand.