|
People fight for girl whom police
calls human bomb
SGPC head supports Parveen, but Akali Dal, its govt mum
Dilwala Singh
KARNAL/MANSA: ’N
how many times must the cannon balls fly through the life of a
19-year-old girl for her to be convinced that the world is full of
people who only look like human beings, that those whose sworn duty
it is to protect the meek and the unwashed masses are clawing into
the soul of humanity, gnawing at its innards and are wolves in
wolves’ clothing. When dealing with a young Sikh girl, committed to
her religion and a pious way of life, they need not even borrow a
sheep’s robes for a day. Police uniform does as well.
Parveen Kaur is
as simple a girl as you would find in a cultured lower middle class
family with a history of personal pain, and a commitment to higher
values. Today, she has a split image: she is a possible human bomb
for the police because it needs scarecrows to keep the threats
going, threats that help line police budgets, personal
aggrandizement and ingratiate themselves to the powers that be; and
she is also the 19 year old girl for whom hundreds of villagers have
been spilling out on the roads, blocking traffic, raising slogans,
displaying solidarity that is nothing but a tight slap in the face
of the regimes.
 Haryana Police
has claimed that Parveen Kaur alias Meena, who was picked up from
Patiala, was to be the human bomb to blow up rogue Dera Sacha Sauda
head Gurmeet Ram Rahim, now being cradled by the Indian
establishment as if he, a man named prime accused in the rape-murder
cases by none other than India’s top sleuthing agency CBI, is a
paragon of virtue.
For days, poor
common unwashed multitudes beat all threats to protest on the roads
for this girl. The cops could not threaten them into staying indoors
because the case was much too blatantly false and virtually everyone
was ready to swear that the entire story was concocted.
Now, even the
SGPC has made a statement vouching for her innocence but will it do
anything beyond a statement, and will Avtar Singh Makkar and his
good friends Parkash Singh Badal and Sukhbir Singh Badal do even as
much as they claim to be doing for Sarabjit Singh, is still to be
seen.
Ides of destiny
jolted Parveen’s forefathers in 1947, but this Muslim family was
saved by the local Sikhs. Since it was a Sikh family that helped
them when the sub-continent was the epicenter of communal riots, it
decided to embrace Sikhism. During the peak of militancy in
Punjab,
Parveen’s father Sadiq Mohammad died under mysterious circumstances.
Even after years, the family has not been able to get a First
Information Report (FIR) registered, his body has never been found,
and the state has done nothing to take care of the family. Instead,
it has decided to eat at the innards. The residents of her village
Bhamme Kalan have seen this with their own eyes.
Police said
Parveen kept explosives used in the February 2 attack on Sirsa dera
head’s convoy near Nilokheri. A local court promptly sent her to a
seven-day police custody. A deputy superintendent of the police
Surinder Singh Bhoria had the gall to say that as per "preliminary
investigations", she was “brainwashed” to become a Sikh.
 Here was a
student of a Patiala-based college, staying in an orphanage run by a
trust; no explosive, weapon or other material was recovered from her
possession, not even a sharp edged knife, the girl used to travel to
Mohindra college and return to Kaller Bhaini village everyday and
never traveled anywhere beyond this, the entire village vouches for
her.
Now, the Mata
Gujri Trust authorities as well as the SGPC have charged the Karnal
police of framing the young girl in a false case.
Sohanjit Kaur,
the top person at the Trust, said the Haryana cops came in three
vehicles and told her that they just wanted to question Parveen at
the Patiala Sadar police station, and took her away. Parveen’s
mother Amarjit Kaur said she is a puran Gursikh girl who was
nurturing a dream to become a pilot.
Now, Akali
leaders have started speaking out, but only individually. Minister
Sucha Singh Langah has said he will back the girl. SGPC chief Makkar
too has added his voice. But as a political party, the Akali Dal is
silent. CM Badal has not said a word about why his police and
government was allowing innocent Sikh girls and boys to be picked up
by raiding Haryana cops.
In Bhamme Kalan,
Mansa, villagers blocked the Mansa-Sirsa road and crowded around
Minister Parminder Singh Dhindsa who was on his way to Sirsa.
Dhindsa had to slip away like a coward instead of standing by the
throngs. Badal’s brotherly alliance partner BJP’s Punjab unit chief
has spoken against Parveen but Makkar, when asked on Tuesday at
Gurdwara Fatehgarh Sahib about it after an SGPC meeting, said he
could not comment on that. So much for the support from the SGPC.
The mini Parliament of the Sikhs does not lose time before it
becomes what Parliament for
India has been
for the community: deaf, dumb and inhuman to the concerns of a faith
community.
Parveen, you are
on your own. With you shall be the unwashed multitudes, not the
leaders of this community. A sole Bhai Daljit Singh Bittu, a
Simranjit Singh Mann, Dal Khalsa leaders, an isolated voice of
Karnail Singh Panjoli, a shriek from the residents of Mata Gujri
Trust orphanage could be your consolations. As for the regimes, they
need a rogue murderer rapist Baba these days. There is an election
from Bathinda that the panth must win. A 19 year old innocent girl
is a little sacrifice for such panthic causes. And you have already
suffered 1947, got a father killed, cried enough for his dead body.
Now do this much too. Don’t be afraid for the leadership. It has
learnt to live with shame, and shamelessly.
19
March 2008
|
Read Also
