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Rogue dera head is a ticking human bomb, not our girls 

Sardar Parkash Singh Badal is very keen to save the life of Sarabjit Singh, and we welcome his heartfelt concern. We also welcome Sardar Badal and his government’s touching concern for the welfare of Kashmir Singh, the man who beat sub-continental politics, history and geography, besides exposing psychological convulsions of a divisive politics. 

With such a golden heart, it is almost unbelievable that Sardar Badal and his party felt not a whiff of remorse when policemen from Haryana dragged a 19-year-old daughter of Punjab, the one who straddled two religions, lost a father and spent a life time in an orphanage, and was made out as a human bomb. 

Parveen Kaur is the face of state terrorism. Only the latest face. Punjab’s youth, the young ones of the community, have been repeatedly implicated in false cases. Were the circumstances not so tragic, it would have been amusing to see the Punjab politicians, Akali Dal leaders, Congress top brass and the Punjab Police – all acting with a single mindedness of purpose – ingratiating the rogue chief of a dera at Sirsa. This is the man who has been accused not just by the Sikhs of many sins, but also has been named as prime accused in a murder case by India's topmost sleuthing agency, the Central Bureau of Investigation, that often compares itself to the FBI of the United States. 

The reason is clear: the dera sadh has some following in southern Punjab, and if Sukhbir Singh Badal or anyone from the Badal family has a serious wish to plough the political turf in the cotton belt then it will help if the rapist murderer baba whispers their name at one of his nam charchas.  

But to what levels will the authorities stoop now? It is surprising that a minister, Sucha Singh Langah, supports the case of Parveen Kaur; that the SGPC president Avtar Singh Makkar backs her officially; and that the SGPC in a meeting at Fatehgarh Sahib resolves to stand by Parveen Kaur, but the Akali Dal government and its Chief Minister and top brass remain silent!

Silence speaks very loudly. It has historically told the people on whom side does the regime stand. And Punjabis are intelligent enough to read the meaning of this pregnant silence. 

The entire struggle against the dera Sirsa and the politics intertwined with it has brought many implications to the table, and the politicians will find it difficult to engage with the emerging scenario beyond a point. Because beyond a critical point in society, and in polity, the Street finally takes over. The opposition to the dera by the Sikhs has been leading to a schism between the Sikhs and the Dalits, a sad situation because Sikhism is one religion that wholly negates the very system of caste that has kept Dalits victim for years. It is time the Sikhs dealt with the menace of caste prevalent in the religion despite having a different core value system, and address the issue just the way Barack Obama is addressing the issue of race. 

There is no running away from it. If the Sikhs as a community deal with the problem head on, it will be a signal to the Dalits that their destiny lies with a religion that has accorded them respect and equality from its very inception. Then we will not be fighting Dalits. Then the Sikhs and the Dalits will be fighting murderers and rapists, and it will become easier to tell governments that it is men like Gurmeet Ram Rahim who are ticking human bombs for a just society, threatening young girls and killing anyone who came to know of their reality. Then the system may simply find it useless turning a young 19-year-old girl in an orphanage into an ogre.

19 March 2008
 

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