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Booking the truth
 Imagine
a 16-and-a-half-year old bride who marries a Sikh youth committed to
a cause, a cause that made many pick up the gun and die by the edge
of the sword. Sandeep Kaur married Dharam Singh Kashtiwal who later
remained active in the Sikh aspirational struggle in Majha region
and was finally killed in a fake encounter by the Punjab Police.
Now 35, Sandeep
Kaur understands what a "tough path" means. No wonder when she
thought of writing her memoirs, she called the book "Bikhra Painda".
An unusual life story, a life spent in the field, fighting off the
Indian state, fighting off morally bankrupt system, still more
bankrupt politicians, the community leaders ready to stab one in the
back. A life which never saw her wavering in her commitment.
She lost her
husband just three years after the marriage, and the option to live
like an ordinary citizen. Perhaps that option was never there. There
are no ordinary lives in an oppressive state, unless of course one
becomes blind to the oppression, joins the rat race or thinks
politics is a means to loot, to rule, to serve one's own ends.
There was no end
to community leaders who are part of this scheme of things. Once in
a while a Sandeep Kaur comes along so that Sikh children can be told
stories of the great women in the community.
But what becomes
of the memoirs of one who has lived a life so extraordinary?
It is used as an
excuse in dirty mean political fights of politicians who don’t even
advertise themselves as holding the high moral ground. Neither
Amarinder Singh, the former Punjab Chief Minister nor Rajinder Kaur
Bhattal have ever given a statement that they are trying to live
their lives and do their politics as per the highest standards set
by Sikhism’s core values. (That is something the British Prime
Minister Gordon Brown did this Vaisakhi, that too at a Gurdwara).
But the moment
the book hit the market, the politicians jumped because this was the
first time that the wife of Dharam Singh Kashtiwal, described often
as the Babbar Khalsa International (BKI) area commander, had decided
to tell the entire tale. In passing, it also mentioned that the
residence of PPCC chief Rajinder Kaur Bhattal was frequented by Sikh
youth active in aspirational struggle, the youth that Indian media
has started routinely describing as terrorists.
Enough cue for
Amarinder to demand that the revelations were serious and needed to
be probed by the IB. This triggered claims by Bhattal that she is
the daughter of mahaan desh bhagats and was a staunch nationalist
pucca Congress bharti naari.
Prey, which
leade was not ready at that time to cooperate? Neither Amarinder nor
Bhattal are warrior stuff, and it will take many Amarinders,
Bhattals, Badals and Makkars to make one Sandeep Kaur.
Amarinder’s
allegations that Bhattal is in league with the Akalis is more
believable. And people have even stopped accusing Badal of being
hand in glove with the RSS. He is, and is proud of it, just as
Bhattal is, but does not proclaim it. As for Sandeep, she is hand in
glove with the truth, and that is the real problem.
She was sitting
on political dynamite all these years, and her statements could have
prompted many politicians to offer her rewards in order to keep the
truth hidden. But then not every girl gets a chance to live a life
so eventful. She ran the school for children of militants for whom
neither the state cared nor the community leaders bothered. Then she
was made to shunt from Kallar Bhaini near Patiala to Sultanwind near
Amritsar.
And future does
not look too rosy for Sandeep. Who are the people in a position to
provide her succour? The Badals. And would they be ready to even
touch Sandeep’s book with a barge pole?
23 April 2008
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