Farce

It is unfair to Punjabis that the mainstream media, political parties and leaders choose to forget that Sikh masses had ultimately rejected the militancy in ...

However, the story of a drone flying over Indian territory from Pakistan a day earlier was connected with dropping explosives, and the plot seemed set—but for what was still not clear. Four people were arrested, most Sikh, and it turned out they were going to Hyderabad, allegedly to deliver the seized contraband. Then followed rumours and the usual actions that a state government takes to show ‘something has been done. The primary line of action seems to be raising a hue and cry about the deteriorating law and order situation in Punjab, although the reality is that, until recently, nothing exceptional has happened to carry such concerns. However, later on, it was corrected to one pistol, and there was no confirmation on the containers allegedly carrying explosive material. Progressively, political parties have manifestly and consciously exploited the religious sentiments of people to come to power. After a provocative lecture, a group of his Sikh followers, and those of the Akhand Kirtani Jatha, moved from the Golden Temple to attack the Nirankari congregation. There are already signs of their attempts to work in this direction. The militant movement in Punjab, also called the Khalistan movement, was systematically suppressed in 1993, after which only one major terrorist incident occurred, namely the assassination of then Punjab chief minister, Beant Singh, in 1995. To what extent this is true is difficult to ascertain, but, as it turned out, it could have been prevented from turning into a tragedy for the people of Punjab. There is a reasonable basis to suspect that both major parties of Punjab have had some role. The AAP government has started working in this direction. The political landscape of Punjab has suddenly changed ever since the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) got an unprecedented majority in the recent Assembly election.