I despise terrorism in any form and for any cause. It was a rainy Friday morning and I was travelling with my father who had to attend a meeting at GNDU, Amritsar and then we had to pay a visit to our relatives in Gurdaspur. We stopped at Bus Stand, Khanna to pick up newspapers. There was this story of some lecturer Davinder Pal Singh Bhullar, who was once a dreaded terrorist and was on a death row for several years now. Reading some more about his background astonished me. Also, as expected, days later there was a lot of hullabaloo by leaders of all levels and all parties in Punjab to commute his death sentence.
Why would a well-off, educated, just married young man suddenly go underground , only to appear as the one who would set off a bomb to kill a political leader and then flea to Germany? He was born to educated parents employed with Govt of Punjab, he himself was a an engineering graduate and a serving lecturer - a rare distinction in those days! Here we are talking of the post 1984 years. 1984 was a bad year - one of the holiest shrines was attacked, statewide curfew was imposed, followed by a horrendous genocide and finally resulting in the slaying of a Prime Minister. In Punjab the situation was grim. People were seething with anger at the humiliation meted out to their community in the state as well as in New Delhi. People were disappearing in the name of anti-terrorist missions. By late '92-93 most militant outfits (Kharku Jathebandis as they are known in Punjab) had lost their leaders to Police/CRPF bullets. Those who were fighting on ground had been infiltrated and had also lost their resourcefullness and to some extent people's support. As the movement increaasingly got out of hands of it's idealogues unarmed civillians got killed and extortions too were rampant. And by 1995 Operation Woodrose succeeding in putting down the rebellion at a huge cost of civillian life, primarily due to heavy handedness of the security foces.
One couldn't survive as a neutral - each party suspected that you belonged to the other. So if one looks at the psyche of an educated young man one would find that he needed justice! But how? No court would obviously listen to him. He decides to teach the leadership a lesson (and that too in new Delhi-as it turned out). So what was the option available with him? Join the organised armed thugs, even though he doesn't stoop as low as they did. Reconstructing the happenings, something like this would've happened - He goes underground ( possibly joins KLF ) and while he's planning a revenge brutal policemen come hounding. In the meantime the plan in underway. His Father is detained - illegally - is tortured , loses his mental balance and is eventually killed at the behest of the senior police officers. During this time he accomplishes his aim of setting off a car bomb to kill a prominent leader. His paternal uncle is next - tortured and killed. all this while his mother and wife are being harassed.
Bhullar was eventually detained in Germany, was extradited to India - tried, found guilty and handed over the death sentence. He has been in jail for the past ten years - knowing most of the time that his time to go to the gallows isn't far away! Now that is sheer torture. Besides now that the Indira Gandhi led Central Govt sponsored religious strife in the state has come to an end it is time to make amends. The party currently in power at New Delhi was the one that created all the trouble in the first place and when it all spurned out of control it started storming shrines and killing & terrorizing the people. Later as an act of rage the then Prime Minister was assassinated. And the genocide that took place following it was allowed to take place knowing fully well that it was an act of revenge against the killing of ruling party's leader.
As a policy, the Govt has started rehabilitating the Kashmiri terrorists - who are mere mercenaries killing people for money - falling in Kasab's category. As for Afzal Guru he planned attacks on the Parliament as a symbol of Kashmiri revolt against New Delhi and in connivance with his bosses across the border. The case with Bhullar is a bit different. He was a gentleman who couldn't take injustice. He didn't know how to express his anger and fell prey to an organization's recruiters. Since gross injustice has been meted out by the Govt in those times, it is the Govt.'s responsibility to restore the faith of people in the Justice system, as Bhullar's mother Upkar Kaur puts it :
"My husband was brutally killed by the Punjab police. My brother-in-law was detained and then killed. I have been harassed and tortured. My son, Davinder Pal Singh Bhullar is on the death-row. How do you want me to live my life? Should I cry my way to death or should I wait for the Indian system endlessly to become more humane and just?"
Don't let Bhullar be the reason that the youth of Punjab and the people in general feel that there is a conspiracy by the Govt against minorities. Moreover looking at his background he should be given a chance - sent to Rehab as of now and if the Govt deems it fit use him as a ideologue against separatist forces that raise their head time and again! Let the injustice be undone and let there be a new beginning. But if none of this is possible, his death sentence can at least be commuted. We all know the Govt.'s Pharisaical stand on terrorism, don't we! Its high time the Govt make a distinction of the circumstances under which an "aam admi" turned into a terrorist.
Sources:
Villagers plead President of India to commute Bhullar's death sentence - http://www.sikhsangat.org/2011/05/rethink-mercy-petition-plead-villagers/
Bhullar's wife's plea - http://www.sikhsangat.org/2011/05/no-evidence-against-bhullar-let-him-walk-free/
There is no justification for state sponsored terrorism. But that is a separate fight. By your argument, two principal reason for commuting Bhullar's death sentence are:
ReplyDelete1. That the state engaged in terrorism against the Sikhs.
2. That he is an "educated" and "innocent" person whose hatred and anguish was used by :recruiters" of terrorism to convert him. Hence he should be spared.
If all educated men (whether Sikhs or not) should be pardoned for turning terrorists and the killing, we'll rush back to the stone age.
If he was "educated" then how come he lost his balance and turned terrorist? Speaks a lot about his "education".
The fight against state terrorism and unjust oppression is no doubt valid. But if that means it is licence for the murder of innocents at large, then the Al Qaeda also qualifies for amnesty.
The keystone of Democracy is the rule of law, not might. If that key stone is destroyed, for whatever reason, then lets be rest assured that none of us are ever going to be safe.
The story of Bhullar is personally very sad. That however can not be a reason for the rule of law to be subverted, lest it become common practice in the future too.
The oppression of Tamils in Sri Lanka and the treachery of the Rajiv Gandhi government in first fuelling and then renegading on the Tamil Tigers with an IPKF and then surrender to the SL Gov has now been exposed by UN and other International Agencies as sheer genocide by the SL Gov.
ReplyDeleteBUT DOES THAT JUSTIFY THE TERRORIST ACTIVITIES OF THE TIGERS? Absolutely NOT.
Khalistanis resorted to terrorism, way before the methods gained any favour with Islamic groups.
Condemning terrorism in any form for any cause is interests of a civilised world. NOTHING can justify it, be it at the individual level or the level of society.
Anyone who has any sympathy for terrorists with or without great "education" has his priorities wrong and his sympathies misplaced.
Stories like Bhullar's will be found in plenty in every Jehadi movement too. That can not be a reason to subvert the rule of law.
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ReplyDeleteWell said Gill Sahab. Though all the political parties trying to "Save" Prof.Bhullar have their vested interests and every common man supporting him (Read Sikhs) is being called a Pro Khalistani but putting a rational thought on the points made by you can make anyone understand the reality..
ReplyDeleteTo this i would like to add that every particular case needs to be treated as distinct and should not be compared to any other, for in every case(criminal case) the conditions of the crime are different..
Moreover according to the Indian Law the Death Penalty is given in the cases which are found to be the "Rareast of the rare". Though it was a wrong act and led to the killing of 8 people but going by the law book, can not be called "Rareast of the rare" in a country where the head of a state orders attack (by the country's own army loaded with machine guns, tanks and rocket launchers) on the Holiest of shrines of a minority (along with 37 other shrines across Punjab) on one of their holiest days killing 8000 people (even when most political analysts and top army commanders were against such an action) and another Head orders Genocide of that community killing thousands orders army not to intervene till "further orders".
And it should be noted that the sikh organisations are demanding conversion of Death penalty into life in prison(which in itself is no better than death) and are not demanding letting him free..
True ! @simranjeet
ReplyDelete@jsvasan Sir, in this case law has been subverted umpteen times - by allowing the movement to assume monsterous propotions ( for political gains ), then giving full authority to Police forces to crush the movt at any cost. Hundreds of youth have disappeared, families have been harassed/dispossessed , common man has been harassed/terrorized at the hands of law !
ReplyDeleteIt should also be noted that while pardoning former terrorists in this category, the govt has given a new name/identity/occupation to some favored few; if that is not subversion of law then how is asking for a lawful clemency a subversion of law.
as for LAW it should not be blind to circumstances & also its own failings. Sir, you are talking here about an ideal scenario, which is not the case :)