Additionally by Partap Singh Bajwa
That is in response to Union minister Hardeep S Puri’s article, ‘Failing Sikhs Again’ (IE, September 16). The Sikh neighborhood has been the spine of India’s armed forces and has nurtured the meals bowl of the nation. Earnestness and valour are its guiding lights. The neighborhood has a historical past of steadfast dedication in direction of human rights and the rule of regulation. Even in the course of the turbulent phases in its historical past, the neighborhood has not compromised the teachings of its faith and has stood with the deprived and the marginalised.
Over the previous few years, we now have seen a sample of subjugating minorities and people who maintain a opposite opinion to the ruling dispensation. A gamut of arm-twisting ways has been deployed by the present institution to suppress voices and search blind obedience. This ranges from hate speech, on-line abuse, bodily violence, misuse of businesses, bulldozing homes and the pernicious pattern of labelling dissenting voices as anti-nationals. The “othering” of minority communities is the default political technique of the BJP to hawk a false sense of victimhood and pit one neighborhood in opposition to the opposite.
We search to remind Puri that the son of his former ministerial colleague allegedly ran over Sikh farmers at Lakhimpuri Kheri in Uttar Pradesh. It was the intervention of the Supreme Court docket which instilled a semblance of equity within the investigation course of. So as to add salt to the injuries of the aggrieved Sikh households, the BJP re-nominated this former minister as a candidate for the Lok Sabha elections this 12 months. Nonetheless, the folks’s courtroom returned a powerful verdict and the candidate was defeated on the hustings.
In February, Shubhkaran Singh, barely out of his teenagers, was shot lifeless by the police on the Khanauri border between Punjab and Haryana. The lopsided investigation and makes an attempt to suppress info by the BJP-led Haryana authorities prompted the Excessive Court docket to nominate an unbiased judicial panel to unravel the reality. Throughout the farmers’ agitation, on the Punjab-Haryana border, the police reportedly used pellet weapons resulting in a number of farmers shedding their eyesight. The high-handed ways of the ruling get together and its craving to suppress contrarian voices pose a hazard to our democracy.
Throughout the two years of farmers’ agitation on the borders of the nationwide capital, over 700 farmers reportedly attained martyrdom. The insensitive dispensation usually labelled the protestors as “disruptors” and “terrorists” to de-legitimise the peaceable agitation in opposition to the farm legal guidelines which might have marked the demise knell for the livelihood of the farmers and put them on the mercy of a handful of corporates. A various part of farmers protested peacefully however had been met with police brutality. We didn’t hear a single phrase of empathy and condolence from the BJP.
That is coupled with the truth that a bit of BJP MPs routinely use pejorative expressions for the Sikh farmers and search to undermine their issues as a overseas conspiracy of kinds. This hurts the feelings of the neighborhood and is a recipe for additional alienation. This may doubtlessly result in pervasive discrimination and stigmatisation of the neighborhood. Earlier this 12 months, a younger Sikh IPS Officer in West Bengal was allegedly humiliated for doing his responsibility and known as a “Khalistani” by BJP activists within the state. Such incidents create a way of bitterness among the many minority neighborhood. The powers that be ought to take swift motion in opposition to those that drive a wedge in society.
In his tackle within the US, Rahul Gandhi has delivered to fore the bigger context of the BJP ideology of divisiveness and discrimination in opposition to non secular minorities. We now have repeatedly highlighted that the ruling authorities’s majoritarian agenda is an anathema to our syncretic tradition and is fraught with dangers. Rahul Gandhi has a particular affinity with the Sikh neighborhood and attracts immense traction throughout his Punjab visits. This bears testomony to his recognition among the many normal public. The BJP’s calumny marketing campaign and open threats of violence reveal that the get together is rattled by Congress’s rising recognition. Sadly, the BJP’s divisive agenda is sowing the seeds of alienation and it takes priority over our cherished values of plurality.
Bajwa is the Chief of the Opposition, Punjab Meeting and Boparai is an Advocate and Spokesperson of the Congress get together
