IT is symptomatic of the dominance of drama over shades of relevance that the most dangerous results of the 2024 General Election were shifted to also-ran status in print or ignored by screen-screamers after EVMs revealed their secrets on June 4. Three independent candidates have been elected to the new Parliament as the latest heirs of familiar separatist aspirations, two from Punjab and one from Kashmir.
Amritpal Singh Sandhu is a selfstyled reinvention of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, leader of the violent secessionist insurrection who was killed in Operation Blue Star precisely four decades ago this June; Sarabjeet Singh Khalsa is the son of Beant Singh, assassin of Indira Gandhi. Sheikh Abdul Rashid, now 56, is the oldest. He is a maverick former engineer of the Public Works Department of Jammu & Kashmir.
Faith-based separatism
All three have been elected to Parliament as independents, an ironic verbal resonance since they represent variations of faith-based separatism.
Every candidate is interesting. But the story, as always, lies in the voters. Victory for a non-party candidate is rare in our system, and can happen only through viral support from a spontaneous network that has sprung up for an election. Which dangerous and dormant spirits have these three victories awakened? Amritpal Singh Sandhu, born in 1993, preaches a volatile mix of faith and radical secession in the name of Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, who inspired an armed rebellion in search of Khalistan that bled Punjab and led to a sequence of tragedy from Operation Blue Star, an assault on the holy Golden Temple in Amritsar between June 1 and 10, 1984, to the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on October 31 that year.
The death and havoc in Punjab in that blood-red decade are tattooed into my consciousness and memory. I was among the last journalists to interview the Sant; the rooftop where we met on a pleasant spring day in 1984 was stacked with AK-47 guns.
Reborn baptism
Sandhu, resident of Bakala tehsil in Amritsar, left for Dubai as a teenager in 2012 to join a transport business. He returned to Punjab a decade later to spearhead Waris Punjab De, with a militant wing known as Anandpur Khalsa Fauj. His ‘purification’, or reborn baptism, drive was modelled on Bhindranwale’s activism to which he added a campaign to wean the young off drugs. Families were grateful. Growing support bred rising militancy; there were targeted attacks in December 2022.
Two months later, in February, his supporters stormed the Ajnala police station using the holy book as a shield. On March 18, 2023, Punjab Police began sustained action against Waris Punjab De. Sandhu was arrested on April 23, 2023 in Moga under the National Security Act, and sent to a jail in Assam. From this distant lock-up Sandhu won from the Khadur Sahib constituency by a margin of 1,97,130 votes. His father thanked the Almighty and the sangat for the victory.
Faridkot is about a hundred kilometres north of Khadur Sahib. The victor from Faridkot is Sarabjeet Singh Khalsa, with a comfortable margin of 70,053 votes over AAP nominee Karamjit Anmol, an actor and friend of the Punjab Chief Minister. His father Beant Singh, a bodyguard of Indira Gandhi, was deeply grieved by Operation Blue Star. Intelligence agencies warned her of potential danger but Indira Gandhi never abandoned her trust in Beant Singh. On October 31, 1984 at 9.30 in the morning, he and his colleague Satwant Singh sprayed bullets into Indira Gandhi’s helpless body at her residence on Safdarjung Road.
An overwhelming victory
Engineer Rashid, founder of the Jammu & Kashmir Awami Ittehad Party (AIP) in 2013, was admired for a simple lifestyle that is in total contrast to how most politicians live. He would be seen taking a bus. In 2019 he was arrested under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), and imprisoned in Delhi’s famous Tihar Jail, from where he defeated Kashmir’s most famous dynast Omar Abdullah, getting 4,72,481 votes against 2,68,339.
As the numbers indicate, the victory was overwhelming. The quote of this election must surely be the remark by Abrar Rashid, the Engineer’s 22-year-old son, who pointed out that the total cost of the campaign was `27,000, which he needed for fuel for his vehicle. Contrast this with the spend-levels that have become normal in Indian elections. Abrar and his brother Asrar Rashid had an uncomplicated message: Jail ka badla vote sey (Your vote is the answer to jail).
There is one aspect which the three victors will now be forced to ponder on. Indian democracy, with freedom and free will at its heart, offers space for even secessionists in an election, but draws a line if they win. All three will have to swear an oath of allegiance to India before they can become members of Parliament. We shall see what happens.
