CM’S adviser Sarna joins Bargari stir, says will protest at his office
BARGARI (FARIDKOT): Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh’s religious adviser, Paramjit Singh Sarna, joined the protest started by “parallel” Sikh jathedars at Bargari in Faridkot which entered its 30th day on Friday.
Sarna, president of Shiromani Akali Dal (Delhi) and former president of the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC), demanded that the state government disclose the report of the Justice Ranjit Singh Commission on the Bargari sacrilege and the police firing on protesters in nearby Behbal Kalan. He said the names of masterminds should be revealed. “We will start an indefinite protest at the residence or office of Captain Amarinder Singh if the issues are not addressed soon,” said Sarna, assuring the protest leaders of “every kind of help”.
Sarna also hit out at the Shiromani Akal Dal of the Badals, over the issue of compensation to detainees of Operation Bluestar, “They (Badals) must approach the central government for the rights of Sikhs.”
He, however, cautioned the parallel jathedars against breaking “the confidence of community” as the community “has found a leader (in Akal Takht’s parallel jathedar Dhian Singh Mand) after a long time” as the Badals have “misused” the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC).
SGPC member Gurpreet Singh Randhawe Wala and his supporters also extended support to the protest. Gurdeep said it is the duty of the SGPC to fight for justice in Bargari and Behbal kalan incidents “but it has run away from its responsibility”. He also criticised SGPC chief Gobind Singh Longowal who has dubbed the Bargari portest as “a political stunt”. “He must apologise to the community.”
Mand said, “The state government has to come to Bargari with a solution to our demands as soon as possible, before we decide something else! We repeat our demands that perpetrators of the June 2015 Bargari sacrilege incident and those responsible for the death of two protesters in Behbal Kalan be brought to book.”
The protesters are also demanding release of Sikh prisoners who have served their sentences, and shifting of Babbar Khalsa militant Jagtar Singh Hawara, convicted for assassination of former Punjab chief minister Beant Singh in August 1995, from the Tihar jail.
On June 8, Sikh seminary Damdami Taksal extended support to the protest started by the hardiners’ Sarbat Khalsa-appointed parallel jathedars since June 1.
RIGHTS AND WRONGS
Some call him ‘Dirty Harry’, a moniker derived from the title of a Hollywood thriller about a cop who inspires fear in criminals while not always following the law as such. And Saini, thus, continues to be an enemy for prokhalistani forces, while activists too accuse him of violations of human rights in his ways.
In August 1991, when he was SSP of Chandigarh, he faced a bomb attack by Khalistan Liberation Force militants, but survived with injuries even as three of his security personnel were killed. After KPS Gill, Saini remained, and remains, the “biggest villain” for Sikh radicals. In 1997, when Saini was on a personal trip to London, a plot to kill him by Babbar Khalsa (Parmar faction) was foiled by the police there. Since then he has Z+ security .
Saini still faces a CBI case for allegedly kidnapping and eliminating a Ludhiana industrialist, his brother-in-law and his driver.
CORRUPTION AND CONSEQUENCES
As head of the vigilance and anticorruption bureau, Saini was accused of tapping phones of high court judges. In 2009, former Chief Justice of India (CJI) TS Thakur (since-retired), who was then a judge at the Punjab and Haryana high court, wrote to the then CJI that Saini had fabricated evidence of corruption against some judges.
Saini’s role in investigation of cases of corruption has won him praise too, particularly in the 2002 case of a scam in the Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC) which was then chaired by Ravi Sidhu. As IGP (intelligence), Saini laid the trap for Sidhu, and investigation even named some HC judges. Before (the current CM) Captain Amarinder Singh
RISE TO TOP, AND THEN...
It was the souring equation of Saini with Amarinder that pushed him into the confidant circle of the Akalis, especially SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal who remained deputy chief minister. When the Akalis won a second consecutive term in 2012, Saini was made the state police chief, bypassing four seniors. He became the youngest DGP in the state at the age of 54.
He led important operations, including against Pakistani terrorists who attacked the Dinanagar police station in March 2015. There, despite the Union government and the then CM Parkash Singh Badal’s continuous push for army intervention, he stuck to his stand that the police will lead the operation. Saini is known to be much-admired by the force’s rank and file.
However, sacrilege incidents which led to outrage among the Sikh community in Punjab compelled the Badals to replace Saini with his batchmate and bete noire Suresh Arora in October 2015. Saini was posted as chairman of the police housing corporation, but did not attend office, preferring to function from home.
A chainsmoker, Saini has strong likes and dislikes, reflected in his “choice” of journalists to talk to, or of the officers he trusted. This, and much more, made him a polarising figure.
SARNA ALSO HITS OUT AT BADALS’ SHIROMANI AKAL DAL OVER ISSUE OF COMPENSATION TO DETAINEES OF OPERATION BLUESTAR