Affirm the rule of law in Punjab

Protests and police capitulation in Ajnala are a worrying sign. The government must act fast

Scenes of pandemonium outside a police station in Punjab’s Ajnala town on Thursday are troubling because they captured a snapshot of the capitulation of the law and order machinery, reminiscent of a similar surrender that presaged the turbulence that rocked the frontier state in the 1980s. Thousands of supporters of separatist leader Amritpal Singh marched into the town despite prohibitory orders, broke through security cordons, clashed with police officers, fought pitched street battles using

spears and swords, and then laid siege to the police station for hours — all for an extraordinary demand: The release of an aide of Mr Singh, Lovepreet Toofan, from prison. Worryingly, after failing to scotch the violent agitation, the police gave into Mr Singh’s demands, agreeing to release Toofan despite serious charges of abduction, criminal intimidation, rioting and hurting religious sentiments levelled against him. It is only after receiving a written assurance from the police that Mr Singh ordered his followers to retreat. A day later, police moved the local court to release Toofan, and the application was accepted. Though the authorities may argue that this was a lawful exercise — the local police say they were presented proof by Mr Singh that Toofan was not present at the spot of the crime — there is little doubt that established due process by law was bent in this case, using the sheer threat of violence and unrest. Worse, this was done leveraging the presence of the Sikh holy book, the

carried by protesters, which police say forced it to hold fire. In a state where emotions around sacrilege and desecration run high, this was a particularly belligerent strategy.

This is unsettling in Punjab, with a stormy past of violent insurrection and separatism, where the primacy of the rule of law was re-established at great cost and sacrifice. The authorities would do well to heed to the strategy adopted by Mr Singh and similar actors who appear to be gaining strength and popularity in the state even as the administration appears unable to check their rise.

The head of the outfit Mr Singh is emblematic of this disquieting trend, which is threepronged. The first is the public embracing of separatist ideology and thought, which had receded to a subterranean presence in the state’s public discourse after being its primary fault line for close to two decades. The second is the focus on young people and their radicalisation. Mr Singh, for example, has rallied hundreds of young men as supporters through his socalled And the third is strident antimigrant rhetoric, which the administration says is used to paint people from outside the state as the catalyst for demographic change.

In a democracy, the right to propagate religious thought is important, but must be tempered by concerns of social cohesion and public safety. The undercurrents of tension are visible not just in Ajnala, but also in the protests outside Mohali for the release of prisoners convicted in the assassination of former chief minister Beant Singh, the repeated slips in law and order and the skirmishes by Khalistani outfits in Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia. The writ of the State appears shaky, emboldening some separatist elements and representing the biggest challenge for the Punjab government. It should work to take charge of law and order, establish the primacy of the government, and stamp out radicalisation efforts before any more violence can be set off.