RADICAL RISE
Punjab’s ferment has become fertile ground for young pro-Khalistan radical Amritpal Singh to sow hatred. Why are the state’s youth buying it?
Daring deed, or act of foolishness? For someone who preaches Sikhi and screams Sikh genocide every time there’s an attack on something the Sikhs hold sacred, it was universally seen as an act of extreme impropriety when Amritpal Singh Sandhu used the Guru Granth Sahib as a shield while marching into the Ajnala police station to secure the release of his aide Lovepreet Singh ‘Toofan’. The police stood by helplessly, because attacking him would amount to defiling the Sikh holy book. And thus Amritpal managed to get away with what most Sikhs would consider the ultimate sacrilege.
No one really knew who Amritpal was till two years back. Born in 1993 in Jallupur Khera village in Amritsar district, the man who has become something of a radical ‘phenomenon’ in recent months had a quiet, unassuming start—attending the Holy Heart Public School and later acquiring a mechanical engineering degree from the Lord Krishna Polytechnic College in Kapurthala. He then joined the family cargo transport business in Dubai and worked as an operations manager. In a conversation with india today, Amritpal said he was an average student; his understanding of religion was derived from watching scholars’ sermons on YouTube and the like. A change came over Amritpal during 2020-21, when the farmers’ agitation rocked Punjab. He visited India, took part in the protests, and became a follower of actor-activist Deep Sidhu, who had formed a pressure group called Waris Punjab De. Amritpal, active on Twitter, Instagram and Clubhouse, began acquiring a following by pushing his views on the agitation among other issues. Still, the well-groomed, short-haired young man went back to Dubai, seemingly content after the Centre repealed the farm laws. Then, Sidhu died in a car crash in February 2022.
Amritpal’s next appearance in India, to take
over Waris as its chief in August 2022, presented a starkly different person. Gone was the jeans-clad, fluently Anglophone youth. In his place stood a traditional Sikh religious leader, at least in attire and bearing. He also refashioned Waris as a pro-Khalistani outfit. He partook of amrit (a baptism ceremony) and by September-end did dastar bandi (turban-tying ceremony) at Rode village in Moga—the ancestral village of slain militant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale. In the ceremony, Amritpal dressed like his avowed idol—in a long bana shirt and electric blue dumala turban.
Soon, in November 2022, Amritpal embarked on a Khalsa Vaheer, or march, across Punjab to spread Sikhism, and conducted programmes of amrit sanchar, where many formally became part of the Khalsa order. In his sermons, Amritpal professed to follow in Bhindranwale’s path. He spoke openly about Khalistan and encouraged his supporters to carry arms for the ‘Sikh cause’ and be ready for ‘sacrifice’. His popularity as a role model grew exponentially among youth disgruntled with shrinking economic opportunities and left feeling anchorless by the churn in the state’s panthic politics. Amritpal seamlessly moved into this vacuum, turning every grievance into an allegation of racial targeting. So, drugs, he claimed, were smuggled into Punjab as a conspiracy to ‘eliminate’ Sikhs and erode Punjabi culture. He put the demand for a ‘Hindu rashtra’ with that for Khalistan on the same footing. For good measure, there was resonant atavism: appeal of a life of purity, a ‘fight for freedom’, a deliverance from ‘slavery’.
However, despite the similarsounding rhetoric, Amritpal is no Bhindranwale. The latter was steeped in Sikh scriptural and theological knowledge, having joined a seminary at a young age and becoming the 14th jathedar of the Damdami Taksal in 1977, a religious school made famous by him. Denouncing practices such as dowry, he preached the path of social reform and urged youth to eschew consumerism, abstain from intoxicants and return to the path of the Khalsa. He pushed more for the implementation of the Anandpur Sahib Resolution of 1973, which demanded greater autonomy for Punjab. It would take Bhindranwale over six years and many confrontations with the central and state government to gain an iconic status among Sikh militants. Amritpal may have the agency of social media to spread his belief, but currently he is nothing more than a start-up and does not have a pan-Punjab influence. Nor do the people of Punjab have any appetite for separatism anymore. What Amritpal does have is the potential to create unrest. The police probe into Hindutva radical leader Sudhir Suri’s murder found that assailant Sandeep Singh was influenced by Amritpal.
Other radical Sikh groups regard Amritpal with suspicion. Some call him ‘agenciyan da banda’ or a spy of the security agencies. Either way, he can stir trouble, that’s for sure. ■
AMRITPAL SEAMLESSLY MOVED INTO THE VACUUM OF PUNJAB’S PANTHIC POLITICS BY PLAYING ON THE MANY GRIEVANCES OF THE YOUTH