Former Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi’s remarks regarding fellow State MP, Amritpal Singh, triggered a huge controversy, with the BJP accusing the Congress of taking up cudgels on behalf of a Khalistani sympathizer. The Congress was quick to distance itself from the statement made during the discussion on the Union budget in the Lok Sabha and said that they were his personal views. Channi said that by keeping Amritpal in detention, the BJP had imposed an undeclared emergency and was preventing him from speaking on behalf of the 20 lakh people of his Khadoor Saheb constituency. The former Chief Minister further accused the BJP of speaking repeatedly about the emergency when it was itself depriving a member of his freedom of speech.
What has caused the row is the manner in which the BJP has interpreted the observations, thereby putting the Congress on the defensive. Obviously, politics is in play, and Channi finds himself isolated, though his primary objective appeared to be to drive home the point that the representative from Khadoor Saheb was unable to speak in Parliament, because he had been arrested under the NSA.
Amritpal has been under detention in the Dibrugarh jail for attempting to get an associate released from police custody. He was elected as an independent during the Lok Sabha polls, and before the commencement of the budget session, was administered the oath at the Speaker’s office while still under detention. His attending the Parliament is subject to the permission which has to be granted by the relevant court. The issue that is being debated in political circles is that when Amritpal agreed to contest the Lok Sabha polls, he accepted the prevailing system, and even if he had some radical views on Khalistan, he wanted to remain within the constitutional set-up to raise his voice.
Secondly, his affirmation in the constitution was complete after he took the oath and under the law, till he is convicted for the allegations made against him, he should be presumed to be innocent. Channi as per the understanding of most people in the State, does not endorse the support for the Khalistan movement, but was simply attempting to project himself as the champion of civil liberties. His reference to the Emergency was to drive home the point that while the current dispensation was raking up the suspension of human rights during that period, what was happening now was not any better. This he said in reference to Amritpal.
The Congress and the BJP have had many showdowns on the Emergency with the present government being accused of not comprehending that after people had punished the grand old party in 1977, they had brought it back within three years. Emergency when it was declared was under the existing provisions of the Constitution at that time but yes, there were reports of excesses for which the Congress including Indira Gandhi lost in the Parliamentary polls. At that time, the Opposition had singled out Bansi Lal, VC Shukla, Om Mehta and Sanjay Gandhi for being a part of a caucus that controlled things. While Bansi Lal and Shukla became the BJP’s allies, the saffron brigade also admitted Sanjay’s wife and son to their party.
In addition, Jagmohan, who was the Vice Chairman of the DDA and held responsible for the Turkman Gate incident also joined the BJP and served as minister in the Vajpayee government. Many RSS activists were arrested but the organization subsequently supported the Congress in 1980 and the 1984 elections. The short point is that the Emergency was a bad phase but many who were blamed for the accesses later were in the BJP. So far as Amritpal Singh is concerned, he is currently the head of `Waris Punjab De’, an organization founded by Deep Sidhu, an actor and activist, who had entered the Red Fort during the farmers agitation on the Republic Day, and hoisted the Nishan Saheb. Sidhu died under mysterious circumstances later, and many in Punjab believed that he was set up by intelligence agencies. Otherwise, how would anyone get into the Red Fort amidst heavy security Bandobast.
There are numerous people in the political class who also feel that Amritpal could also be an extension of the same line of thinking, and the talk of Khalistan was highly exaggerated, since less than five percent people in Punjab identified with the cause, the majority being happy to be part of the national mainstream. Thus, Channi’s statement in Parliament has to be analysed in the backdrop of what has been happening in Punjab. There is unease amongst farmers and the matter needs to be addressed urgently. The farmers are not separatists and they should be viewed in this light. The former Chief Minister may have waded into a controversy, but there can be no ostrich like approach on Punjab, which is a border state. The country cannot pass through another crisis which would take years to resolve. The primary concern of the authorities both at the Centre and in the State should be to ensure that drugs and narcotics are curbed and gradually eliminated. One has to focus on the larger picture of the State rather than singling out Channi. Those who have strayed away need to be brought back into the mainstream. This should be the primary objective.
