Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann on Wednesday personally went to meet the Governor Gulab Chand Kataria seeking ten days parole for Jagtar Singh Hawara, convicted and sentenced to life for the assassination of former Chief Minister Beant Singh. Just a few months ago, the same Aam Aadmi Party government headed by Mann had opposed Hawara’s plea for parole citing security concerns.
However, it is not only the ruling AAP that has been trying to appease radicals with gestures like these, even the Bharatiya Janata Party supposed to take a firm stance on national security, has favoured the parole. Senior party leader and former union minister Ravneet Singh Bittu, while supporting parole for Hawara was quoted saying this should be treated as a humanitarian matter and not a political issue.
Bittu is the grandson of late Beant Singh, for whose assassination Hawara was convicted and is undergoing life imprisonment. He was earlier awarded a death sentence, which was later commuted to life.
Bittu resigned from the Congress ahead of the 2024 General Elections and joined the BJP. He lost from Ludhiana, a constituency he had been representing since 2014. He was elected to Rajya Sabha from Rajasthan against a short duration seat and appointed Minister of State in the Railways. Earlier, he would take a stringent stand against such moves, but has toned down and softened after his new political innings.
The Shiromani Akali Dal, despite being moderate as far as its politics is concerned, has always supported the demand for parole to Hawara. It has also been seeking the release of ‘Bandhi Singhs’, (former militants arrested, convicted and sentenced during militancy), who are in jail even after having completed their sentence.
The Congress has adopted a nuanced approach on the issue. It has neither supported nor opposed the demand for parole to the assassin of one of its chief ministers who was killed while holding the office and is credited with having led from the front in the fight against militancy.
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However, senior Congress leader and party general secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala did express reservation asking, “is there nothing else to do than to seek the parole of Babbar Khalsa member undergoing sentence after being convicted of the assassination of former chief minister Sardar Beant Singh… these things are dangerous for Punjab’s peace.”
The complete somersault by the AAP government has purely an electoral reason. The rise of the Akali Dal Waris Punjab De (WPD) headed by jailed radical MP Amritpal has raised a sense of concern among the ruling party. The WPD is attracting mostly those who were disillusioned and alienated with the moderate Akalis led by Sukhbir Badal. Since they did not have a credible Akali alternative in 2022, they voted for the AAP en bloc. Seeing this section of voters drifting away, the AAP apparently decided to extend an olive branch to this section of the population.
There is nothing wrong in granting parole to any convict, no matter the seriousness of the crime he has been convicted for. In Hawara’s case, he has to meet his ailing 81-year-old mother. However, it is the optics that Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann has tried to create obviously with elections in his mind. Having written to the Governor for his parole was enough for the Chief Minister and the word had already travelled across that he was seeking a ten-day parole for the jailed militant.
Mann has also played smart on the matter. Since it is the discretion of the Governor to grant the parole, he has engaged and involved the Central government as well on the matter as the Governor is the Centre’s representative in the state. This will help Mann counter and neutralise any charges of going soft towards radicalism since he can reason that it is actually the BJP government that did it.
The radicals have a limited presence in Punjab, that too, in restricted pockets. It is surprising that the mainstream political parties, whether the AAP or the BJP, are going out of the way to appease the radicals. If they really believe that the Punjabi community is more inclined towards the radicals then they are grossly and badly mistaken. The radicals’ potential is limited mainly to building up a narrative that becomes easier in the modern era of social media.
It is for the mainstream parties, whether the ruling AAP, the opposition Congress, the BJP and the moderate Akalis to respond to the radical agenda. Indifference or support for radical agenda by mainstream parties does not augur well for the state. Balance is understandable, but going out of way to please and appease radicals is fraught with dangerous consequences. Parties must look beyond electoral politics.
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