With prominent lawyer and human rights activist HS Phoolka joining, the Bharatiya Janata Party has pulled the proverbial ace in Punjab. For those not much familiar with Punjab politics, Phoolka’s joining might sound just routine, but it will be majorly consequential for the saffron party in the state where it is trying to establish and expand its foothold, particularly along the countryside.
Phoolka is the “face of the resistance” against the injustice to Sikhs in the aftermath of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. Thousands of innocent Sikhs were massacred in Delhi and other parts of the country after then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her own Sikh bodyguards in revenge of Operation Bluestar.
Phoolka was himself caught up in those riots in Delhi, but was saved by a Hindu family, which hid him for two days inside a storeroom, a fact he has acknowledged time and again. He has consistently maintained that the anti-Sikh riots in Delhi were not Hindu-Sikh riots, but were engineered by the Congress leaders of that time.
Fighting for justice for the Sikh victims was a challenging and a Herculean task. The Congress was swept to power with a massive mandate. The masterminds of the Delhi riots like HKL Bhagat, Sajjan Kumar and Jagdish Tytler had been elected to the Parliament in the elections, which were held immediately after Indira Gandhi’s assassination.
There was a completely hostile atmosphere and environment all around. Nobody was prepared to take up the cases of the riot victims for obvious reasons that the culprits were all powerful and the killings of innocent Sikhs had only empowered them further. It is against this backdrop that Phoolka started his fight for justice for the victims.
Although he had repeatedly been offered political roles by different political parties, he jumped into politics in 2014, ahead of the General Elections, joining the Aam Aadmi Party, which was just two years old but had found a lot of traction among the Punjabis. Phoolka contested from Ludhiana Parliamentary constituency, but lost to Ravneet Singh Bittu by a narrow margin of about 19,000 votes. He later contested on the AAP ticket from Dakha Assembly segment and won defeating one of the most powerful Akali Dal candidates Manpreet Singh Ayali.
He was appointed the Legislative Party Leader of the AAP, which had 20 members. He became the Leader of Opposition, but had to resign after he was reportedly told by the Delhi Bar Association of which he is a member that he cannot hold the office of profit (the Leader of Opposition, which is a Constitutional position on a par with that of a cabinet minister) while practicing at the same time. In early 2019, he resigned from the AAP and the Assembly also, apparently feeling completely disillusioned.
Also read: CM Mann takes swipe at Phoolka over joining BJP
Joining the BJP is the “second coming” for Phoolka. There is a reason for him to join the BJP, which has positioned itself in such a way that it is seen as a “pro-Sikh” party. Though quite late, it was under the BJP’s rule that several anti-Sikh riot cases were reopened which led to the conviction of Sajjan Kumar, who had otherwise been evading justice for decades. Justice for the 1984 riot victims is the lifetime mission for Phoolka. Anything anyone does for the victims will obviously touch him the most.
With such strong credentials and a powerful background of having fought all his life for the justice of the Sikh victims, Phoolka joining the BJP lends it more credibility in the context of Punjab. The BJP has still been finding it difficult to make inroads into the countryside, particularly among the Jat Sikh peasantry. There has been a long prevailing perception against the BJP, for inexplicable reasons.
Some prominent Jat Sikh faces who have joined the party from Capt Amarinder Singh, Manpreet Badal, Taranjit Singh Sandhu, grandson of legendary Sikh leader Teja Singh Samundri and others did not seem to make much impact among the Sikh community. This is despite the fact that these leaders are already powerful, popular and influential.
Compared to them, Phoolka brings along no particular constituency. But his joining will help the BJP a great deal in projecting itself as a party that can protect and safeguard the Sikh interests. The riots of 1984 have left a deep psychological scar on the entire Sikh community. It is the root cause of alienation among large sections of the community members, particularly those living abroad. This is the reason that many of these people are very hostile towards India.
Not that there will be any overnight shift in the perception among those people, but it definitely will make some sections of people rethink. Phoolka’s credentials are too strong to be doubted by anyone that he can trade the interests of his community for any personal benefits. Had he any personal ambitions, he would have fulfilled them while he was well-placed in the AAP where he would well have been in race for the chief ministerial position had he not left the party.
Phoolka is not the representative of any particular class or section of people. But people like him do reflect and manifest a particular sentiment. Given his stature and standing, cultivated over four decades of untiring struggle, a particular section of people does look forward to such leaders. All his life he has fought against the Congress. He could have joined and sided with the Akali Dal, but was disillusioned with it also, despite it being a Panthic party. In 2014, he opted for the AAP, which promised a “revolution”. He got disillusioned with the AAP, eventually joining the BJP.
For the BJP, Phoolka will neutralise any and all arguments of those who are trying to project the party as “hostile” towards Sikhs. There are very few people in public life who are trusted for their integrity and sacrifice and Phoolka is one of them. That is going to be certainly a great advantage for the BJP in the election year in Punjab.
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