larger gameplan in Punjab desecration cases
While it is clear that the desecration by certain miscreants of the Sikhs' holy book in various parts of Punjab triggered violence and unrest in the State, what is not evident is the hand behind the heinous act. It's not plausible that a bunch of people could have caused the mayhem on its own. Investigations are on and media reports have it that the inquiring officials are looking at a foreign angle. The arrest of two suspects involved in the desecration at Faridkot has led probe agencies to this theory. They have discovered that the suspects were in constant touch with certain people in Australia and Dubai. The suspects have reportedly not denied this fact but they have claimed that their sources were funding their medical treatment. There is also talk of a Pakistani hand in the trouble inputs reportedly with intelligence agencies suggest that the infamous Inter-Services Intelligence could be behind the plan to foment unrest and revive the Khalistan movement in Punjab. It is not difficult to accept the possibility of an ISI hand. After all, the ISI has been trying, as reports have suggested over the months, to create trouble in the State by re-igniting the Khalistani cause. To that end, ISI officials have been touch with certain pro-Khalistan elements. Failing in its repeated attempts in Kashmir, Pakistan must surely be desperate to open a new front to create unrest and it believes perhaps that Punjab is a ripe State, given that it had once been the hotbed of separatism. The truth should be out soon. For the moment, calm has thankfully returned to the State, and the administration must ensure that this is sustained. Whether there is a foreign hand or not, what is obvious is that a series of acts of desecration in different parts of the State happened one after the other, or almost simultaneously. It points towards an orchestrated design. On June 1, the Guru Granth Sahib was stolen from a village gurdwara in Faridkot. Four months later, torn pages, supposedly from the stolen book, were found scattered in a nearby village. The villagers rose in protest. Six more similar incidents of desecration were reported thereafter from Sangrur, Amritsar, Ferozepur, Taran, ludhiana and Bathinda. Taken together, the incidents triggered widespread violence across the State.
The incidents are said to have other connections as well, though those are still to be conclusively established. A section of the Sikh community in Punjab has accused the Dera Sacha Sauda of having a hand, but the Dera has refuted the charge. Dera chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim had years ago antagonised the Sikhs by appearing at an initiation ceremony in a dress similar to that of Guru Gobind Singh’s. He was thereafter effectively ex-communicated. The Sikh clergy recently pardoned him after it claimed he had apologised. The development raised a furore, and the pardon was revoked. Now, critics say the Dera chief has had a hand in the desecrations because he wanted to avenge the revocation of pardon and also the original ex-communication. There is some politics too that has muddied the waters, with the Dera chief having openly batted for the Congress in the 2007 Assembly election in the State, and supposedly switching his support to the Akali Dal in the 2012 poll.