Out of jail briefly after nearly 26 years to attend his father’s bhog ceremony, Balwant Singh Rajoana, one of the men convicted for the assassination of former Punjab CM Beant Singh, on Monday appealed to the people to vote for the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) in the upcoming Punjab polls and asked ‘sangat’ to vote against the Congress to punish them for the ‘1984 anti-Sikh riots and murders of thousands of innocent Sikh youths.’ He is currently lodged at Patiala Central Jail.
Rajoana, who attended his adoptive father Jaswant Singh’s bhog ceremony for an hour after getting permission from the High Court on Monday, in his address at Gurdwara Baba Deep Singh of Ludhiana, said ‘Meri rooh akali, mera dal akali, main akali.. iss dharti tey sarkaar akali..’ (My soul is Akali, my heart is Akali, I am Akali.. there should be an Akali government on this earth).
Among those who attended the bhog ceremony were Akal Takht Jathedar Harpreet Singh, SGPC president Harjinder Singh Dhami, and former Akal Takht Jathedar Gurbachan Singh.
Balwant Rajoana, who hails from Rajoana Kalan village of Ludhiana and was adopted by Jaswant Singh in 1993 after his own father Malkeet Singh passed away, further said, “My father (Jaswant Singh) was an inspiration for many. He had dedicated himself to the country. He joined the Army and fought three wars in the years 1962, 1965, and 1971. But then some incidents happened that shook the lives of the entire Sikh community. In 1984, our Akal Takht Sahib was attacked. Thousands of innocent Sikhs were abducted and killed. Rajiv Gandhi stepped out of his palace and said that when the earth shakes, some trees fall. These incidents have given deep wounds to the Sikh community.”
Talking about August 31, 1995, the day Beant Singh was assassinated, Rajoana said, “Qoumi Shaheed Dilawar Singh (suicide bomber who died in the blast) attained shaheedi and I was subsequently arrested. But my sister Kamaldeep Kaur has always stood by me like a pillar.”
Asking the residents of Punjab to vote for the SAD, Rajoana said that his father’s soul will rest in peace only if the “Congress is punished for its sins.”
“Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Christian ekta da prateek Akali, saarey dharman de satkar da prateek Akali, sab saanjhi baalta da sandesh Akali, meri rooh Akali, mera dil Akali, main Akali.. haan main akali.. chahunda haan iss dharti te sarkaar Akali..,” said Rajoana amid chants of ‘Jo Bole So Nihaal, Sat Sri Akal.’
Rajoana who visited his hometown Ludhiana after 26 years after his arrest in December 1995, further said, “Those killers who attacked our Akal Takht Sahib, who killed thousands of innocent Sikh youths, their rule on this land of Gurus is a blot and an insult of Khalsa Panth. It is the duty of all of us not to be lured by freebies, but to stand up against those who are coming from Delhi to loot our state. Our ancestors will rest in peace only if the Congress is wiped out from this state, this country.’
‘Iss vote paun de adhikaar nu apna hathiyaar samajh ke kaaqtalan dey khilaaf kardo (Use this right to vote as your weapon and use it against these killers),” said Rajoana, adding that people of Punjab should give justice to ‘thousands of Sikh youths who were killed’.
“Akali Dal is our own party and it is representative of our panth. End Congress’ rule,” said Rajoana, while thanking the SAD and the SGPC for the ‘legal help’ in his case.
Rajoana was a police constable who had joined the Punjab Police on October 1, 1987, and was sympathetic to the views of Babbar Khalsa International. He justified Beant Singh’s assassination, blaming the CM for “extra-judicial” killings of Sikh youth. It was he who tied the bombs on Dilawar’s body.
In his judicial confession recorded under Section 313 of the Criminal Procedure Code on January 22 and 23, 1996, Rajoana stated: “Judge Sahib, Beant Singh assumed himself [to be the] angel of peace after killing thousands of innocent people, compared himself with Guru Gobind Singh Ji and Ram Ji. Thereafter, we decided to kill Chief Minister Beant Singh.”
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