Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu on Monday visited Faridkot district in the state to meet the protesting family members of an anti-sacrilege protestor who was killed in the 2015 police firing at Behbal Kalan. The kin of the deceased has started an indefinite dharna at the firing incident spot and demanded justice.
With sacrilege an emotive issue in the state and Punjab elections are a few months away, the politics over it is unmissable. Sidhu has been questioning his own party government in the state over the issue of ensuring justice in the 2015 sacrilege and post-sacrilege police firing incidents.
Five years after two Sikh men were killed in the police firing at Behbal Kalan area, Krishan Bhagwan Singh, the son of one of the deceased, started an indefinite protest and said he lost faith in the government to get justice and started a peaceful protest to expose the political parties of Punjab.
The police had fired at Sikh demonstrators protesting against the sacrilege that had taken place in Faridkot in 2015 when the SAD-BJP was in power.
Sidhu arrived at the spot in the early hours to show his solidarity with the victims’ families. Analysts said that with the alleged sacrilege incidents at Golden temple in Amritsar and Kapurthala, the issue has given an opportunity to Sidhu to yet again put pressure on the Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi-led government in the state.
Sources close to Sidhu said that after the recent incidents, the PCC chief has been telling his supporters that the government needs to show “action” in sacrilege case so as to win the confidence of the majority of the electorate. “After all sacrilege was an important issue on which Congress came to power. And an impression is gaining ground that since government has not been tough against those culprits such incidents will keep on happening. And that will have a political fallout as well,” said a leader close to Sidhu.
Observers said that the recent incidents have not only allowed Sidhu to put pressure on Channi government but also given him a handle to strike out at political opponents the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD). “Akali Dal has all along been under pressure for the sacrilege and firing cases and despite them immediately condemning the recent incidents, not many are willing to believe that it would give them a political advantage,” said a leader.
The Channi government in Punjab has already ordered a SIT probe in the sacrilege incident realising the sensitive nature of it and also the political fallout. “Sidhu has been consistently raising the issue and that is why the recent sacrilege issue has shot him back into the spotlight and government under pressure,” commented a Congress leader.
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