Chandigarh – Senior congress leader & Punjab’s leader of the opposition (LoP), Pratap Singh Bajwa on Saturday said Punjab needed strong political besides stringent laws to deal with sacrilege cases in the state.
Bajwa was referring to Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann’s meeting with Union Home Minister Amit Shah where the former sought help from the centre on the Indian Penal Code (Punjab Amendment Bill), 2018, pending assent from the President of India.
The Punjab Vidhan Sabha passed the bill in 2018 ushering in an amendment in section 295 & section 295A of the IPC with the recommendation of enhancement of punishment of life imprisonment for the sacrilege of holy books of all religions.
Bajwa said it rather required the political will of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in the state to resolve the issues of sacrilege with free and fair investigation rather than seeking stringent laws.
Bajwa said Bhagwant Mann’s meeting with Amit Shah was more of a political compulsion and was necessitated after the Punjab government failed to keep its poll promise to get justice for the protestors led by Sukhraj Singh sitting on an indefinite dharna at Behbal Kalan for nearly a year now.
“We also demand the strictest of punishment for the perpetrators of the series of sacrilege incidents which occurred since 2015 on the soil of Punjab and hurt the sentiments of a large section of the society, particularly of the Sikhs. However, till the law was not enacted how can the criminals behind such acts of desecration go scot-free”, added Bajwa.
He said the various Special Investigation Teams (SITs) constituted to probe the sacrilege incidents, the wide-scale spread of drugs or even police firing incidents that occurred in Kotkapura and Behbal Kalan have not been able to complete their investigations in time due to administrative or political reasons. As a result, the criminals behind the aforesaid crimes were at large and roaming free while posing a danger to civil society.
He further stated that the law and order situation seems to be slipping out of hand. The sense of insecurity in the minds of the common man is increasing day by day because in just six days two protectees ere killed. On 4th November, 2022, Sudhir Suri, a Shiv Sena Leader was murdered in the presence of more than two dozen police officials deputed for his security in broad daylight in Amritsar. Thereafter, on 10th November, 2022, six shooters killed Dera Sacha Sauda Follower, Pardeep Singh, in Kotkapura and fled on two motorcycles before shifting to two cars at Bajakhana and fleeing to Patiala.
In less than a month thereafter, 39-year-old garment businessman, Bhupinder Singh Chawla, popularly known as Timmy Chawla, who had been receiving ransom and threat calls for the past month, was killed despite gunman protection provided on his complaint. All this is adding to the sense of insecurity among the people of Punjab at the hands of inexperienced the Bhagwant Mann-led government in Punjab, which has shown neither the interest nor desired political will to grapple with the deteriorating law and order situation in Punjab.
Bajwa also reminded the Union Home Minister, Amrit Shah, of his statement on November 14, 2022 during an interview with Network18 MD and Group Editor in Chief, Rahul Joshi that “No doubt that law and order situation has deteriorated in Punjab after AAP came to power there. But, centre is keeping a close watch and we will not let the situation get out of control.”
The inexperience and lack of political will of the present-day Government to check the downturn in the law and order situation, Bajwa asked the Union Home Minister to open up how long he would keep a close watch on it because any further delay in providing the strategic support and coordination with the Punjab Government in grappling with the situation would fuel the sense of insecurity about the lives and properties among the general people. Otherwise, it may not end up in a repeat of the 1990s situation and the consequent woes still fester the economy of Punjab, being a border State already a victim of narco-terrorism spurred by the neighbouring country.
