“The horrific image of Lakhbir’s dead body should haunt each of us. It should haunt each and every ‘peaceful protestor’ who didn’t do anything to stop it. It should haunt each and every soul who betrayed the gurus by being a tool and witness of oppression. It should haunt every human who boasts of humanity and equality in society. It should haunt every ideology that failed to save him. It will haunt me, as I assumed that he was in a safe space. No space is safe for us. No system is safe for us. We can’t risk our lives on any brahminical structure or system anymore. I failed Lakhbir Singh. We failed Lakhbir and his family and the families of thousands of our people. And we’ve been continuously failing them, us and ourselves”, read an Instagram post by one Ambedkarite after the brutal killing of Lakhbir Singh by Nihang Sikhs at the Kundli border, where ‘farmers’ are protesting.
The operative word in the post was, of course, the “Brahminical structure or system” and the post opened with how it should haunt every “peaceful protestor” who did not do anything to stop the lynching and every soul who “betrayed the gurus by being a tool and witness to oppression”.
Lakhbir Singh who was brutally murdered by Nihang Sikhs had reached the farmer protest site at the Kundli border a week ago. The locals have been reported as saying that he was there to do sewa and was often seen in the Gurudwara set up at the protest site.
Essentially, Lakhbir Singh was a Punjabi himself who was at the protest site to do ‘sewa’. He was murdered by Nihang Sikhs who are considered to be the warrior class established by Guru Gobind Singh himself. The protestors at the site are also Sikhs, the staunchest kinds. In fact, the protest site even has Khalistanis who want an ‘independent Punjab’ and worship Khalistani terrorist Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, who murdered thousands of Hindus. When a video of Lakhbir Singh went viral, hung from the police barricade, one could see the poster of Bhindranwale in the background.
The Khalistan movement and Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale itself was extremely anti-Hindu and anti-Brahmin. In his book, Khushwant Singh wrote about how the Khalistan movement was anti-Hindu.
Bhindranwale would, in derision, call Indira Gandhi a ‘panditain’ or ‘Bahmani’. In his speeches, he had asked to kill 32 Hindus so the entire Hindu population would be “taken care of”. He used to call Hindus as Dhotian and Topian wale.
It is recorded history that Khalistanis had thrown a cow head inside the Durgiana temple.
In 1982, in what was a completely unprovoked attack, the Dal Khalsa “activists” threw a severed cow head inside Durgiana temple. pic.twitter.com/IAGQqpkX7Z
— Bharadwaj (@BharadwajSpeaks) January 26, 2021
n 1982, Khalistani radicals hung tail of a cow inside the Mahakali temple of Patiala. Devotees were shocked to see the tail of a cow hung inside the Garba Griha of the temple.
In 1982, Khalistani radicals hung tail of a cow inside the Mahakali temple of Patiala. Devotees were shocked to see the tail of a cow hung inside the Garba Griha of the temple. pic.twitter.com/K6ldeIkVZW
— Bharadwaj (@BharadwajSpeaks) January 26, 2021
It is also recorded history that Brahmins were the favourite target of Khalistanis.
Brahmins were a favorite target of Khalistani activists. Bhindranwale’s rhetoric frequently centred on anti Brahmanism.
— Bharadwaj (@BharadwajSpeaks) January 26, 2021
On 25th June 1983, a Pujari of a temple in Sultanpur was kiIIed with a sharp knife. pic.twitter.com/HtFoSOzFnW
With the Khalistani movement being anti-Hindu and anti-Brahmin specifically, it is a wonder how the murder of a Sikh man by Sikh radicals became a burden that Hindus and/or Brahmins have to bear.
Hindus or even Brahmins or even Dalit Hindus had nothing to do with the brutal incident at the Kundli border.
But that Instagram post was not the only one blaming the ‘caste politics’ of Hindus for the incident. Several other Ambedkarites started playing their caste politics to bring Hindus down.
Dilip Mandal, who sees caste everywhere and has been accused of discriminating against Brahmin students took to Twitter to say that Dalits are oppressed everywhere, sometimes for touching food, sometimes for ‘idols’ and sometimes for books.
कोई खाना छू देने पर मार देता है, कोई मूर्ति छूने पर पीट देता है, कोई धार्मिक किताब छूने पर मार देता है। साबित करो कि तुम लोग आदमी ही हो।
— Dilip Mandal (@Profdilipmandal) October 15, 2021
Quoting a video of one of the Nihangs talking about how Sikhs murder people who insult the Guru Granth Sahib, Ambedkarites said that the truth is that he was murdered because he made the book impure by touching it, since he was a Dalit Sikh. While that maybe what the Nihangs had thought, the incident had nothing to do with Hindus.
The fact is Lakhbir Singh was killed for touching a religious book. It get polluted by the touch of a SC labourer. So they killed him to maintain the purity. Shame! #JusticeForLakhbirSingh pic.twitter.com/9ShP1Y0xDh
— Suraj Kumar Bauddh (@SurajKrBauddh) October 15, 2021
Lakhbir was killed bcoz he was a SC labourer and touched a religious book. The argue of ‘बेअदब’ (insult) reflects their caste supremacy as they thinks that a SC polluted the book by touch. #JusticeForLakhbirSingh pic.twitter.com/fO99BIKUUw
— Mission Ambedkar (@MissionAmbedkar) October 15, 2021
#JusticeForLakhbirSingh
— Pooja yadav (@Poojayadav676ii) October 15, 2021
Dalit should work on fields
Dalit should clean sewer
Dalit should clean their houses
But
Dalit should not touch their holy book
Sharamnak
While caste discrimination is a reality among Sikhs, the insinuation of the posts were extremely clear. They repeatedly equated the Nihangs considered Dalit Sikhs as impure while drawing a false equivalence to Hindus in an attempt to tarnish Hinduism.
The bane of Dalit Activists of our times is that they hardly stand for the rights of the marginalised and speak up for Scheduled Caste individuals who might be getting persecuted. What they do is, instead, stand against Hinduism and every incident is turned into a caste battle just to pull Hindus down. The insinuation that Lakhbir Singh was killed because of the “Brahminical structure” was evident from the first Instagram post and most other posts that tried to distract from the main issue – Pious Sikhs who were a part of the farmers protest brutally murdered a man at the protest site of Samyukt Kisan Morcha.
The blame for the shocking incident lies with the Sikh community, the Nihangs and the “farmers” who have indulged in rampant violence ever since the protests against the three farm laws began.
The disingenuity of their argument is apparent when they wish to compare the “upper caste Jatt Sikhs” to Brahmins, insinuating that the “upper caste Sikhs” follow the Brahminical structure.
One recalls how Mukesh, a Brahmin man was burnt alive only a few months ago by these very Farmers and Jatt Sikhs.
Mukesh, 42, was the eldest of Jagdish Chandra’s three children. On June 16, 2021, Mukesh succumbed to burn injuries after fellow farmer protestors allegedly set him ablaze at the Tikri border protest site. Villagers had then alleged that Mukesh’s murder was a conspiracy to make him appear as a ‘martyr’ against the farm laws.
OpIndia talked to the bereaved mother, who is still finding it hard to come to grips with the reality that her son was allegedly killed by agitators pretending to be fighting for the rights of farmers. Shakuntala, Mukesh’ mother remembers her son left the house on Wednesday evening for a walk to the nearby field. When we asked her who killed her beloved son, Shakuntala says the protesters killed him. Mukesh had that evening gone for a walk to the nearby field, where farmers protesting against the three farm laws had put up their tents.
Even when Mukesh had been killed, the ‘farmers’ had tried to divert any responsibility from themselves and tweeted an unclear video, claiming that the farmers had not set Mukesh on fire. However, OpIndia had accessed his dying declaration where he clearly said that it was the “farmers” who had set him on fire.
It would appear that every time brutality is unleashed by these farmers, there foot soldiers attempt to shield the movement by floating a grand narrative that diverts attention from the real issue. When Mukesh was murdered by the farmers, the grand narrative was that a conspiracy was being hatched to “defame” the farmers movement. Even now, when Lakhbir Singh was murdered, several individuals claimed that he was sent by the “agencies”.
It would now seem like the Ambedkarites have resorted to shielding the farmers by talking about “caste construct” and blaming Hindus for an incident that was perpetrated by the Nihang Sikh at the site of the farmers’ protest. While caste exists among Sikhs, the murder of Lakhbir Singh certainly has nothing to do with Hindus or Brahmins. It is a product of Khalistani elements and Nihang Sikhs being a violent lot and the farmers protest harbouring terrorists who first killed Mukesh, a Brahmin man and have now murdered Lakhbir Singh. Any attempt to divert the conversation from the culpability of Khalistani elements and the farmers themselves is one that whitewashes the crime and denies justice to Lakhbir.
