31st August, 1995 – This is the date when the then Chief Minister of Punjab, Beant Singh, was assassinated. The assassins of the Sikh leader were Khalistani terrorists.
Congress leader Beant Singh became the Chief Minister of Punjab in February 1992. Him becoming the Chief Minister was a major event in the history of Punjab, because assembly elections were held in the state after 5 years of President’s rule. There was an atmosphere of anarchy in Punjab, despite the killing of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, Khalistani terrorists kept the state in turmoil for more than a decade.
Beant Singh, a devout Sikh
First of all, let us briefly talk about the personal and political life of Beant Singh. He was born in Bilaspur village of Dohra block of Ludhiana district. He received higher education from Government College University, Lahore. He joined the Indian Army at the age of 23, but turned to politics after 2 years. In 1960, he was elected as a member of the block committee. He was the director of the Central Cooperative Bank in Ludhiana, then in 1969, he won as an independent candidate and reached the Punjab Legislative Assembly.
Beant Singh was a follower of the Namdhari sect of Sikhs and wore a white turban. That is why he did not consume meat or alcohol, he was a vegetarian. He had taken blessings from Satguru Pratap Singh and along with Surinder Singh Namdhari, he worked for the welfare of this sect. In 1993, when a businessman wanted to set up a meat factory in Lalru, Beant Singh, while being the CM, did not give permission to him.
Beant Singh donated 500 acres of land to the Namdhari Sikh sect in Amritsar, Ludhiana, and Malerkotla. Beant Singh died tragically when he was murdered by Khalistanis. 17 people, including the then Chief Minister Beant Singh, were killed in a car bomb blast, which also included 3 commando soldiers. The names of ‘Babbar Khalsa International’ and ‘Khalistan Commando Force’ cropped up in this murder case. To understand the Beant Singh murder case, we will have to look at the political circumstances of that time.
Beant Singh was assassinated while he was the CM of Punjab
When Beant Singh was assassinated, he was going to sign some papers. As soon as he sat in his white Ambassador car, a Punjab Police man Dilawar Singh Babbar detonated the bomb wrapped around his body.
There was a massacre of Sikhs in 1984 pogrom after the assassination of Indira Gandhi. Government figures say that 3340 Sikhs were killed in this pogrom. Congress leaders like Kamal Nath, Jagdish Tytler, and Sajjan Singh, who were close to Rajiv Gandhi, were named in this pogrom.
Indira Gandhi was assassinated to take revenge for ‘Operation Blue Star’. Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, a terrorist created by the Congress ecosystem, was hiding in the Golden Temple in Amritsar, to kill whom, the Indian Army had to enter inside the holy shrine. Due to this order of Indira Gandhi, the Sikhs turned against her. Her bodyguards named Satwant Singh and Beant Singh fired bullets at her. After this, when the Sikh pogrom took place, her son Rajiv Gandhi said that when a big tree falls, the earth shakes.
Militancy in Punjab was still at its peak even after Bhindranwale’s death. President’s rule had to be declared there in June 1987, which lasted till February 1992. In the 1990s, Sikh terrorists started targeting policemen and political leaders. Elections were held in Punjab in 1992, but there was such an atmosphere of fear that the voting percentage was only 24%. KPS Gill was the Director General of Police hat time and he was given the freedom to work as per his wish in the state. Many terrorists fled to countries like Canada and UK after the crackdown led by KPS Gill.
After this, ‘Babbar Khalsa International’ (BKI), under the leadership of Wadhawa Singh in England, hatched a conspiracy to kill Beant Singh. BKI instigated a group of youth to kill the Punjab CM. Jagtar Singh Hawara and Balwant Singh Rajoana were sentenced to death after the bomb blast outside the Punjab Secretariat. Gurmeet Singh, Lakhwinder Singh, and Shamsher Singh were given life imprisonment, while Navjot Singh and Naseeb Singh were released. CM Beant Singh’s killers are still hailed as heroes by Sikh hardliners incidentally.
Sikhs protested for release of these terrorists in Chandigarh for more than a year under the banner of ‘Qaumi Insaaf Morcha’. Rajoana was also a police constable and was kept as a backup during the assassination. If Dilawar Singh Babbar had failed, Rajoana would have blown himself up. After the release of Rajiv Gandhi’s assassins, the ‘Shiromani Akali Dal’ (SAD) also campaigned for Rajoana’s release. He has been in jail for almost 27 years, in 2007 the CBI court awarded him death sentence which was also upheld by the Supreme Court.
Glorification of killers: SGPC and SAD launched a campaign for their release
Following this, the Shiromani Gurudwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) came into the picture. The organisation has the final say in the matter of all the Gurudwaras in Punjab, starting from Darbar Sahib in Amritsar. The then Punjab CM Prakash Singh Badal, met the then President Pratibha Patil in March 2012, along with his son and then Deputy CM Sukhbir Singh Badal. Balwant Singh Rajoana was to be hanged on March 31, 2012, but the Home Ministry stopped his execution after that visit.
At that time, there was UPA-II government in India, Manmohan Singh was the Prime Minister and P Chidambaram was the Home Minister. In December 2019, the current Home Minister Amit Shah clarified that Balwant Singh Rajoana’s death sentence has not been reduced. The picture of Beant Singh’s killer Dilawar Singh Babbar was also installed by the SGPC in the Central Sikh Museum located in the Golden Temple of Amritsar. In June 2022, SGPC president Advocate Harjinder Singh installed this photo and called him a “martyr”.
Today @SGPCAmritsar installed Portrait of Dilawar Singh at Central Sikh museum, inside premises of Harmandir Sahib. Punjab police cop Dilawar Singh had turned into suicide bomber to kill former Punjab chief minister Beant Singh.@IndianExpress @iepunjab pic.twitter.com/CfSfQt6sr5
— Kamaldeep Singh ਬਰਾੜ (@kamalsinghbrar) June 14, 2022
He had said that Dilawar Singh Babbar put a stop to the atrocities against Sikhs and gross violations of human rights by ‘sacrificing’ himself. The SGPC had also said that ‘sacrifice’ is not possible without the blessings of the Guru. Let us remind you that 3 accused in the Beant Singh murder case escaped from Chandigarh jail in June 2004, the rest were caught while fleeing. One accused was also caught from Thailand in January 2014 with the help of Interpol.
Today, when Khalistani supporters like Amritpal Singh are becoming MPs, there is a need of Sikh leaders like Beant Singh who can take action against the terrorism without bowing down to the fundamentalists. Beant Singh’s mistake was that he was a devout nominal Sikh, not a fundamentalist who wanted to divide the country. Today, leaders like Amritpal Singh demand the division of the country and become MPs by contesting Lok Sabha elections from jail itself.
