Amarinder Singh resigned as the Chief Minister of Punjab last month and forged an alliance with the BJP (File)
Chandigarh:
Amarinder Singh – the former chief minister of Punjab – is the first prominent political leader to condemn the killing of two people over claims of religious sacrilege at gurdwaras in Amritsar and Kapurthala.
Mr Singh called the killing of the two men “illegal…absolutely unacceptable”.
“Profanity is wrong but killing a person is also wrong. What is it? The law is there. If you take the accused to the SGPC (Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Samiti, an all-national organization responsible for the management of Gurdwaras) office, inquire And kill him… is this the way? It is illegal and it is absolutely unacceptable,” the former Congress leader was quoted as saying by PTI.
“There is no justification for mob lynching… it is condemnable,” Singh said.
Asked whether the killings were a sign of despair within the Sikh community over the unresolved tensions related to the sacrilege incidents of 2015, Amarinder Singh defended his track-record in the case.
He said the state (when he was the chief minister of the ruling Congress government) had to fight a long legal battle to withdraw the probe from the CBI first… When the probe started, 22 people, including police officers and civilians, were arrested. (But they) are out on bail now.
Two men – whose police are yet to be identified – were killed by a mob at Amritsar’s Golden Temple and a gurdwara in Kapurthala after allegedly insulting Sikh religious sentiments.
Questions have been raised on the action of the police in each case, especially after the withdrawal of the statement announcing the registration of an FIR in relation to the murders.
Questions have also been raised over the lack of political leaders speaking out against the deaths.
The shocking killings have so far elicited muted (at best) responses from the ruling Congress and major opposition parties – the BJP, the Aam Aadmi Party and the Akali Dal – with everyone reluctant to condemn the deaths for fear of a voter backlash. In the elections to be held in a couple of months.
Congress MP Rahul Gandhi had tweeted on Tuesday – he attacked the BJP saying that “the word ‘lynching’ was practically unheard of before 2014, but stopped naming the killings of Punjab.
Mr Gandhi’s tweet triggered a vicious counter-attack from BJP’s Amit Malviya,
SGPC president Harjinder Singh Dhami was more direct. “It pertains to the Guru Granth Sahib and not to any social offence. we cannot condemn…” he told NDTV on Monday night.
Meanwhile, Sidhu has been more direct, but called for “public executions” for those accused of religious sacrilege; It is not clear whether he was referring to people who were charged with such offenses or who were found guilty after being tried in court.
Punjab’s deputy chief minister has called for strict punishment – but again for those found guilty of religious sacrilege. She No mention of punishment for those involved in mob lynchings,
Amarinder Singh had resigned as chief minister last month after a long and bitter war of words with rival (and now Congress state unit chief) Navjot Sidhu.
Due to the nervousness of his former party, Mr. Singh, a veteran politician, he has also formed his own party – Punjab Lok Congress. Announcement of preliminary agreement with one-time arch rival BJP,
With input from PTI
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