One summer evening in the month of June, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Sikh, finished praying in a Gurudwara (sacred worship place of Sikhs) in Surrey, a suburb in Vancouver, Canada. No sooner he came out, two masked men pumped bullets on him from close range. Nijjar died from multiple gunshots.
Hardeep Singh Nijjar was no small fry. He was a separatist leader, a supporter of Khalistan, an independent Sikh nation demanded by more Sikhs living abroad than in India to be carved out of its state of Punjab. In that context, Nijjar's death didn't come as a surprise, but I am pleasantly surprised that Indian agents have carried out a successful mission to eliminate a national threat. It looks like a classic RAW (India's Secret Service) hit, though India, as expected, has officially denied the allegation by Canada.
India has every right to take out any threat when it comes to its national security. Mossad, Israel's ruthless and deadly Secret Service assassinates its targets on regular basis deep inside other countries as far as Argentina, Dubai and Iran. Unlike India, they are more forthcoming - their official stance is they neither confirm or deny their hand in them. America goes one step further. It not only openly takes out its enemies, its politicians take full credit for killing terrorists. Examples are many, the best is the killing of Osama Bin Laden deep inside Pakistani territory which certainly helped Barack Obama politically. Did Canada ever complain then ? Then why now ? There can be no double standard for terrorism as there is no good and bad terrorists. They all are bad, no exception.
What is the demand for Khalistan ? For the uninitiated, at one point of time in the 1980s when terrorism was at its peak in Punjab, it seemed that "Khalistan Banta Hi Rahega" - it was just a time Khalistan will be formed. Mishandling by the Congress government catapulted Sant Bhindranwale, a Sikh with a flowing beard and aquiline nose from a small time preacher into a big time martyr. His speech in parts of Punjab, especially in the rural areas caught the imagination of the Sikh youth of the time. His simple slogan 'JO DARTA WOH SIKH NAHI AUR JO SIKH HAI WOH DARTA NAHI' (one who fears is not a Sikh, one who is a Sikh never fears) inspired many to take up gun and became terrorists.
As Khushwant Singh mentioned in his autobiography, Giani Zail Singh, ex Home Minister and President of India famously described Bhindranwale as SADDE DANDA "our stick" to beat the Akalis with. Congress party wanted to use him as an useful idiot to settle score against opposition Akali Dal. Eventually the genie escaped from the bottle and the DANDA became a huge stick to cause pain to Congress and the nation's backside.
It took another Congressman PV Narasimha Rao to clean up the mess left by his predecessors. Within months of becoming the Prime Minister, Rao called elections in Punjab and managed to conduct one amidst fireworks of bullets and bombs. As we say in Odia, "KANTA KU KANTA KADHE" - A nail is needed to take out another nail. The Congress government that followed gave a free hand to the Super Cop KPS Gill whose motto was very simple - "Kill a terrorist, earn a promotion". The Punjab police responded spectacularly by reaping bounties on the terrorist heads as bountiful as a successful Ravi crop harvest during the BAISAKHI (a popular festival in Punjab). By end of the year 1993, little more than two years after Rao taking office, terrorism in Punjab was a thing of past.
But the dream of Khalistan was never dead. It lied dormant, though limited to few countries in the West. My Punjabi friend has seen the picture of Bhindranwale in a Gurudwara in North America not long ago. In that context, with many local Khalistani sympathizers around, it was prudent for Indian government to eliminate the cancer before it spreads and send a message. Prevention is always better than cure. We cannot afford another Bhindranwale, so it is a smart move to kill the snake before it grows big and start biting. Kudos to India, the protest from Canada not withstanding.
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