NEW DELHI: After over a month-long chase, police have taken Sikh preacher Amritpal Singh into custody on Sunday morning, The Wire said. However, now the Sikh leader’s incarceration has turned into a political football with an eye on a key by-poll to the Lok Sabha in Jalandhar.

While Punjab police in a tweet claimed that Amritpal was arrested in Punjab’s Moga district, others say he had surrendered himself before the police in Rode village, Moga. Rode village is the birth place of late Sikh militant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, who Amritpal idolises. It is from this village that Amritpal’s dastarbandi was held before he took over Waris Punjab De, a pressure group late actor-activist Deep Sidhu created.

Several news channels in Punjab are broadcasting statements of Bhindranwale’s brother Jasbir Rode who claimed that Amrtipal had arrived in Rode village on Saturday night. Early in the morning, he prayed at the gurudwara in the village and then addressed the Sikh Sangat before police took him into custody.

“If he had been arrested by the police [without surrendering], why was he being allowed to address the gathering inside a gurudwara?” a villager asked.

Differing claims emerge regarding Sikh preacher’s detention

He said police will of course present its narrative that he was arrested. But the reality is that he has himself surrendered to the police. Visuals of police taking Amritpal into custody from the gurudwara are already going around on social media. He is seen in his traditional Sikh attire. There are reports that he will soon be shifted to Dibrugarh central jail in Assam where his other colleagues were taken after their arrest. The last person who was sent there was Amritpal’s close aide Pappalpreet, who, police said, helped him escape police arrest after a crackdown operation began on March 18.

While the hunt for the Khalistan sympathiser Amritpal Singh is finally over, the leaders of the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Punjab, including chief minister Bhagwant Mann, are patting themselves on the back.

Mann said in a video message on Sunday that the government handled the law and order situation well and Amritpal was arrested without any bloodshed.

“We could have arrested him earlier too. But we did not want any violence or firing,” Mann said, justifying the delay in the arrest. In contrast to statements and videos suggesting that Amritpal surrendered himself in Moga district’s Rode village, Mann claimed, “We got to know Amritpal’s location late last night. I did not sleep. I was taking minute-by-minute updates from senior police officials till the time he was arrested.”

Mann added, “I want the youth of Punjab to have degrees in their hands, and not get brainwashed into doing illegal activities.” There is a reason AAP is turning up the messaging after Amritpal’s arrest. The state will see a crucial by-election to the Jalandhar parliamentary constituency on May 10. Even as this seat is a reserved constituency and Dalits make up almost 45 per cent of the total 1.7 million voters, AAP knows that hysteria around law and order and prevailing Sikh issues are likely to play a vital role in shaping the election.

The Wire explained the background. “Given that Punjab has a troubled history around the demand for a separate state in the ’80s and those days are still fresh in public memory, the opposition parties will go full throttle to blame the AAP government for allowing radical elements to expand and hijack the state at the cost of public harmony and safety.” But with the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) is painting AAP’s Amritpal operation as anti-Sikh and the BJP is highlighting the Khalistan threat to target Hindu voters. Some point out that this issue may provide fertile ground for polarisation in the upcoming election.

Political observer Harjeshwar Singh, quoted by The Wire, does not believe the Jalandhar by-election is getting too polarised for the simple reason that Amritpal did not enjoy much ground support – his support was hyped in the media. But he believes that law and order will be a buzzword on which AAP has been on a sticky wicket since the beginning, due to a string of high-profile murders and the expansion of radical forces.

Published in Dawn, April 25th, 2023