'Lest it be repeated' disapproved by Sikh audience

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Vaheguru Jee Ka Khalsa, Vaheguru Jee Kee Fateh !

'Lest it be repeated' disapproved by Sikh audience

Sunday 15th May, 2005

Vikramjit Singh - Panthic Weekly Correspondent

Chandigarh, Punjab (KP) - What was said to be a documentary on the so-called "rehabilitation" of Sikh freedom fighters, 'Lest it be repeated' by Reema Anand turned out to be a pack of lies and an attempt to malign the Sikh freedom struggle and idolize people like K.P. Gill. The 17 minute documentary screened this week in Chandigarh was disapproved by the Sikh audience.

The basic theme of the film was to show that Sikh freedom fighters in police custody had now agreed that the movement was wrong. The other motive was to show that K.P. Gill did his best to bring the militants back into the society. The objective of the film being to malign the militants, eulogize K.P. Gill and then sell the idea that along with the Sikh freedom fighters and Sikh Panthic Faujis who desertered the Indian Army, Punjab police personnel accused of atrocities should also be released.

The screening of the film took place last week on May 7, at the Government Museum and Art Gallery, Sector 10, Chandigarh. The documentary has been made by Reema Anand, a former student of Panjab University.

“These boys were not terrorists, who did they terrorize? They were militants, how could you call them terrorists?” said one of the viewers, accusing Anand of maligning the Sikh freedom fighters. She was told that the militancy was resultant of the wrong policies and atrocities of the Government.

She described this as a Punjab problem in which Punjabis suffered. “It was not a problem of Punjabis but of Sikhs. Only Sikh youths were victimized,” came a response, setting the tone for the rest of the interactive session.

Time and again Sikh prisoners were shown lamenting that the militancy was not right. Anand had commented that she got the help of the Police and Intelligence Agencies for making this film. So there is every chance that the "prisoners" she interviewed were actually police stooges who are jailed with the militants to keep tabs on them.

At the very start of the film K.P. Gill is shown and an attempt was made to show that Gill was responsible for bringing militants "back into the society." Anand tries to show that Gill used so-called "innovative methods to curtail militancy" whereas the truth is that Gill butchered Sikhs to end their struggle for freedom.

The Sikh audience also wanted to know that why she had not highlighted the case of Bhai Jaswant Singh Khalra, a human-rights activist who was tortured to death in the costudy of Punjab police.

At the end, the former DC of Amritsar who was incharge in 1984 admonished Anand for presenting a wrong picture. He said that he had a lot of information and was more than ready to provide it to her so that she could correct the blunders in her film.

Today the Government is getting Sikhs to make films and pen articles that malign militancy or show that militants say that they were misled into a wrong movement.

Mr Amarinder Singh, the chief minister of Punjab, has proposed the release of Militants in jail and also wants policemen in jail for police atrocities to be released too. However, the fact is that most of the militants in Punjab jails are there on trumped up charges and have not even received a fair trial. The policemen in jail have been brought to book after great hue and cry and pressure by Human Rights Organizations. All of them have the best legal help and have been sentenced after prolonged trials.

Vikranjit Singh can be reached at vikramjit.singh@panthic.org.