Santa Singh Nihang's Role In 1984 Exposed (Article From 1984)

[SadSingh]

Baba Santa Singh's colourful Nihangs arrival

adds intriguing element to the Punjab drama

Shekhar Gupta with Gobind Thukral Wednesday,

August 15, 1984

Were the situation not so serious, it would have

been viewed as nothing more than a comic

interlude in a rather grim drama. Yet, for all that,

when the short, stout Falstaffian figure of Baba

Santa Singh waddled onto the Punjab stage last

fortnight, it did add an intriguing new element to

the long-running drama.

After being dominated so long and so tragically

by men of evil countenance, the unexpected

arrival of Santa Singh in the Golden Temple was

something of an anticlimax especially since he

also symbolized the Government's desperation in

trying to come to grips with the post-operation

situation in Punjab.

After negotiations between army generals and

government representatives with the Shiromani

Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) over

the sensitive question of kar sewa to repair the

heavily damaged Akal Takht had broken down.

New Delhi played one of its few remaining cards

in the form of the rotund Nihang leader. Initially,

it appeared that the card was a joker.

Dressed in the colorful saffron and blue-skirted

dress of the Nihangs, Baba Santa Singh

Chheyanvi Kirori (one with 96 crore followers)

arrived at Amritsar's famous Gurudwara Burz

Akali Phula Singh in a blaze of government-

inspired publicity under the escort of scores of

Punjab police commandos and army jawans.

"Here look at my forces, we are a sect of

martyrs," he declared pointing to the hundreds of

his followers dressed in ancient warrior costumes.

Within hours of his arrival, the gurudwara

resembled a Nihang chhawni (cantonment). While

some of his followers set up community kitchens,

others stacked the arms they had arrived with.

Meanwhile, the Baba's personal staff washed his

scarred feet or trailed behind him with a room

cooler on a long electric cord, an essential part of

his baggage.

But behind the surface comedy lay the grim

reality that Santa Singh and his fellow Nihangs

represented the storm-troopers of the

Government's new offensive aimed at destroying

the remnants of the Akali Dal leadership and also

its desperate search for a solution to the Punjab

problem. But the Akalis retaliated with a tactical

stratagem.

On a stage dominated for nearly a fortnight by the

Nihang chief, entered yet another Baba, one a lot

less comical and far more illustrious. For nearly a

month after Operation Bluestar, Mrs Gandhi's

favorite trouble-shooters from Delhi, led by Union

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Buta Singh, had

made the rounds of Bir Baba Budha Ji, a

hallowed shrine 20 km from Amritsar, trying to

persuade Baba Kharak Singh to take over kar

sewa.

The 90-year-old Baba, one of the most prominent

builders of gurudwaras through kar sewa turned

down Buta Singh's repeated entreaties but then

suddenly sprang a surprise last week by

announcing that he was ready to perform kar

sewa, on the request of the SGPC and Akali Dal

who in turn, promptly added the rider that the

Government first withdraw the army from the

temple. Santa Singh's reaction was angry and

sharp. Said he: "Before I came in I wrote to Baba

Kharak Singh, offering to help in kar sewa led by

him. He never replied. It does not behave of him

to step in suddenly now. This could only lead to

confrontation."

Matters were complicated further by the SGPC

and Akali Dal who, while inviting Baba Kharak

Singh, also charged the Government with having

forcibly imposed Santa Singh on the Sikhs. The

stage was set for yet another politico-religious

battle between the two babas. It also placed the

Government on the horns of a vicious dilemma. If

it persisted with Santa Singh, the Sikh masses

would never accept kar sewa.

If it decided to sacrifice Santa Singh, he could

raise a tremendous stink. Besides, that would be

just the kind of concession on which the Akalis

would claim victory. Moreover, once the work was

handed over to Kharak Singh, the Government

would have no way of ensuring that the Akal

Takht was rebuilt and not retained in its present,

bombed out state, which has been the

Government's main apprehension.

Mrs Gandhi could perhaps not have anticipated

this additional complication when Parliament

reopened for its monsoon session on July 23. In a

no-holds-barred offensive the ruling party pulled

out all stops as it sought to paint the Akalis and

the Opposition as abettors of extremists. In the

lead was Mrs Gandhi herself who argued that the

Government had delayed action since the

Opposition had been optimistic of an accord with

the Akalis.

It was then the turn of the new Home Minister

P.V. Narasimha Rao to take up the cudgels

followed by Rajiv Gandhi who, in an hour-long

speech sounded off against the Opposition. The

Government's strategy became clear as events

unfolded. Mrs Gandhi had decided to go on the

offensive to deny the Akalis any political mileage

out of the situation.

It was a ruthless attack where the ruling party

often even contradicted itself or indulged in sheer

prevarication. Charges not mentioned in the White

Paper were leveled against the Akalis - Mrs

Gandhi dismissed the White Paper as a document

written by "bureaucrats". There was the usual

insinuation of a foreign hand but once again, Mrs

Gandhi and her spokesmen refused to specify

anything, arguing that she was not making a

case in a court of law.

On the ground, in Amritsar, it was equally clear

that the Government was in no mood to allow the

Akalis a say in the rebuilding of the Akal Takht

and it was determined that the repairs would be

undertaken quickly one way or the other. The

Government's front man was Baba Santa Singh

who ignoring the fulminations of the priests and

the Akalis Pressed his followers into action to

start clearing the mound of debris from the

vicinity of the Akal Takht. Daily wage labourers

were joined by Muslim craftsmen brought in from

Ajmer and Udaipur to craft marble slabs for the

damaged building.

Earlier in the fortnight, engineering art and

archaeological experts, hand-picked by the

Government and accompanied by Buta Singh had

spent hours taking notes and measurements

inside the Akal Takht remains. An old detailed

map of the building had been fished out of the

archives and details of carvings and terracotta

work had been obtained from the government

museum in Chandigarh.

The plan, clearly, was to keep everything ready

for reconstruction as soon as Santa Singh's

followers cleared the debris and neutralized

opposition from the Akalis. Said an architect

involved in the work: "It is nothing like the

restoration in Germany after the Second World

War. But we have undoubtedly begun the biggest

restoration plan in our history." Buta Singh

boasted confidently: "I put the Asiad together in

such a short time. This will not take too long

either."

But as an official admitted: "If our objective was

to build a facade for speedy repair of the Akal

Takht, it has been achieved. But if it was to make

the Sikh masses swing away from their traditional

leadership, we may have ensured just the

reverse."

Yet, for a fleeting moment on July 16, there was

hope in Amritsar. As the hoot of the pilot car's

siren announced the arrival of the army's top

brass - including the acting army chief Lt-General

Tirath Singh Oberoi - into the SGPC-run Guru

Ram Dass Hospital, Akali leaders, including Bibi

Rajinder Kaur, chief of the party's women's wing,

were brimming with hope. Three days of intense

negotiations had thrown up a formula of sorts.

The Akalis promised not to let arms enter the

temple and to invite Baba Kharak Singh to

perform the kar sewa. While the army insisted on

a right to maintain a picket on the darshani deori,

the Akalis were inclined to give two rooms on the

parikrama, facing the temple, to jawans dressed

in mufti. But now, in the evening, the generals

had brought in a surprise. They told the Akalis

that New Delhi had decided that they were still

not trustworthy and thus Baba Santa Singh had

been brought in to share kar sewa with them.

For the Akalis, who have a running feud with

Santa Singh's pro-Congress Nihangs, this was a

no-go situation. It later turned out that while the

generals had been made to talk to the Akalis for

hours together, a fleet of buses guarded by

Punjab police commandos had quietly brought in

the Nihangs into curfew-bound Amritsar from

their headquarters near Bhatinda, about 300 km

away. Even to the army brass the news of the

move was broken by Congress(I) MP Arun Nehru

and K.C. Pant who flew in from Delhi in the

evening.

The retaliation was not long in coming. The five

high priests camping in Amritsar issued a

hukamnama (edict) barring the Sikhs from

participating in the kar sewa without their

sanction. Immediately, Santa Singh was

summoned by the head priests to explain his

conduct. He haughtily ignored the summons and

was ex-communicated from the faith. The same

threat was held out to all other Sikhs

participating in the kar sewa.

Overnight, what initially began as a row between

the Government and the Akalis was transformed

into an internecine battle between the Sikhs

themselves. Never in the faith's 500-year history

had the traditional authority of the panth been

challenged so brazenly. Said Santa Singh

haughtily: "Who are these priests but salaried

employees of the SGPC? How can they issue a

hukamnama when the Akal Takht itself has been

destroyed. We will first build the Akal Takht,

restore its maryada (tradition and dignity). Then

we will see what hukamnama is issued."

While most people were still not inclined to view

him seriously, Santa Singh's robust logic and

defiance caught even the Sikh religious leadership

on the wrong foot. Obviously, behind a

ridiculously outlandish facade Santa Singh hides

a shrewd politico-religious personality. As he

repeatedly took them to task for having allowed

the Golden Temple to become an extremist

sanctuary, the SGPC and the priests could answer

him only in unconvincing embarrassment.

Understandably surprised by the defiance, the

priests were confused. "You are taking your army

away. But how are we going to get rid of this

army you are leaving here?" one of them, in

visible desperation, asked Major-General K.S.

Brar as he came to the temple on his farewell

visit before leaving for Meerut. Said the acting

Akali Dal chief Prakash Singh Majithia: "What can

you do when people turn against their own faith?

All I can say is that these are not Guru

Hargobind's Nihangs. They are Congress(I)

Nihangs."

[SadSingh]

PART TWO CONTINUED

But if the entry of the Nihangs had caused the

Akalis temporary discomfiture it could also prove

to be a blessing in disguise. Beleaguered and

totally lacking in credibility, the Akalis had been

looking for a casus belli to regain support in their

constituency. The Government's effort to begin

kar sewa through Santa Singh gave them just the

populistic cause they had been looking for. Said

Akali leader Major Singh Uboke: "This is our best

chance. At last it is becoming a purely religious

movement."

Even in the state Congress(I) circles there were

apprehensions that the move could misfire. The

Nihangs are sticky customers with a history of

gurudwara grabbing behind them. Said a

Congress(I) leader, declining to be identified: "My

fear is we are replacing one scourge with another.

Tomorrow it may be difficult to dislodge Santa

Singh whose followers carry firearms too. And

how do you convince the Sikhs that one man's

rifles are less undesirable than another's?"

Said Amarinder Singh, who resigned from the

Congress(I) and Parliament in protest against the

army action but is opposed to the idea of keeping

the destroyed Akal Takht as a relic: "The present

arrangement where Santa Singh plays to the tune

of either the army or some ruling party gentlemen

shall prove counter-productive. It is the familiar

divide and rule strategy that we will not tolerate.

Akal Takht constructed by the Government shall

be demolished. If none else does it I would." His

words are echoed by many other Sikhs.

But in Home Ministry circles, an amendment to

the SGPC Act was already being contemplated.

Said an official: "Most Hindu temples including

Tirupati are managed by boards that have

government nominees. What is so special about

gurudwaras?" Younger functionaries in the ruling

party, particularly, are inclined this way. The

SGPC came into being on the basis of an Akali

edict on the reform of gurudwaras in 1920 and

was formalised by the Sikh Gurudwara Act

passed by the British after a bloody agitation.

The Act gave the SGPC, a body elected by all

adult Sikhs, control over 232 gurudwaras in

Punjab.

Delhi felt that the initial anger among the Sikhs

was a temporary phase and would soon be

replaced by a mood of realism. It was in this

anticipation of relative peace on the agitation

front that the Government had at last initiated the

long-awaited process of reorganisation of the

administrative machinery, beginning with the

replacement of an erratic P.C. Sethi by P.V.

Narasimha Rao. Major administrative changes

being made in Punjab included:

replacement of Chief Secretary K.D. Vasudeva,

who has been indisposed for some time, by P.K.

Kathpalia, a joint secretary in the Union Law

Ministry:

creation of a post of joint director by the

Intelligence Bureau at Chandigarh. A police officer

of inspector-general's rank is being shortly

posted there;

finalisation of the first list of officers to be

brought into Punjab from outside states and

Punjab officers to be transferred out of Punjab.

The high-powered administrative panel led by

R.V. Subramaniam, an IAS officer who had been

principal advisor to the governor in Assam during

the elections in February 1983, had been touring

the districts to finalise more transfers and

postings. Indications were that the Government

was planning to induct a number of CRPF and

BSF officers on deputation to the Punjab police to

deal with terrorists.

"The local police officers have a genuine problem

since they arc easily recognisable," explained a

home ministry official, mentioning the fact that

even in the course of interrogation of terrorists

caught in the army action, a lot of Punjab police

officers have been wearing masks. Simultaneously

the Government was going about modernising the

police force. Yet as Mrs Gandhi firmly made clear

in Parliament, the army was not going to be

withdrawn in a hurry.

But even if the army stays on, the peace it

promises can at best be tenuous. Its presence for

too long will inevitably lead to irritation, its

effectiveness will be guided by the law of

diminishing returns. The fact was brought home

rather effectively last fortnight with the sabotage

of the Bhakra canal.

Wherever the blame may lie, the saboteurs did a

shrewd job in selecting to breach a spot where

the damage to the crops in the Punjab area

would be minimal. The canal here passes through

an aqueduct under the Siswan rivulet to provide it

unhindered passage. A breach downstream was

sure to hit the structures through the sheer force

of gushing waters which would, in turn, go into

the rivulet rather than flood farmlands in Punjab

villages and alienate the local population. Earlier

in June too a similar sport had been chosen and

breached near the Budki rivulet.

Another sad point the canal breach proved was

that there are still many terrorists roaming the

countryside. In fact, in many villages all over the

state. Khalistan flags have appeared on rooftops,

more as a symbol of defiance than a wish for

secession. Intelligence sources feel that now the

extremist movement will become more like

classical terrorism. The canal breaches are a case

in point.

Intelligence sources also speak of the formation

of a number of small terrorist groups styling

themselves as suicidal assassination squads. One

such group called "Miri-Piri" has reportedly been,

formed somewhere in the Amritsar district.

According to intelligence men its objective is to

kill President Zail Singh, Mrs Gandhi, Rajiv

Gandhi, and generals Dayal and Brar.

The trend that the extremist movement follows

will also be closely linked to the way the Akali

leadership grows in future. As of now, the Akalis

stand discredited, outdated and incapable of

defending themselves. This is to some extent

because all their important leaders are in jail and

because they are also finding it difficult to cover

up for the series of blunders they have made in

recent months. Today, a majority of the Sikhs

look at them scornfully, for they "surrendered"

rather than fought at the temple. The Hindus, the

Government and moderates among the Sikhs also

blame them for letting Bhindranwale convert the

Golden Temple into a fortress for the terrorists.

It is against this background that the second-line

Akali leadership has found it impossible to

recapture the old fervour of the morcha. The

lukewarm response to the shahidi jathu

movement is a clear indication of this lack of

credibility. The surviving rump of the Akali

leadership today is caught on the horns of a

dilemma, blaming the Government for all that has

gone wrong on the one hand and defending their

own impotence on the other.

Said Bibi Rajinder Kaur: "Most of us were

opposed to Bhindranwale's ways and it is true

that we did not oppose him too stoutly. But

remember that even the prime minister's son,

who has so much security, was too scared to call

him an extremist. Now, if he is afraid of the guns,

aren't we?" But out in the streets the same

leaders forget all about introspection. They hail

Bhindranwale as a martyr and, in one sweep,

sanctify all that he stood for and collected inside

the temple.

Even if a little bashfully, the second-line leaders

now admit that on present reckoning the new

Sikh leadership will be bound to the Bhindranwale

cult. Said an Akali leader, not wanting to be

identified: "The Jat Sikhs have traditionally

followed the most militant leaders. Now this

militancy will no longer be agrarian, economic or

purely political. It will be unadulterated religious

fundamentalism." The younger generation among

the Akalis feels a lot will now depend on who is

chosen as the 14th head of the Damdami Taksal

after Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale.

His death has brought the nearly three centuries

old religious institution into the forefront of Sikh

politics and the Government has been worried by

the reports that the "wise, old men" at the taksal

may decide to perpetuate the extremist cult and

choose a hot-headed leader.

There has been widespread speculation that the

mantle will fall on Talwinder Singh, the well-

known extremist the Indian police have been

hunting for months. He had been caught by the

West German police nearly a year ago and

released mysteriously last month in the absence

of an extradition treaty between the two

countries. Government sources say it will be a

calamity of sorts if someone like him was to

become the head of the taksal.

Older priests at Gurudwara Gurdarshan Prakash

at Chowk Mehta near Amritsar, the headquarters

of the taksal, allay the fears. Said Jagir Singh,

one of the senior priests: "I can state it most

emphatically that we have made no decision so

far. In any case, there is no question of Talwinder

being chosen, for he was not brought up in our

taksal. Any Sikh can carry a kirpan and claim to

be devout. But our order has its own creed and

no one brought up outside can be true to it." The

priests at Chowk Mehta also say that they will

not think in terms of finding a successor till they

are sure of Bhindranwale's death.

Incredibly enough, the priests are not the only

people in Punjab who still believe Bhindranwale is

alive. A large number of people all over the state

believe in the legend that he escaped using a

tunnel and will reappear at an opportune time.

Said a senior army officer displaying a set of

pictures of Bhindranwale's body to India Today:

"Such fables spread every time a controversial

figure dies. People keep hoping that Pakistan

Television will present Bhindranwale one of these

days. If they raise Bhindranwale on their TV we

will raise Bhutto on ours."

Irrespective of whether the man is dead or alive,

there is no wishing away his cult. Senior

Congress(I) leaders also admit that their belated

attempt to use and build up Santa Singh was part

of a strategy to counter this factor. In Baba Santa

Singh, the Congress(I) has a Sikh who looks

more ancient, devout and warlike than most and

is now leading kar sewa, one of the Sikhs most

hallowed traditions.

But unfortunately, looks alone do not win political

battles, not even in the realm of Punjab's often

irrational politics. It is impossible for the

Government to convince the ordinary Sikh that

Santa Singh is more than a stooge. And till that

is done Santa Singh and his kar sewa will remain

no more than a gimmick, a bluff too transparent

to win over a cynical Sikh population.

At least on the kar sewa question there is no

alternative to having someone who can carry the

whole Sikh quam with him. And that someone at

the moment, even Congress(I) l

[SadSingh]

PART 3 CONTINUED

THIS S THE LAST PART OF THE ARTICLE

leaders admit, is

Baba Kharak Singh who seems to be just that bit

more inclined towards the Akalis and the SGPC.

"You can hardly blame him for that," said a

Congress(I) leader, explaining, "he has to be

angry, for 22 of his unarmed followers were

among those killed in the army action." As such,

Kharak Singh is known for his haughty temper.

Yet, he is a straightforward man of religion with

no concern other than the enhancement of the

glory of the panth. He also has never been part of

the Akali Dal and it should be possible to

persuade him to join in. But that would inevitably

entail buying some kind of peace with the Akalis

which the Government does not seem eager to

do.

That is why the thrust and intensity of the

Government's offensive against the Akalis could

prove counter-productive in the long run. There is

no denying that the Akalis have much to answer

for their weakness, short-sightedness and even

downright perfidy. Even in their mood of anger

against the Government the Sikhs understand that

much. But the current government effort to push

the Akalis to the wall could work to their

advantage as any suggestion of "persecution",

whether physical or political, would help them

win back sympathy.

Thus, overdoing the Akalis' political

condemnation at this stage cannot be compatible

with a far-sighted strategy to apply the healing

touch. The Government cannot gloss over the fact

that while the Akalis abetted extremism, many of

ruling party's own functionaries are not too

innocent on this count. In the search for a

solution to the Punjab tangle, the Akalis, Mrs

Gandhi and the Opposition will have to bury the

past, for any attempt to look back on their

collective folly would only reopen wounds.

[SadSingh]

This is a long article written in Wednesday,

August 15, 1984.

i edited the second part because i pasted the section twice and have added the missing section.