Chandigarh August 18, 2023 (Yes Punjab News)
Former Union Minister and senior Akali leader Harsimrat Kaur Badal today strongly urged the Union govt to honour Prime Minister Sh Narendra Modi’s sacred commitment to the Sikh quom on the release of Bandi Singhs and called for an immediate end to the 28-year long laceration of Bhai Bawant Singh Rajoana in jail.
“The immediate release of Bhai Rajoana as a part of the fulfilment of the PM’s promise will help in healing the deep emotional and religious wounds of the Sikh masses suffered under Congress regimes, especially in 1984 and thereafter. This healing touch will strengthen the forces of peace and communal harmony in Punjab and the rest of the country,” said Ms Harsimrat Kaur Badal in a letter to the Union Home Minister, Amit Shah.
“The Prime Minister’s was not an ordinary announcement but a sacred promise made before the entire world on the historic occasion of the 550th Prakash Utsav of Sri Guru Nanak Dev ji. The Prime Minister had committed himself to putting an end to the Bandi Singhs’ long and oppressive laceration in dark cells and ending their extreme emotional alienation following systematic discrimination against the Sikh community as a whole,” she said in her letter.
Ms Badal further emphasized that Bhai Rajoana and other devout Sikhs like him “were driven to extreme acts under the gravest religious provocation as Indira Gandhi’s Congress Government rolled tanks and mortars to attack our holiest shrine, Sri Harmandar Sahib and demolished Sri Akal Takhat Sahib, the highest seat of Sikh religion-political authority (Miri Piri). This was followed by the unspeakable genocide of Sikhs in 1984,“ Ms Badal said in her letter, adding that “this religious outrage has now been acknowledged by the Prime Minister himself, and that too on the floor of the Parliament.”
“ After the assassins of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi walked free , released on humanitarian and compassionate grounds, there is no justification for the continued laceration of Bhai Rajoana, Prof Devinderpal Singh Bhullar and other Sikh prisoners who had acted under extreme religious hurt and provocation,” said Ms Badal’s letter.
The former Union Minister said that Bhai Rajoana had already served over 28 years in prison, 16 of these in the dark death cells awaiting in agonising uncertainty over the decision on his eventual fate. She further pointed out that a mercy petition filed by the apex Sikh religious body , the SGPC has been pending in the Union Home Ministry for 12 long years. “
Significantly, a notification issued by the union Home Ministry for commuting the death penalty of Bhai Rajoana into life imprisonment on the 550th sacred Prakash Utsav of Shri Guru Nanak Dev ji also still awaits implementation.’
Ms Badal demanded that this notification be implemented without any further delay to pave the way for Bhai Rajoana’s release.
She further pointed out that Bhai Rajoana had filed a petition in the Supreme Court in 2020 regarding the mercy plea by the SGPC. “The apex court under three Chief Justices has repeatedly asked the government to expedite a decision on this petition,” Ms Badal wrote In her letter, adding that it was sad that defying the spirit of the SC directive , the govt claimed that an early decision on this “ could adversely impact peace in Punjab and the rest of the country.”
The Akali leader said that a positive decision on Bhai Rajoana’s release and on other Sikh issues will actually strengthen the forces of peace and communal harmony in the country “ Repeated endorsements of Bhai Rajoana’s civilised conduct by the jail authorities as well as his utterances advocating peace and communal harmony vindicate the Akali stand and falsify the govt’s claims about the so-called adverse impact of Bhai Rajoana’s release on peace and communal harmony, she said, adding that there is no legal, moral or constitutional justification under these circumstances for keeping Bhai Rajoana in jail for even a minute longer.
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