Badal’s comment on Nakodar killings worse than Pitroda’s ‘84 remark: Baldev

Aparna Banerji

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, May 12

“It is sad, very sad. A seasoned politician of a panthic party should be careful. We are fighting for justice for 33 years. He has deeply hurt us. Badal’s statement is worse than what Sam Pitroda said. He has gone beyond what he said. It’s his comment of ‘Hua to hua’ and that too on Nakodar fake encounters, Khalra and sacrilege issues,” said Baldev Singh, father of Bhai Ravinder Singh Littran, one of the victims of the 1986 Nakodar killings, while reacting to former Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal’s recent statement on the 1986 Nakodar killings.

For all these issues, he is saying ‘hua to hua,” says 72-year-old Baldev.

A day after SAD patriarch Parkash Singh Badal termed the 1986 Nakodar Killings as a commonplace incident and said: “Eho jehe kand hunde rehnde ne,” kin of the three youths who died in the 1986 incident have issued condemnation against Badal’s remark, terming it worse than Pitroda’s “hua to hua” comment. They said it had rubbed salt on the wounds of the aggrieved families.

Speaking from the US, Harinder Singh, the brother of Ravinder Singh Littran, said: “For 33 years, my father Baldev had been waiting to get justice for his son. While the parents of the rest of the youths have passed away, he was the only witness to the illegal cremation of the bodies of these youths on a pyre at the police station in the dark of the night.”

“It’s a travesty that the incident is being belittled in a comment made by a senior political leader of a panthic party. The inquiry report on the issue was suppressed for 15 years from public knowledge. The action-taken report is still not being made public. It’s clear they don’t want justice delivered,” he said. Sikh organisations under the banner of the Alliance of Sikh Orgainsations also condemned the statement. Spokesperson for the organisations Sukhdev Singh Phagwara while releasing a statement here today said: “The former CM’s statement that such incidents (1986 Nakodar killings) keep on happening and that desecration is no more an issue, is similar to Congress leader Sam Pitroda’s ‘Hua to Hua’ statement on 1984. Badal’s stance on the killings of four Sikh youths is akin to “hua to hua”. It is clear he doesn’t want the demand for justice to be raised. Pitroda is a member of a non-Sikh party but Badal has been the state’s CM five times and is a patron of the SAD. It’s clear he is rather rubbing salt on the wounds of Sikhs.”

On the political front, Jalandhar AAP candidate Justice Jora Singh has sought a formal apology from Badal on the issue and Congress MP Santokh Chaudhary has also condemned the incident.

Ravinder Singh Littran, Harminder Singh Chalupar, Baldhir Singh Ramgarh and Jhilman Singh Gorcian were killed in an indiscriminate firing at Nakodar’s Sherpur bridge on February 4, 1986, while they were peacefully protesting against the burning of five birs of Guru Granth Sahib at the Gur­d­wara Guru Ar­jan Sahib, Guru Nanak Pura, here, on February 2.

“The Badals have suppressed the Justice Gurnam Singh report by keeping it under wraps. Despite his notorious role, Darbara Singh Guru was made his Principal Secretary. There was no discussion on the report in the Punjab Vidhan Sabha. Badal has to give an account for all this. We expect nothing else from a politician who made a career by sacrificing the lives of Sikhs, was in cahoots with Indira Gandhi for the 1984 carnage in Amritsar and is subservient to an entity whose mission is to eliminate the Sikh identity. He rewarded murderers of Sikhs and sold out people such as Jaswant Khalra to the state police,” Baldev said in a statement issued today.

“Nevertheless, we will continue our fight till the closure of this case. I owe it to my martyr son and the three other Sikh youths who achieved martyrdom, upholding the honour of Guru Granth Sahib. We will chase the culprits till our last breath,” he added.

Meanwhile, many Sikh bodies across the world have also condemned the statement made by the former CM.

Sikh bodies condemn ex-cm’s statement

Many Sikh bodies across the US, Canada and the UK have also condemned the statement made by former Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on the 1986 Nakodar incident.