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By Yudhajit Shankar Das: Amritpal Singh’s road to jail was via Rode village. And Rode is not just any other village in Punjab.
Khalistani separatist Amritpal Singh surrendered and was arrested by Punjab Police on Sunday morning. This brought to close a 37-day manhunt that often saw dramatic car chases and switching of vehicles.
But what is most interesting is how Amritpal Singh got paradropped onto the scene after the death of Deep Sidhu and tried to rebrand himself as Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale 2.0.
Actor-activist Deep Sidhu was the founder and head of Waris Punjab De, and after his death, Amritpal took over the reins of the organisation.
Amritpal’s road to jail via Rode was also part of that same image that he has been trying to project since long. Rode is the native village of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale.
Bhindranwale was a propagator for the creation of a proposed Sikh majority state of Khalistan. He was killed on June 6, 1984, in Operation Blue Star by the Army during clashes with Khalistani terrorists.
HOW AMRITPAL TRIED TO REBRAND HIMSELF
Amritpal Singh was born in 1993 in Jallupur Khera village in Amritsar district. He attended Holy Heart Public School and later acquired a mechanical engineering degree from the Lord Krishna Polytechnic College in Kapurthala.
Amritpal then joined the family cargo transport business in Dubai and worked as an operations manager. He moved to Dubai in 2012 and worked in the family transport business for a decade.
Then came the turning point in Amritpal Singh’s life. Deep Sidhu, who gained prominence during the farmers’ agitation, was killed in a road accident in February 2022.
Amritpal returned to India in August last year and took over the reins of Deep Sidhu’s outfit, Waris Punjab De.
ALSO READ | Top Sikh body snubs Khalistani leader Amritpal Singh over ‘Sarbat Khalsa’ call
By then, Amritpal had undergone a sea change. From being a ‘mona’, a Sikh who trims his hair and beard, he took part in Sikh baptism ceremony (Amrit chakhna) that avowes a life of prayer and strict discipline. From western outfits, he took to sporting long bana shirt and a dumala turban.
In fact, his turban-tying ceremony (dastar bandi) was also held at Rode village, Bhindranwale’s ancestral village.
It was evident that Amritpal was trying to be Bhindranwale 2.0 by the way he styled his turban and the way he moved around with heavily armed Nihang Sikhs. And then the Rode connection was unmissable.
It is said that Amritpal Singh underwent eye surgery in Georgia to resemble Bhindranwale before returning to India in 2022.
The revelation was made by aides of Amritpal Singh who are currently lodged in Assam’s Dibrugarh jail after police slapped National Security Act (NSA) charges on them, sources told India Today.
WHY AMRITPAL IS NO BHINDRANWALE
Amritpal Singh is a propagator of Khalistan, just like his idol Bhindranwale. But the similarity ends there.
Bhindranwale, born in 1947, was a Taksali Sikh. His emergence was part of a political process. But Amritpal Singh was paradropped into the vacuum created by moderate outfits like the Shiromani Akali Dal.
Bhindranwale’s father gave him to the Sikh seminary Damdami Taksal when he was just seven. He learnt passages from the Guru Granth Sahib by rote and grew up to be a dominant figure in the Damdami Taksal. He was elected the head of the seminary in 1971.
After the rout in the election after the Emergency, Indira Gandhi’s son, Sanjay Gandhi, wanted to break up the Shiromani Akali Dal, which was holding protests from 1975 to 1977. Sanjay Gandhi handpicked Bhindranwale to demolish the Akali leadership.
Bhindranwale was popular in Punjab and he campaigned for the Congress too.
Amritpal Singh has no mass following. No major political party has backed him.
In fact, he faced massive criticism after he and his armed followers stormed Ajnala police station with a copy of Guru Granth Sahib.
ALSO READ | Khalistani separatist Amritpal Singh underwent surgery in Georgia to look like Bhindranwale: Sources
ENDS IN A WHIMPER FOR NOW
Police began a crackdown on Amritpal Singh on March 18 over the attack on the Ajnala police station.
The clampdown saw Khalistani “fringe elements” in the UK, US, Canada and Australia took to the streets to protest against the police action in India. There was a violent protest at the Indian high commission in London.
But in India, Amritpal’s appeals never garnered much support.
While on the run, Amritpal Singh issued a video message and called for Sarbat Khalsa (Sikh congregation) on Baisakhi. He said the Golden Temple Jathedar should take a stand in this matter and all the Jathedars and Taksals should also participate in Sarbat Khalsa.
His Sarbat Khalsa call found no support from Akal Takht, DSGMC (Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee), Dal Khalsa and many other outfits.
Baisakhi was on April 14. No Sarbat Khalsa took place.
On Sunday, Amritpal addressed a gathering at the Rode gurdwara before surrendering. Jasveer Singh Rode, nephew of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, helped in the surrender of Amritpal Singh.
Even in death, Bhindranwale has attained an iconic status and remains a polarising figure.
ALSO READ | How Amritpal Singh is not Bhindranwala 2.0 | Analysis
Bhindranwale’s rise to popularity coincided and fuelled the insurgency in Punjab. There is a lot of difference between the Punjab of the 1980s and the Punjab of 2023.
On Saturday, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said there was no Khalistani wave in Punjab.
“There is no Khalistani wave in Punjab. The government is doing its job. We are monitoring the situation very closely. No one can attack India’s unity and sovereignty,” said Shah when asked about fugitive Amritpal Singh and the Khalistani wave in Punjab.
Though Amritpal is no Bhindranwale, his story could just be the beginning. And considering border-state Punjab’s history, no threat is small enough to be taken lightly.
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