The Amritpal Singh farce

PUNJAB: In Bollywood movies of the 1970s, the hero sticks on a pencil-thin moustache and walks into the villain’s lair but goes undetected for any length of time. Finally, exasperated by the thick mobsters who can’t see through the disguise, the hero announces himself by coming clean.

The Amritpal Singh farce being enacted in Punjab, and god knows how many other police jurisdictions, has a nudge-nudge-wink-wink quality that only filmi pot-boilers can match. Every turn in the tale since his appearance out of nowhere last September, from his lisping of anti-national spiel to his Bhindranwale braggadocio, indicates a colour-me Khalistan design by whoever his handlers are.

It’s been nearly three weeks since the Punjab Police announced a state-wide manhunt for Amritpal. For nearly a month prior to that, they sat on their haunches while he allegedly kidnapped a man, attacked a police station with hundreds of supporters, and freely gave interviews to media. All of a sudden, in the third week of March, the police said they’ve thrown the book at him, charging him with National Security Act violations, extortion, criminal intimidation, rash driving, possession of prohibited arms, sedition, etc.

Since then we’ve been fed press leaks phrased like treasure hunt clues, ostensibly meant to reassure us that an arrest is imminent but more reminiscent of a Keystone Cops caper: Amritpal spotted switching from Merc to bike; Amritpal changes attire in full view of CCTV cameras; Amritpal seen leaving flat in Delhi; Amritpal sighted in Nepal; Amritpal received facelift in Georgia and so on.

The police have gone to great lengths to keep this drama going, arriving, like Bollywood cops, in the nick of time to miss their quarry, falling into a ditch or rushing in the opposite direction of every arrow. To think that this is the same police force that waged a war-like campaign to rid Punjab of Pakistani-funded terrorists back in the late 1980s requires some suspension of disbelief.

Now as we enter the run-up to Baisakhi on April 13 in Punjab, we get yet more leaks that Amritpal will finally give himself up at Bhatinda on the Sikh holy day. Senior Punjab Police officers have been talking up this event as the result of their oh so tiring work but it’s apparent that we’re being led up to a denouement reminiscent of the arrest/surrender of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale in 1981, which built him up overnight into a household name and sent Punjab into a decade-long convulsion of terrorism.

The Bhindranwale surrender too was marked by a diminution of the Punjab Police’s authority as keepers of law and order. Wanted for the murder of newspaper proprietor Lala Jagat Narain, Bhindranwale dictated the timing and venue of his surrender. He demanded that the Sikh clergy first declare him as a leader of the cause, and that the event at his headquarters at Mehta be witnessed by an audience of 75,000, with the tallest Akali leaders like Harchand Singh Longowal in attendance. The authorities did as bid and the rest is blood-soaked history.

Ever since unidentified men from within the farmers’ protest rally unfurled the Nishan Sahib at the Red Fort on Republic Day 2021 in full view of the police of the nation’s capital, it’s been apparent that we are being nudged to worry about the Khalistan bogey. It’s odd that a central government that deals with the so-called tukde tukde gang with an iron fist is watching this farce in a border state while dormant nationalist passions are being trifled with. It’s equally mystifying that a Centre which meddles in state’s affairs at the drop of a hat should be so quiescent on an issue that is supposedly so close to its heart.