What Punjab Terrorists Could Not Do

One may argue endlessly that terrorism and the quest for independence result from exploitation, lack of opportunity to advance, neglect and discrimination of a people by the authorities. There is merit in that argument but there is no justification for letting the situation go out of hand. The spectre of political parties that want to share power but refuse to share the responsibility of standing up to insurgency (and instead go into hiding) is pathetic. It is more so when terrorists are aided and abetted, financed and trained by an enemy from across the borders.

The prime goal for the authorities, who may have brought about the situation by their mishandling of the situation earlier, is to suppress lawlessness, insurgency, terrorism and unabated violence by any method that will ensure peace, order and opportunity to pursue political and democratic functioning.

What happened in Punjab in the early nineties was extremely serious. To control it and return the State to its earlier days of peace and prosperity, normal functioning of civic, social, economic and political life was an achievement of heroic proportions. To make the political parties once again relevant and to ensure democratic elections are no mean achievement.

The battle against separation and secession in Punjab was won by the sweat and blood of brave people, uniformed and un-uniformed courageous people when the political parties had become totally irrelevant by their cowardice and some by connivance with terrorists. The State and the country was saved and that has to be the prime goal of any authority any time, anywhere.

The peace that we see in Punjab today is the result of sacrifices by heroes, many of whom are being maligned today by those who failed in their sinister designs to divide the country one more time. They are joined by those who passively witnessed or even acquiesced with the enemies of the people and of India as a whole.

Elsewhere, is the news of one of those heroes who took his own life. What the terrorists could not do, was done by those who were supposed to defend him, applaud him and even decorate him for doing yeoman’s service to save the State and the Motherland. Instead, Ajit Singh Sandhu was charged with dozens of ‘crimes,’ jailed, attacked inside the jail, humiliated, and was driven to the point where he could not take it any more and took his own life.

The ‘Savior of Tarn Taran,’ as he was hailed by the people who are now living in comparative peace and normalcy, did not die out of fear of the consequences of those charges and the witch-hunt by the so-called human rights activists but by the ingratitude of the State that he helped save from disaster and extinction. As pointed out, rightly, by the ex-Punjab Supercop KPS Gill, himself retired unceremoniously, had people such as Sandhu not displayed courage and bravery, Punjab would have been lost and Kashmir would have been the next. The Government and the courts of the land would have presided over a jurisdiction from Delhi to Palam only. How true!

Those who were in hiding during militancy at its worst now behave as arbiters of the destiny of people like Sandhu who were given clear goals by political masters and had enough courage to accomplish them. These heroes rid the State of terrorists and saved the Motherland for the people to live in peace and without fear.

That was a battle the country could hardly afford to lose. In a battle you search, seek, encounter and destroy the enemy. There is no soft approach in this worthy mission. You can not plead with armed terrorists and their crafty henchmen by non-violence and prayers. It’s either your life or theirs, and the goals for you are clear.

Those who uphold freedom, democracy and peaceful life in your State and your country do not have to be targeted by so-called liberal intellectuals oblivious of hard realities on the ground. These Amnestywallahs and proponents of human rights with dubious background and ulterior motives, directly and indirectly work for the terrorists and not the victims. They are more concerned for the criminals and lawbreakers than the authority entrusted to restore law and order. The mission in Punjab for the Police was beyond law and order--it was saving the country.

There might have been stray cases of dereliction of duty and excesses but those were not the normal times. The answer to it and the corrective steps are not witch-hunt of those who risked their own lives for the community and the State. If the people who should universally be hailed as heroes and decorated are being hunted and hounded, the country will soon weaken and destroy itself. The vultures are waiting!

Let us not be unduly swayed by calls for ensuring human rights of those who have deprived countless peaceful, innocent, law abiding people of their human rights. In a warlike situation the political authorities call upon the security forces to handle the situation and officers like Sandhu did just that. In the absence of the political will and, probably paucity of brave men like Sandhu, the North East, Jammu and Kashmir, and some other areas are facing problems of terrorism where precious lives of men in uniform are being lost, along with civilians.

And that is a serious situation requiring determined steps as opposed to mischievous and motivated calls for safeguarding human rights of people responsible for inhuman atrocities on law abiding citizens.

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