Committing a crime is wrong and a crime committed in response to a crime cannot be justified, but the glorification of crime and criminals is such a grave social misdeed that prepares future criminals. Sicks the mentality of the society.
An angry devotee shot dead a woman who was drinking alcohol near the sarovar of a gurudwara in Patiala. The woman was drug addicted and stressed. Breaking the dignity of a holy place is undoubtedly an unforgivable crime, but the question is who has the right to punish? To the judicial system or to the devotee? But here the devotee violated the norms of the law and committed another crime. From the point of view of justice, two criminals got involved in one incident, but here there is also a third class of criminals who showered flowers on the murdered devotee and worked to make him ‘Kaum Da Heera’. This third class may not be in the dock of the law, but when there will be a social analysis of the incident, then these people will be seen standing in the temple of justice as the biggest criminals who showered flowers on Talibanism. Blameless shower of flowers is a sign that Talibanism is rapidly infecting the healthy part of the society and people suffering from it are working as scabs in the leprosy of fundamentalism by making heroes like sick souls like themselves.
It has been seen that as fundamentalism is getting social, religious and political acceptance in Punjab, neither intellectuals nor civil society speaks against such incidents. Not only this, many religious institutions associated with the sect are seen standing on the back of the accused. In the case of a woman being shot dead at Gurudwara Sri Dukh Nivaran Sahib in Patiala last week, the police have revealed that the murdered woman was an alcoholic and was under stress. According to eyewitnesses, the Gurudwara’s sevadar refused the girl, then she broke the bottle and hit the sevadar on the arm. During this the crowd gathered. The girl was taken to the gurdwara manager’s room, where a bystander pulled out a pistol and fired four rounds at the girl. When the accused was presented in the court, the Sangat welcomed him with open arms and he was showered with flowers like heroes.
By the way, this type of Taliban killing is not new in Punjab. So far, seven Dera Sacha Sauda devotees have been killed in the 2015 sacrilege case. Dera lover Pradeep Singh was killed in Faridkot in February this year. Earlier Gurdev Singh was killed on June 13, 2016, Satpal Sharma and his son Ramesh Sharma on February 25, 2017 in Khanna’s Jageda village. On January 23, 2019, Mohinder Pal Bittu, who was lodged in Nabha Jail, was murdered. On 20 January 2020, Manohar Lal was murdered in village Bhagatabhai in Bathinda district. Similarly, Charandas was murdered in Bhundad village of Muktsar district in the month of December last year. It is to be noted that many of these accused were booked for sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib over trivial matters and were later murdered by various fanatics.
The whole country saw that Nihangs hanged a Dalit youth from a barricade and cut him live on video during the so-called farmer’s movement on the border of Delhi. After this, in the Golden Temple of Amritsar and a Gurdwara in Kapurthala, the Talibani devout mentality mercilessly killed those accused of sacrilege. In the same month, in Ropar district, an accused of sacrilege died during treatment in the jail hospital and the matter was dismissed as a natural death. Fearing vandalism, the family of the accused had already left the village. The meaning of saying is that in the name of dignity, the game of blood and ashes is being played openly in Punjab and the society is becoming an equal partner in these murders by keeping silence on it.
Committing a crime is wrong and a crime committed in response to a crime cannot be justified, but the glorification of crime and criminals is such a grave social misdeed that prepares future criminals. Sicks the mentality of the society. It is unfortunate that Punjab, which is facing the consequences of glorifying crime and criminals, is unable to learn anything from its past. The way extremism is being glorified today, at one time alcohol, drugs and weapons were also glorified in the same way, as a result of which films like ‘Udta Punjab’ were made about Punjab, the land of milk, ghee and lassi. Started The glorification of arms produced gangsters by the dozen in the state. The cocktail of these gangsters, terrorists and drug smugglers licked the peace and development of the state like a mite. If the success of fundamentalists continues like this, then these fundamentalists will become ideal for the generations to come. The wrong ideal will create a criminal society, which will create many problems for the country and society. The need of the hour is to stop the trend of showering flowers on Talibanism in the state. Political parties, religious institutions, intellectuals and social organizations of Punjab should come forward for this work. It should be a matter of concern for the country that how the land of rishis-sages, pirs-fakirs and gurus seems to be becoming a nursery of fundamentalism today. Already suffering from drug terror and Khalistani separatism, increased radicalization in the border state of the country will create many new problems which will eventually affect the entire country.
-Rakesh San
