CHANDIGARH: A moving drama was witnessed at the Sector 2 residence of Punjab chief minister Beant Singh recently when more than 250 Sikh farmers from the Terai area of U.P. came in a deputation to apprise the chief minister of the farmer’s pitiable plight. They said the U.P. government had set armed goondas on the members of the community with the aim of driving them out of their hearth and home. In this connection they mentioned the activities of Pundit Gurbachan Lal Sharma and his sons who had committed several murders of innocent Sikhs. Even the local M.L.A.s and MPs had been terrorized into silence by this gang. Besides the U.P. government had posted police belonging to Nagaland who had been inimical to the Sikh population owing to the allegations that the Sikh army and police had committed atrocities on the Naga population The U.P. government and its police had been using the T.A.D.A laws to harass Sikhs and as many as 120 Sikhs had been put behind bars under this dreaded law. The Sikh deputationists were so scared that hone was willing to reveal his name (o newsmen because of the feat that the U.P. government would arrest them on one or the other pretext Beant Singh was quite brief and curt with the Sikh deputation He hardly gave two minutes to listen to their grievances. This provoked a Sikh to remove his turban for being placed at the feet of the chief minister with a cry: “help us our lives honor and property are in danger.” The chief minister said that he had a lot of information on what was happening in the Terai area of U.P. and had brought it to the attention of the U.P. chief minister He would take up the issue again with Kalyan Singh. India the chief minister said belonged to all. No one could be allowed to harass the people in this manner. He asked the U.P. Sikhs to have patience He was trying his best to help them. He had a plan to visit Terai soon.

The Sikh deputation returned evidently disappointed to U.P after talking to the Punjab chief minister. Even senior Punjab police officers are reported to be unhappy with their U.P. counterparts. They argued that militants in Punjab would gain from the anti-Sikh behavior of the U.P. police.

Article extracted from this publication >> November 13, 1992