Jagtar Singh

  Amritpal Akalis Make Forceful Public Assertion in the Panthic Domain Ground Zero Jagtar Singh One mobilisation alone may not be enough to establish a political trend, but the first major public exhibition of strength by the Akali Dal Waris Punjab De can certainly be seen as a forceful assertion to occupy the vacant Panthic space. That space has remained largely unoccupied since the involuntary exit of the Shiromani Akali Dal, under Sukhbir Singh Badal, from the centre of Panthic politics. On July 29, the party staged a massive protest march in Chandigarh demanding the release of its leader, Amritpal Singh, MP, who remains detained in far-away Dibrugarh jail   in Assam. The faction is headed by Amritpal Singh, the MP from Khadoor Sahib, who won the Lok Sabha election while incarcerated in Dibrugarh jail under the National Security Act. He remains lodged there in connection with another case. Another MP aligned with the party's ideological position is Sarabjit Singh Khalsa...

  Gen Z asserts secular republic, counters divisive agenda Ground Zero Jagtar Singh The unprecedentedly angry challenge from sections of society that the Sangh Parivar has nurtured over decades has shaken the very foundations of the Mandir-Masjid political dynamic, forcing the Narendra Modi government to capitulate. Earlier agitations, including the farmers’ protest and the movement against the Citizenship Amendment Act, challenged government policies but did not fundamentally disrupt the political framework unleashed by the Sangh Parivar and the BJP with the Ram Mandir mobilisation beginning in 1989. The Gen Z protesters, however, are rooted in the very middle class that had emerged as the most fertile ground for this divisive politics. The saffron leadership appears to have realised the threat posed by the proverbial cockroach to this carefully constructed framework. A cockroach is known for surviving the most hostile conditions; it can even feed on materials as inhospita...

  Quiet flows the Satluj in turbulent Punjab   Punjab was widely perceived to have returned to "normalcy" after a prolonged phase of violence during which the blood of more than 30,000 people was shed. Through it all, the mighty Satluj continued its timeless journey, flowing silently as it had since the dawn of civilization, altering its course only marginally over the centuries. Long before this region came to be known as Punjab, and long before India emerged as the name of a nation-state, the Satluj had borne witness to successive waves of conquest, conflict, migration, and resistance. As a silent spectator to history, the river has come to symbolize not merely continuity, but also the recurring turbulence that has shaped the destiny of this land. In that sense, the name Satluj itself has acquired a powerful metaphorical association with the cycles of upheaval and resilience that have defined Punjab across the ages.   For the last about a week, ‘Satluj’ has been ...

  Why should biggest democracy in the world fear human rightist Jaswant Singh Khalra Ground Zero Jagtar Singh   Chandigarh: Human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra ceased to be an individual   the night the Punjab police eliminated him after brutal torture after picking him up from his home in Kabir Nagar of Amritsar on the morning of September 6, 1995. World’s biggest democracy then feared him and now continues to be haunted by him more than 30 years after his extra-judicial killings going by the pulling down of Diljit Dosanjh starrer Satluj (original name Punjab 95) and directed by Goindwal Sahib born Honey Trehan from ZEE5 just two days after its screening. Trehan deserves credit for truthful depiction of that period and truth is bitter most of the times. Going by the newspaper reports, the centre has cited security concerns. The continuing security concerns associated with the border state of Punjab should be seen in the context of the claims of the centr...