Current Events
David vs Goliath:
Dying Activist Surat Singh Continues To Challenge Indian Government’s Excesses
NEW INDIAN EXPRESS
Since January 16, 2015, 83-year old activist Bapu Surat Singh has been in news or little less in the news despite his fast-unto-death plans seeking the release of Sikh political prisoners who have already completed their jail-terms.
Did he achieve his goals?
The answer is a big no as he was forcefully confined at a Ludhiana hospital. He was also subjected to force-feeding and other dubious medical treatments.
Surat Singh's demand is a legitimate one, as he wants 43 Sikh political prisoners across several jails in the country to be released, as they are still languishing there in their old age, long after completing their jail-terms.
In reply, Punjab's current Director-General of Police (DGP) Sumedh Saini -- a man who has been identified by numerous witnesses as a mass-murderer from the post 1984-era -- has tried to obfuscate the facts by falsely claiming that Surat Singh initially named 82 convicts, and some of them were arrested very recently, just a year ago and were in undertrial.
Also in July 2014, Supreme Court, in an order, stayed the release of life convicts across the country.
Now Surat Singh's lawyer, Jaspal Singh Manjhpur, said that the DGP's list has been falsely increased to 200 names, among which 70 to 75 have already served over 15 to 20 years of jail term.
Also PUCL (People’s Union For Civil Liberties) lawyer Arjun Sheoran, while claiming Punjab government’s inability to act on the entire matter due to the Supreme Court 2014 order as an inaccurate one, said that an interim application could be filed for the release of these prisoners.
After ignoring Surat Singh's fast for the first three weeks, Punjab Police forcefully shifted him to a civil hospital on February 8 and placed under preventive arrest. Also, food pipes have been stitched on the activist’s forehead, resulting in an infection.
PUCL said to the media that if the allegations were true, it would lead to inflicting inhuman and illegal treatment, by the state to Surat Singh.
Surat Singh’s son, Ravinderjit Singh, a U.S. citizen, who came to Punjab to look after his father, was held under police custody for two months under charges of being “likely to commit a breach of the peace”. After his release on April 27, Ravinder said to the media that he was tortured and that his life was in danger, apart from being blackmailed for manipulating Surat into stopping his protest.
[Courtesy: New Indian Express. Edited for sikhchic.com]
September 29, 2015
Conversation about this article
1: Rup Singh (Canada), September 30, 2015, 9:30 PM.
India, a third world country, has the world's most impoverished, malnourished, bonded in labour and stunted-growth children. Does anyone really think the politicians or judiciary will give into any demand of an old man, when they have zero sympathy for suffering children. Let's not forget Sardar Surat Singh is from a minority against which a government pogrom was carried out with the help of the very same politicians and police, and later the judiciary did not want to find anyone guilty. A few days ago, a Muslim man was murdered by a Hindu mob for allegedly eating beef. In India animals are worshipped and humans are killed without even a thought. So does anyone or will anyone at any level of government care that all this brave old man wants is those prisoners released from prison who have already done their time and more?