Cong, SAD come to Sikh detainees’ aid

Amritsar, June 16

The ruling party as well as the Opposition have decried the Central government’s move challenging the Amritsar Sessions Court-2017 decision to compensate Sikh youths detained illegally by the Army and the Punjab Police from the Golden Temple during Operation Bluestar.
The counter-move has been initiated by none other than Congress MLA from Patti Harminder Singh Gill and SAD spokesperson Virsa Singh Valtoha.
Both were among the 365 youths who were arrested “illegally” in 1984, kept in a temporary prison for eight days in Amritsar and later shifted to the Jodhpur jail for four to five years.
On April 10, 2017, the Amritsar court had directed both Central and state governments to give Rs 4 lakh as compensation to 40 detainees, along with 6 per cent per annum interest from the date of filing the suit. The order for compensation covered both periods — illegal detention and alleged delay in trial.
The Centre has moved a petition in the High Court, seeking to express its point of view before releasing any compensation, whereas the state government is silent over the issue. Justice Ajay Tewari has set the hearing for July 2.
Valtoha, 21 then, was arrested from Guru Ramdas inn, kept in a temporary jail — Kendri Vidyalaya in Amritsar Cantonment — till June 17, 1984, before being shifted to the Jodhpur jail.
“I had a word with SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal, who was determined to approach the alliance partners at the Centre. We were subjected to inhuman treatment in the Jodhpur jail for five years and underwent interrogation by various agencies, faced torture. The Centre’s move is like rubbing salt on the wounds of innocent detainees who went through hell,” he said.
Gill said Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh had shown solidarity with the affected persons and assured all assistance. During the Congress regime in 2002, he had granted a compensation of Rs 1 lakh each. “A meeting will be scheduled with the Chief Minister in a day or two to decide next course of action,” he said.
Gill snubbed the Centre’s version that the prisoners were served food prepared with ‘desi ghee’. “It is a lie. Let alone ‘desi ghee’, we were not even given safe drinking water. Every detainee was given 5 litres of water every day,” he said.
At the age of just 20, Gill was associated with the Sikh Student Federation. His father was a katha vachak’ at the Golden Temple, from where he was arrested.
Meanwhile, Damdami Taksal’s head Harnam Singh Khalsa said not only the Congress, but the non-Congress forces too had set another example of discrimination towards Sikhs by the Centre.
Jodhpur Detainees Rehabilitation Committee activists — Kulbir Singh Gandiwind, Jaswant Singh Khalra and Baba Raj Singh Warpal — too sought former Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal’s intervention.