VIEWPOINT
AMITABH SHUKLA
Sarabjit Singh has now become a
part of history. After a campaign running into several years for his freedom,
all his sister Dalbir Kaur could get was his body after the 49-year-old
Bhikhiwind resident was brutally assaulted with an intention to kill in Pakistani
custody.
There was competitive frenzy all
around after the death to eulogize Sarabjit-something which never happened when
he was alive and spent most of his adult life in Kot Lakhpat Jail in Lahore.
Had the government shown the same levels of interest in him when he was alive,
he could well have escaped the brutal assault and happily ensconced in his
newly built house, very close to the international border with Pakistan.
Punjab
government has coined the word “national martyr” for him and declared a three-day
State mourning and organised a State funeral while Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh called him “brave son of India
who bore his tribulations with valiant fortitude.” Then, there were leaders of
all hues and affiliations who hailed him as a hero. All this came even though
the Pakistan
authorities repeatedly termed him a spy, tried him for serial blasts, held him
responsible for the death of 14 people and even the Supreme Court of the
country confirmed the death sentence.
This all leaves me very confused.
I do not know whether he was a martyr, a spy, a simple farmer tilling someone
else’s land, a case of mistaken identity as his family insists, a simple youth
who went to Pakistan in an inebriated condition only to be framed later or a
hardcore terrorist as Pakistan insists. After coming back from Bhikhiwind and
talking to his friends and co-villagers, I am not any wiser.
If we leave apart competitive
jingoism of the rival political parties - Congress and the Akali Dal, as
Indians, we would first have to define what “martyr” is. Sarabjit never worked
for the armed forces, police or the paramilitary forces. That is on record. No
Indian agency, RAW, IB or Military Intelligence ever owned him and ever said he
was an asset working in a foreign country. In such a situation, how can one
assume that he was indeed a “martyr” who died for a national cause?
Even if the Central government
knows that he was indeed a spy as all such networks are operated by the Central
agencies, how is Punjab government so sure that he was a “national martyr” and
gave Rs 1 crore to his family members, announced a State funeral and Government
jobs to both his daughters. A State Government never sends spies to foreign
countries nor is it privy to the information about Sarabjit, if any, which the
Central Government possesses.
In Bhikhiwind, Sarabjit indeed
was being hailed as a local hero by the co-villagers. But you ask them, what
had he done for the country and they would stare at you blankly. For many,
something big was happening in the village as dozens of OB
vans showing Live feed were stationed all across and everyone with any
connection with Sarabjit was giving an interview.
Now the politics of competitive
popularity came in with the two main parties trying to own up Sarabjit. None
would have liked to be behind in the game of one upmanship when frenzy was
being built. And so, in the process Sarabjit got the status of a martyr with
the government not even bothering to find out what the word actually means.
So far, I knew that Bhagat Singh
was a martyr. So was Sukhdev, Rajguru, Chandra Shekhar Azad, Subhash Chandra
Bose and numerous others who lost their lives fighting the British or died in
the jails in Andaman and Nicobar Islands serving life
sentence. I also knew that the heroes who fought against the enemies in 1948,
1962, 1965, 1971 and the Kargil conflict and made the supreme sacrifice of
their lives are martyrs. Then there were hundreds of those in the police and
paramilitary forces who fought insurgency in the north-east, Jammu
and Kashmir and Punjab and
foiled the designs of the hostile neighbors. No one would dispute that they are
martyrs.
All those who guard our borders
in inhospitable conditions and die either due to cross firing or bad weather
are also martyrs. Somehow, for me, it is indeed difficult to relate Sarabjit to
the martyrs of the above category, however hard the government tries or
whatever the amount of footage the television channels give to his death and
howsoever big attends his funeral. Can anyone in the government explain to me
what exactly made him a martyr? In fact, I talked to a few officials and I did
not get any answer.
A few weeks before Sarabjit’s
death, another Indian prisoner Chamel Singh from the Jammu
region too was assaulted in the same jail and killed in a similar manner.
Chamel Singh too was accused by the Pakistani establishment to be a spy and his
body was returned only after almost two months of his death. His family members
are pleading and meeting everyone important urging for the status of martyr to
him. But no one is listening. The battle among the parties for competitive
populism would not yield anything here. There are no TV channels to take up the
cause of the Jammu resident. Can
anyone explain how Chamel Singh’s case is different from that of Sarabjit?
Punjab Assembly passed a
resolution declaring Sarabjit a “national martyr”. Last year, the same Assembly
passed a resolution welcoming Surjeet Singh who was released by Pakistan
after spending three decades in a Pakistani jail. After a hero’s welcome, the
spy has been left to fend for himself. While Surjeet, a former constable in the
Border Security Force, says that he crossed over to Pakistan
several times and was a spy, hired by an intelligence agency for the country,
Home Secretary Raj Kumar Singh categorically denied the assertions. The Home
Secretary then said that India
was not into spying and the assertions of Surjeet are not correct.
Surjeet says he was abandoned by
the country after being caught and there was no one to own him up all these
years when he was in solitary confinement. Even Pakistani authorities had
charged him with spying and awarded the death sentence which was commuted to
life imprisonment later on.
In fact, there are tales of
dozens of former spies in Punjab and the Jammu
region who have been abandoned by the agencies and handlers who apparently used
them. They claim that they worked for the country but no one ever came forward
to own them up or offer any financial or moral support. After spending a time
varying from one to three decades in jail, some of them are working as laborers
now, some have become too old to take care of themselves, others are mental wreck
and some of them question why they took up the profession of James Bond. A
couple of them went on hunger strike to press for their demand which fell on
deaf ears. Most of the former spies are semi literate, perhaps a qualification
for a low-profile and high risk career which they voluntary adopted for a
little money, adventure and idealism to serve for the country.
Apart from Surjeet, Gopal Das and
Kashmir Singh were the last two spies whose return became a media event. Gopal
Das was released in April 2011 after 27 years in jail while Kashmir Singh, who
too was initially sentenced to death, like Sarabjit and Surjeet, was released
in March 2008. After returning, both of them narrated a tale almost similar to
the one which Surjeet has to tell. They admitted to spying and accused the
country of doing little to secure their release or help their family while they
were incarcerated in the jail.
In fact, the social, cultural and
linguistic similarities along with the physical features of people inhabiting India’s
Punjab and Jammu region is so similar to that of west Punjab in Pakistan that
the agencies found the local youth ideal for the job in the 1960s, 70s and even
the 80s. Things changed in the late 80s
and 90s when the fence came up on the international border and one could no
longer cross over to the other side at will. Moreover, the role of traditional
methods of spying and information gathering was no longer important considering
the fact that in the era of technological boom, this was no longer needed. No
country or agency needed pictures of vital installations and movement of the
armed forces as the satellites captured and beamed the pictures much more
effectively. The traditional methods of spying, the one in which Surjeet, Gopal
Das and Kashmir Singh and countless others
were involved, had become obsolete and now is completely outdated.
If you recognise Sarabjit,
wrongly or rightly, it was time you also recognised the Surjeets, Kashmirs,
Gopals and countless others. Turning a deaf ear and a blind eye would not help. (May 6, 2013)
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra
Modi on Sunday practically launched the BJP’s campaign for the Lok Sabha election 2014 here
on the borders of 
