Paash’s relative seeks clemency for Bhullar
[Editor: The blunder caused by the "State Sponsored Murder" of Afzal Guru, a convict in the Indian "Parliament Attack Conspiracy", has already ignited the dormant "Kashmiri Separatist Movement", now with the main opposition party the BJP supporting the execution of Mr.DPS Bhullar, a Mechanical Engineer, the threat of a civil war lurks at the backyard, as the renewed call for "Khalistan Movement", an independent country for the Sikhs, gets bolder. A large number of Sikh Groups all over the world has given a call to boycott, Air India, the airlines owned by the government of India (GOI), apart from charging it (GOI) with human rights violations and Indians are being suddenly thrown into a crisis. It seems the BJP will now equal the Left in terms of "Blunders". Peace cannot be achieved through the barrel of a Gun and also, when dealing with political prisoners, extreme care must be taken or else the nation could be pushed towards a high-voltage communal unrest, like what is happening in Pakistan or in Bangladesh. The time has come to do away with "Death Penalty", paying heed to the call for its total abolition in India, by the rights groups, world-wide and the UN]
Despite personal loss caused by the pro Khalistan Sikh militants, Dhido Gill is seeking clemency for a Khalistani militant Devinderpal Singh Bhullar.
Gill is a brother-in-law and an ideological friend of Paash, a revolutionary Punjabi poet who was assassinated by the supporters of
Khalistan Commando Force in 1988. Gill has also supported a Facebook petition seeking amnesty for Bhullar, who is facing death sentence for the 1993 car bombing that left 9 people dead.
Both Paash and Gill vehemently opposed religious fundamentalism and theocracy. They together launched, "Anti 47 Front" - a platform that denounced repetition of 1947 like partition of India on religious lines. India and Pakistan were separated on sectarian lines in 1947.
Being supporters of the ultra leftist Naxalite movement both were highly critical of fanaticism. Although Paash was also critical of Hindu fundamentalism and had written a poem critical of anti Sikh pogrom that was engineered by the Congress party following the assassination of the Indian Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi by her Sikh body guards in 1984, the Khalistan Commando Force (KCF) murdered him and claimed responsibility for the crime. Years later, the KCF leader Labh Singh regretted Paash’s murder in his diary the excerpts of which were published in Indo Canadian Times in 1995.
Setting aside personal grudges and ideological differences, Gill told this reporter over the phone from California that the state has no authority to take away human life. "I am principally opposed to capital punishment."
According to Gill, Bhullar also deserves pardon due to his poor mental health situation. "Had Paash been alive he too would have opposed it," he noted while reminding that Paash was a humanist writer.
He also criticized political parties which were trying to take mileage out of this issue. "All regional and communal considerations should be set aside to get capital punishment abolished instead of being selective.". He argued if so many countries can abolish capital punishment why can’t India?
Despite personal loss caused by the pro Khalistan Sikh militants, Dhido Gill is seeking clemency for a Khalistani militant Devinderpal Singh Bhullar.
Gill is a brother-in-law and an ideological friend of Paash, a revolutionary Punjabi poet who was assassinated by the supporters of
Both Paash and Gill vehemently opposed religious fundamentalism and theocracy. They together launched, "Anti 47 Front" - a platform that denounced repetition of 1947 like partition of India on religious lines. India and Pakistan were separated on sectarian lines in 1947.
Being supporters of the ultra leftist Naxalite movement both were highly critical of fanaticism. Although Paash was also critical of Hindu fundamentalism and had written a poem critical of anti Sikh pogrom that was engineered by the Congress party following the assassination of the Indian Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi by her Sikh body guards in 1984, the Khalistan Commando Force (KCF) murdered him and claimed responsibility for the crime. Years later, the KCF leader Labh Singh regretted Paash’s murder in his diary the excerpts of which were published in Indo Canadian Times in 1995.
Setting aside personal grudges and ideological differences, Gill told this reporter over the phone from California that the state has no authority to take away human life. "I am principally opposed to capital punishment."
According to Gill, Bhullar also deserves pardon due to his poor mental health situation. "Had Paash been alive he too would have opposed it," he noted while reminding that Paash was a humanist writer.
He also criticized political parties which were trying to take mileage out of this issue. "All regional and communal considerations should be set aside to get capital punishment abolished instead of being selective.". He argued if so many countries can abolish capital punishment why can’t India?
Courtesy: Hindustan Times
