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Assassination and a hanging sentence
TRIBUNE SAGA |
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TOUCHSTONE
On the record by
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Assassination and a hanging sentence
They
thought they had a perfect assassination. A militant with explosives around his waist more than willing to blow himself up, the targeted Chief Minister well in sight, and an array of co-conspirators to cover up the tracks. But Jagtar Singh Hawara and his accomplices, including Balwant Singh Rajoana, didn’t realise assassination plots have a way of being discovered. Innocuous details and chance discoveries do the job. Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh’s assassination turned out no different. The statements made by witnesses in courts, confessions, arguments, interaction with investigators and conspirators, and the judgment in the case show what an involved tale of intrigue, conspiracy, trepidation, euphoria and failure it was.
The blast The beginning of the unravelling of the conspiracy was the fateful evening of August 31, 1995, when Beant Singh was assassinated. As the sun set behind the faraway buildings in the west, casting a golden-orange haze above the horizon, then Chief Minister Beant Singh in white kurta-pyjamas — surrounded by many aides — walked out of his office at the Punjab Secretariat in Chandigarh. The routine closure of a work day gave no inkling to the Chief Minister and 16 others that they would not see another day. Dinesh Kumar Tripathi, in-charge of the Chief Minister’s security, recalls: “When the Chief Minister moved out of his office, I gave a ready call to the carcade. It was 5:05 pm....” Five minutes later, an RDX blast shook the country, and plastered body parts against pillars and walls of the secretariat porch. For Tripathi and others, it all happened so fast they hardly registered anything. “The last thing I noticed before becoming unconscious was Dr (Anil) Duggal talking to the Chief Minister,” Tripathi says. Inspector Nanha Ram, who prepared the inquest report, noted he “saw the burnt dead body lying in the rear seat of the car meant for the Chief Minister.”
Four burnt-out cars and a Gypsy that were more a pile of twisted and jagged metal is what CBI investigating officer S.N. Saxena saw the first as he reached the spot the day after the blast. But even before the CBI could properly cordon off the explosion site, Punjab’s then Director-General of Police, KPS Gill, made the statement that the blast was the doing of a “human bomb”. There was immediate hullabaloo over the claim, with many accusing Gill of trying to cover up for the “failure” of the Punjab Police to save the Chief Minister. Gill’s logic was simple — the high intensity blast should have caused a crater at least three-foot deep, which was not there. But, at the time the theory did not seem credible, as only one out of the 14 eyewitnesses examined during the trial said he had seen the human bomb. The rest said they saw or heard nothing suspicious. Prosecution witness Harkesh Singh was the only person who claimed having seen the human bomb: “At the time, the CM was talking to Dr Duggal”. He saw a “person in police uniform” coming towards Beant Singh, and “thereafter, there was the blast”. On their part, the conspirators claimed “divine intervention turned everyone blind”. Prior to one of the hearings before the then District and Sessions Judge, Amar Dutt, standby human bomb Balwant Singh Rajoana said: “It was nothing but divine intervention. Just as Bhai Dilawar Singh was approaching the Chief Minister, everyone around was momentarily blinded. That’s the reason why there are no eyewitnesses”. It was only later the investigators discovered that Dilawar Singh “Babbar” was a serving Punjab Police official when he became a human bomb.
The execution Rajoana is forthright in his admission: “I tied the bomb on the person of Bhai Sahib with my own hands, and I do not regret my involvement in the murder. I am proud of the sacrifice made by him, and I bow my head before him in respect.” The explosive belt was prepared in the room of Gurmeet Singh at Mohali. Balwant Singh had picked up nuts, bolts and ball bearings from a Patiala scrap market to stuff in the belt along with the explosive to maximise damage. At the secretariat, apparently no one suspected anything as Dilawar Singh approached the Chief Minister’s car in police uniform with files in his hand. At the time, Hawara was not present “anywhere near the secretariat or Chandigarh”.
The discovery In the days following the blast, an intriguing tale was revealed. The seemingly “flawless” operation was exposed because the conspirators failed to retrieve a car used in the crime. It could have gone unnoticed but for a strange turn of events. Soon after the blast, two cops on duty had the urge to smoke. To avoid being seen smoking in public, they entered an unlocked Ambassador car that they saw parked a little distance away from the blast site. Inside, they noticed the interiors were grey, while the exterior was white. Curious, they opened the glove compartment, and found bits of evidence. Later, it was found the car had been used by the conspirators to reach the spot. It was to be driven away after the blast, but in the commotion they could not. The assassins had managed to have the steel grey vehicle painted “Franko White” to match the colour of government cars to make access to the secretariat easy, but the moisture in the air due to rain prevented them from getting the inside painted too. On August 26, 1995, five days before the D-day, unsuspecting automobile painter Surinder Sharma was at work when assassination co-conspirator Lakhwinder Singh, along with three others, came in an Ambassador car (DBA-9598). They asked for the car to be painted white and delivered by August 29. But they took it away only on August 30. At the time, the area around the glove compartment was grey. The matter would have been closed for Surinder, but for the photo of the car he saw in a paper on September 2 — just two days after the blast. Investigators were already searching for the number plate painter. The style of painting the number suggested it had been done in Mohali. Meanwhile, Surinder Sharma turned jittery, as he saw a cop arrive in the market to have his bike’s clutch wire replaced. He decided to narrate the entire story to the police.
Key players and the motivation The BKI saw Beant Singh as an “autocratic leader with a despotic style of working”. Balwant Singh has said: “Indian rulers tried to destroy the Sikh community through Beant Singh.” Hawara motivated Punjab Police constable Dilawar Singh to become a human bomb and “martyr”. Rajoana was the alternative human bomb. The decision on who would die was taken with a toss. Hawara himself remained behind the scenes. He persuaded one proclaimed offender, Jagtar Singh Tara, to purchase an Ambassador car and sent co-conspirators Lakhwinder Singh and Shamsher Singh to the car painter, and was not seen on the day of the blast.
Third-party pleas
Balwant Singh Rajoana, condemned to death, has refused to file an appeal against the sentence or seek mercy. Intervention by human rights organisations for clemency has proved futile. Sikh high priests have now “directed” Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and SGPC president Avtar Singh Makkar to meet the President to seek Rajoana’s unconditional release. Beant Singh’s family too is willing to pardon him. However, legal experts believe third-party intervention will cut no ice, and Balwant Singh alone can appeal against his death sentence. As the sentence is “personal to him”, when he says “I do not seek mercy”, no one else can make the plea to save him from the gallows.
CASE TIMELINE August 31, 1995 Beant Singh, 16 others assassinated September 1995 Chandigarh Police recovers abandoned Ambassador car with Delhi number, Lakhwinder Singh first to be arrested. February 19, 1996 Challan against 12 committed to UT Sessions Court. April 30, 1996 Charges framed against Gurmeet Singh (engineer with BPL), Nasib Singh (agriculturalist), Lakhwinder Singh (Punjab Police constable), Navjot Singh (Ranbaxy employee), Jagtar Singh Tara (taxi driver), Shamsher Singh (truck driver), Jagtar Singh Hawara (BKI member), Balwant Singh Rajoana (Punjab Police constable), and Paramjit Singh Bheora. Mehal Singh, Wadhawa Singh and Jagroop Singh were declared absconders. June 1998 First Burail jailbreak attempt foiled. January 22, 2004 Three of nine accused escape from jail. June 8, 2005 Hawara re-arrested by Delhi Police. July 27, 2007 Six accused, Hawara, Balwant, Gurmeet, Lakhwinder, Shamsher Singh and Nasib Singh, convicted. Navjot Singh acquitted. July 31, 2007 Hawara and Balwant Singh awarded death sentence by trial court; Gurmeet, Lakhwinder and Shamsher get life imprisonment. Nasib Singh, having served 10 years' jail, released. October 12, 2010 High court commutes Hawara's death penalty to life; to remain behind bars till his last. Balwant Singh's death sentence upheld. Other convicts, Lakhwinder Singh, Gurmeet Singh and Shamsher Singh, to serve life imprisonment.
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TRIBUNE SAGA
Some 20 years ago, its Assistant Editor who lived in a castle near Chandigarh, persuaded me to write a weekly column at half the rates I got for my syndicated weekly column I write for the Hindustan Times. I have not been able to extricate myself from the unfair arrangement, as many other papers across the country, both English and Indian languages, were reproducing it and paying me a pittance. My willingness to take it on was frustrated, and I continue to be just a weekly columnist, being paid the wage I drew when I started with it. I hoped its new Editor, Raj Chengappa, would raise my salary, but so far he has not bothered to do so. This is not a fair assessment of V.N. Datta’s "The Tribune 130 years: A Witness to History" (Hay House). It is an exhaustive work of research and lucid prose. It now has a Hindi and Gurmukhi version. Its 125th anniversary was celebrated four years ago with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as the chief guest. Datta was head of Kurukshetra University and author of several books, including one on the tragedy of Jallianwala Bagh. Designer clothes to designer books Harinder Singh and his wife Kirandeep Kaur ran a flourishing business in designing clothes. With equal enthusiasm, they sponsor books on Sikhism for children published abroad. Then he bullies me to write about them in my columns. His latest venture is pushing sales of two books: "My Frist Kaur Book" and "My First Singh Book", written and published by Parveen Kaur Dhillon. The author felt that it was important for her children "to have a book in which they could see themselves, young Singhs and Kaurs, leading proud and significant lives with strong messages about the importance of Sikh values." Harinder has undertaken to popularise them in India. He has charming illustrations done by an American, Brian C. Krumm. They make suitable Gurpurb gifts. It’s knotty at eighty At 80, to make I thought life’s knotty/ What with waking to Q ’n’ P and unable to potty,/ Be one more night after many and gone / I still partied on, then I woke at morn/ I found my chest more full than was necessary/ Discomfort all round and my mind full of worry!/ So to the doctor I went sad in eye and heart in hand/ And what else but in the ICCU of course I did land./ Soon without any hurry the probe into my groin did go/ Thank heav’ns they differentiated my loins but still I was sore. Now angiography is over but my arteries are blocked/ So for the next few weeks in hospital I’m locked./ Folks now kindly tell me I’ll be good as new/ So many are still alive and dead so few!/ I keep my head high, my chin up, a shine in my eye/ I’ll try and laugh a lot ’n’ keep down the sigh/ I’ll eat less, drink more, that’s water I mean/ I’ll not get fat but try like hell to keep lean!/ My bones may break, my knees pain and hair I not grow!/ But God’s kind I now know, I’ve gott’n extra years to go! (Courtesy: Stanley Joseph Nazareth) Umbrella condom There was a pastor whose wife was expecting a baby so he went to the congregation and asked for a pay raise. After much consideration and discussion, they passed a rule that whenever the pastor’s family expanded, so would his paycheck. After eight children, this started to get expensive and the congregation decided to hold another meeting to discuss the pastor’s salary. There was much yelling and bickering about how much the clergyman’s additional children were costing the Church. Finally, the pastor got up and spoke to the crowd, “Children are a gift from God”, he said. Silence fell on the congregation. They didn’t know how to respond. In the back of the room, a little old lady stood up and in her frail voice said, "Rain is also a gift from God, but when we get too much, we wear raincoats". And the congregation said, ‘Amen’. (Contributed by Vipin Buckshey, Delhi)
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TOUCHSTONE He was not as celebrated as the Progressives were. Ram Kinkar Baij, one of the most important early Bengal moderns contributed to sculpting of the Indian modern art, both as an experimental sculptor and as a painter.
THE
vibrant Indian art tradition is often misrepresented as just limited
to contemporary Indian art. Worse, many mistakenly judge the worth of
an artist from the money that he or she commands at art auctions and
exhibitions. This has led to distortions and to a certain imitative
trend where natural genius is overlooked as the buyer seeks popular
names with a hefty resale potential. While it is a matter of pride
that several Indian artists have made a niche for themselves in the
international art scene, it is also a pity that several important
names that changed the course of Indian art are now almost forgotten. Tagore was himself experimenting with new art forms and saw in the folk tradition that Baij represented a robust and unique art impulse that was to be encouraged. Starting off as a clay modeller, under the guidance of Nandlal Bose and Tagore himself, Baij also took to drawing and painting but his true love was sculpture. Among the lasting examples we have of his work are the gigantic Yaksha and Yakshi that guard the Reserve Bank of India building in the heart of the capital. These monumental sculptures in the signature red sandstone of New Delhi, are thrilling examples of artistic creativity. For almost a month, the National Gallery of Modern art (NGMA) has held a retrospective of his work lovingly curated by the well-known sculptor K.S. Radhakrishnan, one of Baij’s last students in Santiniketan. What immediately strikes one is the enormous energy and joyous depiction of life and nature in whatever Baij created. This was as much a result of his strong links with folk art as much as it was the atmosphere of Santiniketan. Like Tagore, Baij believed in the essential nobility of man and the glory of nature. Both these impulses run like the warp and weft of a tapestry through each phase of his artistic journey. His Santhal studies as well as his sculptures of Tagore and Gandhi capture something so elemental that they acquire an electrifying presence. Unlike other sculptors, Baij’s Gandhi is the defeated Mahatma of Noakhali, not the triumphant strider of the salt march. One wishes he had been able to fulfil what he longed to do, a sculpture of both Gandhi and Tagore in a single composition. However, that dream could never come to fruition. Alongside the sheer power of some of his bronze heads and portraits are also some delightful drawings of animals. We were told by Radhakrishnan how Baij was inordinately fond of his cats and dogs and how it was difficult to house them in the ‘sarkari’ flat that Indira Gandhi allotted to him when he was working on the Yaksha-Yakshi sculptures. A substantial body of his paintings is devoted to his muse, Binodini and these represent a lyricism that is an altogether gentler note in his otherwise robust vocabulary. My mother was in Santiniketan at the same time (early twenties) and had a water colour gifted by him, possibly presented to her by the artist when she was married. A glorious swirl of indigo, mustard and green, its whorls are imprinted on my mind even now because of the joyful energy they captured. The NGMA retrospective and Radhakrishnan’s reminiscences of his guru made vivid an age of innocence, when creativity was an end in itself and when artists painted for themselves rather than for the world. It does not surprise me to learn that Baij died unsung and in an almost penniless state. The irony is that those who possess his work may live to become millionaires.
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On the record by On the 50th anniversary of World Theatre Day, John Malkovich, in his message to UNESCO, says, theatre needs to return to the basics. What are the basics that the Indian theatre should re-visit? I really do not know what Malkovich is referring to. Our theatre is so very diverse across our country. We have so many influences and varying styles – ranging from traditional, classical, street, story telling, western proscenium and parallel or more ‘experimental’, for want of a better word. I do believe that our theatre needs to gain more confidence in itself – in it’s content and form. Apart from the financial constraints, what are the major concerns for survival of theatre in India? Finances will always be a problem … unless we dream of a German situation where support of the arts has been truly generous – which is highly unlikely. And even in Germany there is a financial crisis in theatre today. And yet theatre goes on ….! I believe one of the major concerns for the life of theatre (and I do not want to see theatre survive … I want to see it thrive!) is the great lack of nurturing platforms. Prithvi Theatre is one such platform or venue – that looks at the concerns of the audience and theatre worker with the same focus and attention. But my great sadness is that there is only one Prithvi Theatre in all of India! Hundreds of theatre graduates are produced by university run courses in theatre, do you see any potential for them? Sadly very few of these University courses are actually well designed and run – to contribute to the practitioners world. I do not have the statistics but I doubt their contribution is of any great value whatsoever, as one just doesn’t meet any of these students in the filed. Thespians talk of lack of good playwrights and new scripts. How serious is the crisis there? I think today we face a crisis of what to talk about on stage – with the huge overburden of information – to wade through the avalanche of material and sift it down to a single urgent kernel of an idea is a challenge. I also believe there is not enough exploration of a theatrical form that is unique to India today. There are so many ‘India’s’ that there can be so many forms of this theatre – and yet there seems far too little work in this area. Having said this there are younger playwrights who are gaining confidence – perhaps in keeping with the growing confidence of India as world player. However I believe their plays lack depth and rigour. Does it in some way help theatre in getting new viewers, when a well- known name from cinema comes to stage? It all depends on whether the production is a good production at the end of the day – there have been well-known film actors who have done the odd commercial play that was a reasonable success – but I am not sure if that contributed at all to building a greater theatre audience. Which genre is theatre do you think has maximum potential for growth; street, proscenium, experimental or any other? Growth is a peculiar word … does one mean financial development? Quantitative growth or qualitative growth? I believe there is a need of theatre - and given the right environment various forms of theatre will develop at their own pace depending on their individual needs and the audience’s appetite. What is the most lasting impression you would carry from your association with Prithvi Theatre? Everything I have learnt is from my 21 years of working hands-on at Prithvi Theatre. It is hard for me to find one lasting impression – it has been a deeply joyful experience, though it has had it’s share of immense frustration, and anxiety – overall I am immensely grateful for the opportunity to work at this gem of a theatre and contribute to its life. You said Junoon will be a travelling theatre. What are your plans for Junoon? Junoon stems from our belief that the arts are central to a healthy society. Junoon will contribute to this belief by developing various platforms for engagement – where the arts will be engaging, welcoming and accessible. The first major focus of our work will be with young people and children through our two month intensive summer programme. We shall present quality theatre across Mumbai and on tour across the country to audiences that do not usually get access to this kind of theatre. Do you think theatre should be part of school curriculum, as is the demand of several experts? I am not sure about this at all – where are the teachers going to come from? Art and Music are already taught in schools and we know how badly they are taught. I would prefer to see schools engage with professional theatre – by taking their children to the theatre regularly – and Junoon aims at offerings schools a variety of engagements through the year that would take many different shapes and sizes. Thereby letting students get a whiff of the magic of the professional arts. My inspiration for this thought is ‘Shakespeareana’, my maternal grand parents - Geoffrey and Laura Kendal’s theatre company, .
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Dilawar Singh, explosives around his waist, was waiting for the Chief Minister to come out of the building on August 31, 1995, since 2 pm. The wait was long, but he did not panic.
The summer was at its peak in June 1995, when Babbar Khalsa International (BKI) member Jagtar Singh Hawara reached Delhi. He had on his mind a meeting with Manjinder Singh (now proclaimed offender in the case), and Balwant Singh Rajoana at Surya Hotel.
MY first look at The Tribune was in 1932 when I joined Government College in Lahore. Since then, it has continued spasmodically, depending on where I happened to be living. It has been my breakfast for news of the world, mostly of India and the Punjab. Most people are under the impression that it was a Sikh-founded and owned daily. It was indeed launched by a Sikh belonging to an aristocratic landowning family, but its founder converted to the Brahmo Samaj. All schools, colleges and libraries that bear his name Dyal Singh are basically Brahmo inspired. 
Among these is Ram Kinkar Baij, artist, sculptor and a true bohemian. Among the earliest artists to experiment with abstract art forms and Cubism, his genius flowered in the liberal and free world of Santiniketan, where he came into contact with Tagore, Nandlal Bose and visiting European artists and scholars. The genius of this simple, rustic Santhal (one of the tribes) was first recognised by Tagore who invited him to join Kala Bhavan, the art school of Santiniketan. 
It took Radhakrishnan almost four years to collect,digitize and transport the work to the NGMA and last week, he held a walking tour through the exhibition to acquaint viewers with the genius of this remarkable man. The retrospective includes all the various aspects of Baij’s artistic work and has been divided intosegments to display not just his early studies of the human figure, water colour compositions, tempera landscapes and oil paintings on canvas but also his smaller sculptures and working models of rugged concrete and stylized bronze heads.
Sanjna Kapoor’s