Why the Bhullar issue is forever new

It was 2013, and there was a buzz around the hanging of Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar, a convict in a car bomb blast in Delhi that killed nine bystanders in 1993.

Amid the buzz, in November that year, then Punjab Chief minister Parkash Singh Badal and his son Sukhbir Singh Badal, met then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh with the request that Bhullar's death sentence be commuted. The Badals met the PM after reports began circulating that the bomb blast convict might be executed secretly.

Previously, the Akal Takht, the highest temporal authority of the Sikhs, had asked the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), the top governing body of the Sikhs, to take necessary steps to prevent Bhullar from facing the death penalty.

A few months later, in March 2014, the Supreme Court of India commuted Bhullar's death sentence to life imprisonment.

Ten years after the political moves surrounding his death sentence, and the subsequent relief by the Supreme Court, Bhullar is back in the news again.

To be correct, Bhullar, a TADA convict linked to the banned Khalistani Liberation Force, has popped up in India's politics periodically. Various organisations and political parties have off and on played the 'Bhullar card'.

At times, the Bhullar issue has been employed strategically as leverage, at other times, to attack political adversaries. Sikh bodies have also used it to pressure politicians in Chandigarh and New Delhi.

Bhullar is back again as a subject of discussion. This time linked to Arvind Kejriwal and his Aam Aadmi Party, as Delhi Lieutenant Governor sought a probe by the National Investigation Agency.

L-G ALLEGES AAP RECEIVED MONEY FOR BHULLAR'S RELEASE

Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena asked the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to probe into allegations that Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government received $16 million funding from Sikhs For Justice (SFJ) for the release of Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar.

The SFJ is a Khalistani group based out of the US.

Lt Governor Saxena has also referred to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), a letter written by Kejriwal to one Iqbal Singh in January 2014, mentioning that "the AAP government has already recommended to the President the release of Bhullar and would be working on other issues, including the formation of a special investigation team (SIT), sympathetically and in a time-bound manner".

Cleric Iqbal Singh, who sat on a fast at Delhi's Jantar Mantar, had demanded a written assurance for Bhullar's release. Bhullar was also linked to the Babbar Khalsa, another banned militant organisation by the Indian government.

Iqbal Singh only ended his fast after receiving a letter from Arvind Kejriwal in 2014.

The complaint by the Lt Governor, however, came up after the wanted Khalistani terrorist and the Sikhs for Justice chief, Gurpatwant Singh Pannun alleged that the AAP received $16 million from Khalistani groups between 2014 and 2022.

Saxena referred to a viral video where Pannun, the Khalistan advocate, also alleged that Arvind Kejriwal held closed-door meetings with Khalistani leaders at New York's Gurudwara Richmond Hills, during his 2014 US visit.

Kejriwal had allegedly promised to facilitate the release of Bhullar in return for substantial financial backing from Khalistani factions to the AAP, the Lt Governor's office claimed.

A few visuals of the alleged New York meeting came up on social media too.

Refuting the allegation, Delhi minister Saurabh Bharadwaj, who vehemently rubbished the allegations, terming it "another conspiracy", alleged that the BJP had "hatched this conspiracy" before the 2022 Punjab assembly polls as well.

Earlier, the AAP, its chief Arvind Kejriwal and then Sangrur MP Bhagwant Mann had already faced the heat in the run-up to the 2022 Vidhan Sabha election in Punjab.

Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar became a point of contention, as Sikh bodies and activists raised voices and submitted memorandums to AAP Punjab candidates, urging action on Bhullar's long-pending request for permanent release.

HOW BHULLAR PLAYED UP BEFORE 2022 PUNJAB POLLS

Bhullar's case had long garnered attention as a symbol of justice and communal sentiment in Punjab. Political parties, particularly the AAP and the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), engaged in the 2022 blame game. The SAD accused the Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government of obstructing Bhullar's release.

The rejection of Bhullar's plea by the Delhi government's Sentence Review Board (SRB) fuelled further controversy.

The AAP, which positioned itself as a champion of Sikh rights before the 2022 polls, faced scrutiny over its handling of Bhullar's case, while the SAD accused the AAP of denying justice to Bhullar.

Even before the Bhullar card was played by the SAD and the AAP in 2022, it had been played multiple times in the past.

WHAT IS THE BHULLAR ISSUE MADE OF?

When in 2019, the Centre recommended special remission to eight Sikh prisoners ahead of the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev, the founder of Sikhism, Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar was one of them.

While the law enforcement authorities branded Bhullar as the mastermind behind the 1993 blast, Bhullar's sympathisers, back in Punjab, argued that he had been unfairly targeted for his support of the Khalistani cause.

The Shiromani Akali Dal, then headed by patriarch Parkash Singh Badal, had taken up the case of all political prisoners, including pro-Khalistan activists. They called for Bhullar's release as well, citing his poor health and the fact that he had been in jail for a long time.

However, Bhullar's release application, after the Supreme Court commuted the death penalty, was rejected multiple times. His pleas for premature release were rejected twice in 2018, once in 2019, thrice in 2020, and was deferred once in 2022.

The latest chapter in the Bhullar saga came in December 2023, when the Sentence Review Board (SRB) of the Delhi government rejected his release plea. The decision sparked a political row, with the Akali Dal and the Aam Aadmi Party trading charges over the matter.

The SRB, which was headed by Delhi Jails Minister Kailash Gehlot, rejected Bhullar's plea, saying that such a convict, if released, may still pose a direct threat to the sovereignty, integrity, and tranquillity of India.

However, the minutes of the SRB meeting, which were made public by the AAP, showed that all other six members of the board voted against Bhullar's release.

The police and jail authorities had also expressed reservations about the same, leading to Bhulalr's plea being slashed seven times in a row.

Akali Dal chief Sukhbir Singh Badal has accused the Delhi and Punjab chief ministers of violating the human rights of Bhullar by keeping him in incarceration for around 29 years, despite his precarious health.

"Socking heinous crime against humanity by Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal and his puppet (Punjab Chief Minister) Bhagwant Mann. By teaming up to reject the premature release plea of Prof Davinder Pal Singh Bhullar, they have both sprinkled salt on the wounds of the Sikh Sangat," Sukhbir Badal wrote on X.

Apart from AAP, SAD leaders Kanwar Pal Singh and HS Dhami of Dal Khalsa also criticised the BJP, saying that the AAP and the BJP were inherently similar. "Their silence on the prisoner issue is criminal," they alleged.

Bhullar, a convicted terrorist, is lodged in Delhi's Tihar Jail even as politics gets played around him by parties.