<div><font color="Navy">Politicizing death row in Punjab and at the Surrey Vaisakhi parade
Gurpreet Singh - straight.com - Publish Date: April 22, 2012 , Vancouver, B.C.
The imagery of a convicted Sikh militant on death row in India, Balwant Singh Rajoana, dominated the annual Vaisakhi parade in Surrey.
His pictures greeted visitors from different corners of the streets as the procession passed through the city Saturday. Slogans were raised in support of Rajoana and ballad singers glorified his action, while others spoke passionately for him from different podiums.
Rajoana is awaiting a death sentence for being involved in the assassination of Punjab chief minister Beant Singh in 1995. The crime was committed by the Babbar Khalsa, a Sikh separatist group now banned in Canada and blamed for the Air India bombings that left 331 people dead in June 1985.
Dilawar Singh, a suicide bomber, triggered the blast outside the Punjab secretariat in Chandigarh, killing Beant Singh and 17 others.
Beant Singh remains a controversial figure in the history of terrorism in Punjab. Victims of various attacks consider him a "martyr", who brought peace in Punjab by crushing terrorism in the name of Khalistan, an imaginary Sikh homeland.
Meanwhile, supporters of Khalistan and human-rights groups accuse him of allowing police brutality that led to mass disappearances and killings of suspects in staged encounters.
Rajoana, who appears to be high on his conviction, not only admits his involvement in the assassination but also wants to be hanged and die as a hero.
Yet a campaign has picked up both in India and Canada to save his life. His supporters want his death sentence commuted to life imprisonment.
It should not be surprising that he has immense support in Surrey, which has a sizeable population of Sikhs. After all, organizers of the Surrey Vaisakhi parade are die-hard supporters of Khalistan.
This year, they honoured the widow of Labh Singh, the slain leader of the Khalistan Commando Force, a group believed to have been in an armed struggle.
Although Rajoana has no Canadian connection, a few elected officials from this country have raised this issue, seeking the intervention of Canada, which has outlawed capital punishment.
Unlike Devinderpal Singh Bhullar (another Sikh militant facing death sentence in India)
More...
Gurpreet Singh - straight.com - Publish Date: April 22, 2012 , Vancouver, B.C.
The imagery of a convicted Sikh militant on death row in India, Balwant Singh Rajoana, dominated the annual Vaisakhi parade in Surrey.
His pictures greeted visitors from different corners of the streets as the procession passed through the city Saturday. Slogans were raised in support of Rajoana and ballad singers glorified his action, while others spoke passionately for him from different podiums.
Rajoana is awaiting a death sentence for being involved in the assassination of Punjab chief minister Beant Singh in 1995. The crime was committed by the Babbar Khalsa, a Sikh separatist group now banned in Canada and blamed for the Air India bombings that left 331 people dead in June 1985.
Dilawar Singh, a suicide bomber, triggered the blast outside the Punjab secretariat in Chandigarh, killing Beant Singh and 17 others.
Beant Singh remains a controversial figure in the history of terrorism in Punjab. Victims of various attacks consider him a "martyr", who brought peace in Punjab by crushing terrorism in the name of Khalistan, an imaginary Sikh homeland.
Meanwhile, supporters of Khalistan and human-rights groups accuse him of allowing police brutality that led to mass disappearances and killings of suspects in staged encounters.
Rajoana, who appears to be high on his conviction, not only admits his involvement in the assassination but also wants to be hanged and die as a hero.
Yet a campaign has picked up both in India and Canada to save his life. His supporters want his death sentence commuted to life imprisonment.
It should not be surprising that he has immense support in Surrey, which has a sizeable population of Sikhs. After all, organizers of the Surrey Vaisakhi parade are die-hard supporters of Khalistan.
This year, they honoured the widow of Labh Singh, the slain leader of the Khalistan Commando Force, a group believed to have been in an armed struggle.
Although Rajoana has no Canadian connection, a few elected officials from this country have raised this issue, seeking the intervention of Canada, which has outlawed capital punishment.
Unlike Devinderpal Singh Bhullar (another Sikh militant facing death sentence in India)
More...