Son of slain Khalistani militant, he wants free education, health for all

Thirty years later, Amritpal Singh Chhandran wears the identity of his father Rashpal Singh Chhandran as BTF chief with pride. The 30-year-old, however, also has faith in the democratic process of elections and is of the firm belief that the hallowed halls of the Vidhan Sabha is the right place to raise the issues that matter and get them resolved.

Amritpal is now contesting the February 20 Punjab polls from Sahnewal constituency of Ludhiana. He has been granted the poll ticket by SAD (Amritsar), the only party which still contests the polls in Punjab with demand for a separate Khalistan. The party hasn’t won any seat in the state since 1999, but has fielded 86 candidates for the February 20 polls.

“Considering the situation in those times when our Golden Temple was attacked and Sikhs were killed in the streets of Delhi, I do not think my father did anything wrong by joining the Khalistan movement. He never used to harm innocent people,” says Amritpal, who is contesting the polls on the plank of free education and health for all.

Amritpal claims that he also lost his mother and grandmother to police brutality.

“First it was my grandfather Ranjit Singh Chhandran who was brutally killed by police on October 6, 1991 and his body was thrown at the outskirts of our village. Police killed him in frustration as they were trying to arrest my father. I was just 11 days old when my grandfather was killed. Then on June 12, 1992, my father along with his aide Jagdish Singh Dheesh, were killed by police after hours of torture. Hot iron rods were pressed on my father’s body and his one leg was severed. Yes, he was the chief of Bhindranwale Tiger Force,” says Amritpal, whose ancestral village is Chhandran in Sahnewal.

According to Amritpal, just two days after his father’s death, his mother Charanjit Kaur and maternal grandmother Surjit Kaur were also abducted. “We have not found my mother and grandmother’s bodies till date. Father’s body was handed over to for cremation. I was just nine months then and was raised by my paternal grandmother,” he says.

Amritpal says that he and his grandmother could not take up the cases of the four killings in their family to any court as he was too young. “My grandmother always feared that they might cause any harm to me too,” he says.

A farmer, Rashpal Singh had turned to militancy to avenge Operation Bluestar of 1984 and was infamous for targeting policemen during that period. He was carrying a reward on his head and was a wanted militant.

Contesting polls for the first time, among the issues being raised by Amritpal in his campaign are free health and education for all, justice in sacrilege cases, release of Sikh prisoners, sand mafia, welfare of farmers, laborers and small shopkeepers and traders and drugs.

“It has been years now that my father, grandfather, mother and grandmother were killed but the wounds are still afresh. I never saw them… but I am contesting polls because I feel it is our right to contest an electoral battle and fight for the youths who are getting into drugs. Health and education are basic rights that should be free for all,” he says.

He too has one criminal case registered against him for voluntarily causing hurt and has studied till class 8.

Panthic and other Sikh organisations are garnering support for Amritpal on social media with an emotional appeal comparing his candidature to that of Paramjit Kaur Khalra, wife of human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra, who contested the 2019 Lok Sabha polls from Khadoor Sahib but lost. Jaswant Singh Khalra was known for cremating unidentified bodies of Sikhs who were killed in fake encounters during insurgency period in Punjab.

Other contenders from Sahnewal are Vikram Singh Bajwa of Congress, son in law of former Punjab CM Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, former minister Sharanjit Singh Dhillon of SAD and Hardeep Singh Mundian of AAP.