The Sikh Kirpan symbolizes spirituality, the soldier part of the Sikh soldier-saints, for the defence of good, the weak and the deliverance of justice.
“Chun kar az hameh heelate dar guzasht; halal ast burdan bi-shamsheer dast,” wrote Guru Gobind Singh to the then Mughal Ruler Aurangzeb in the Zafarnama. Translated from Persian, it means: “When all has been tried, yet justice is not in sight, only then is it right to pick up the kirpan; only then is it right to fight.”
Notwithstanding the populist sentiments on social media, some of which have been fuelled by vested interests and blindly taking political sides, the fact as recorded on tape is that Sarabjeet Singh took out the kirpan to drive away an obstinate cop.
The social media theories that the cop was corrupt and rude may have some substance but it can in no way justify the Sikh driver's act. A citizen with equal rights threatening police on duty is subject to legal action, be it a Sikh with a kirpan or a Hindu with a trishul or a Muslim with any other weapon.
The acts violate the law as well as the religious principles. When state or religion gives you any special right, it comes with responsibility. I refuse to see the Mukherjee Nagar incident from the lens of religion or from the majority-minority perspective. Rather, I view it as a citizen of India governed by a Constitution.
Sarabjeet Singh was not defending the weak. He didn't use available mechanisms to route his grievance, if any. Instead, he sought to use the kirpan as a weapon of assault.
Thus, I don't identify with him.
But the question is whether a police force themed on “Shanti, Sewa, Nyay” can justify the height of cruelty and identify itself with its men acting as goons in uniform, who brutalized Sarabjeet Singh and his young son to pulp. Were they not governed by the same Constitution and law applying which the act of Sarabjeet Singh can be held illegal?
The Mukherjee Nagar episode illustrates policing in our country remains as unprofessional and like ruffians as ever in human and civil rights while confronted with such situations, even in this age of phone cameras.
Remember, the legal basis for the police system in our country is a law drafted in the wake of the 1857 uprising against British rule — the mindset remains the same, 72 years after independence.
But the real takeaways are different for anyone ready to accept: a) If Sarabjeet Singh is a fit case for prosecution for falling foul of the law as a citizen, his attackers- the gangsters in uniform deserve stringent action for the custodial abuse and as goons at large and b) the policing should rid itself from the brute and repressive mentality of Britain's colonial regime.
