“Why didn’t you hang him till now?” Justice Sandeep Mehta of the Supreme Court asked Additional Solicitor General K M Nataraj Wednesday when hearing Babbar Khalsa militant Balwant Singh Rajoana’s petition for commutation of his death penalty to life term on the ground of delay in the decision on his mercy plea.
While Rajoana’s execution was not a straightforward affair back in March 2012, given the political dynamics in Punjab, it is perhaps even more politically complicated now.
Rajoana was the backup bomber to Dilawar Singh — both of them were police constables — who blew himself up at the entrance of the civil secretariat in Chandigarh on August 31, 1995, killing then Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh and 16 others. Rajoana was sentenced to death in July 2007 over the conspiracy in this case, but it was delayed amid political pressure. When the execution was set for March 21, 2012, there were statewide protests demanding mercy for Rajoana. The protests were largely peaceful, though a youth named Jaspal Singh died in police firing in Gurdaspur.
The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and the BJP were in power in the state at the time and convinced the Congress-led UPA government to postpone the execution of Rajoana, who himself never sought clemency. With the Sri Akal Takht Sahib, the most prominent of the five takhts of Sikhs, also pushing for mercy for Rajoana whom it declared a “living martyr”, and the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), which manages gurdwaras and the religious and cultural affairs of Sikhs, filing the mercy plea on the convict’s behalf, most political leaders in the state remained silent on the issue, even if they did not support him.
In the subsequent years, no government, either in the Centre or the state, acted on the issue, preferring to keep it on the back burner. A couple of months before the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev in November 2019, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs issued a notification, proposing the commutation of Rajoana’s death sentence to life imprisonment. However, the proposal was never implemented.
At that time, Beant Singh’s grandson and current Union Minister of State Ravneet Singh Bittu, then a Congress MP, sought clarification from Union Home Minister Amit Shah in the Lok Sabha, asking why Rajoana had been granted “clemency”. In reply, Shah replied, “No pardon has been given.” The following year, the SAD and the BJP broke their alliance over the farmers’ agitation, marking a big shift in the state’s political terrain.
In February 2022, BJP’s Punjab in-charge Gajendra Singh Shekhawat assured Sikh bodies of a “positive development” from the Centre’s side on Sikh “political” prisoners, who were to be released as per the 2019 Union government notification. This was after Sikh organisations approached Prime Minister Narendra Modi in this regard.
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That November, the Supreme Court ordered the immediate release of six convicts who were serving a life sentence for over three decades in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, and this sparked hope in the Rajoana case too. However, in April 2023, the top court refused to commute Rajoana’s death sentence, saying the “competent authority” could deal with his mercy plea.
In December 2023, Shah surprised many when he snubbed former Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal in the Lok Sabha after she raised the matter of Rajoana’s release during a debate on the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita Bill. “If any offender does not realise his/her mistake, express remorse, then he/she does not deserve forgiveness,” Shah said. “Only they deserve mercy who repent their crime. If someone commits a terror act, goes to jail and is not ready to admit to the crime, then I will not agree with any mercy in such a case.”
Just before the 2024 parliamentary elections, Bittu, after joining the BJP, told a news channel that one reason he quit the Congress was that senior party leader Rahul Gandhi wanted him to “stop opposing the demand for clemency to Rajoana”.
While the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) have sidestepped the issue in recent years, the Akali Dal factions have always pushed for it. After becoming a Union Minister, though he lost the election, Bittu said Sikh prisoners who had completed their sentence should be released and that he would not oppose if the Centre decided to release Rajoana. Bittu said that he had discussed the issue within the family and that it was time to move on, in the interest of peace in Punjab. This came as a shot in the arm for those petitioning for Rajoana’s release.
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In January 2024, the Supreme Court gave the Centre one last opportunity to decide his mercy petition, failing which the court said it would decide it.
For the BJP, the issue is politically complex as it has nurtured relations with the Damdami Taksal, a Sikh seminary once headed by Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, since snapping ties with the SAD. The Damdami Taksal and other influential Sikh groups would not stand beside the BJP government if Rajoana is hanged and it will hurt the ruling party at the Centre, while it can also not afford to look soft on a Sikh militant.
With the apex court agreeing to Nataraj’s request for time to seek instructions, the matter has been fixed for hearing next on October 15. The court has clarified that the hearing would not be adjourned at the instance of the respondents.
Political reactions
Rajoana has been incarcerated for the last 29 years now, of which 15 years have been on death row.
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While the ruling AAP’s Punjab spokesperson Neel Garg refrained from making any comment on the Rajoana issue, the principal Opposition Congress’s spokesperson Hardeep Singh Kingra said, “It is for the Centre to decide and it should come out openly in the matter.”
SAD leader and SGPC member Gurcharan Singh Grewal said, “The Centre had stated on its own that Rajoana’s death sentence would be commuted. It was given in writing. What has changed since then? Why BJP is not executing its own government’s notification and what its leaders have said time and again?”
New SAD faction’s president Harpreet Singh also said the central government should implement the 2019 notification and release Rajoana as soon as possible.
The Punjab BJP’s spokesman Sarchand Singh Khiala said, “Bhai Balwant Singh Rajoana was granted commutation of his death sentence to life imprisonment through a notification issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs in 2019, on the sacred occasion of the 550th Parkash Gurpurab of Sri Guru Nanak Dev Ji. This decision was taken not only on legal grounds but also keeping in mind humanitarian considerations and the sentiments of the Sikh community. However, due to certain legal obstacles, it could not be implemented so far. Recently, the Supreme Court has also commented on the prolonged delay in both executing the death sentence and in implementing the notification. It is clear that the matter now lies entirely within the judicial process.”
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Khilala also claimed that “The BJP-led Central government has been committed and sincere towards the commutation of Rajoana’s sentence. The issuance of the notification in 2019 itself is proof that the government has been serious about addressing this matter. At present, the case is under hearing before the Supreme Court, and the BJP government will fully honour the forthcoming verdict of the court.” He added, “We believe that as and when the legal hurdles are removed, the process will move forward accordingly.”
