Why the Jagtar Johal arrest is continuing to hog international limelight

Getting a platform

Out of those nabbed, it is Johal's arrest on which a lot of noise is being raised. Former senior journalist and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA in Punjab Kanwar Sandhu first reportedly raised the issue, pointing to holes in the claims of the police. He suggested that the centre government intervene and a joint probe be conducted with the British police. He referred to the anger among the British over Johal's arrest.

This triggered a political slug fest with the Punjab power and irrigation minister attacking him and accusing him of strong personal and financial motivation for coming to the defence of an accused charged with militant and disruptive activities and more so, undermining the good work done by the Punjab Police.

The Congress accused AAP of hobnobbing with Sikh hardliners based abroad.

Thereafter, Johal's lawyer Jaspal Singh Manjhpur reportedly alleged that his client was tortured by the Punjab Police.

'Extreme action'

It was then that the story exploded. Jagmeet Singh, leader of Canada’s federal New Democratic Party (NDP) reportedly raised the issue of 'reports of torture including electrocution by Indian authorities' calling them 'deeply chilling and require immediate attention'.

According to reports, two MPs belonging to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party also raised the matter in a letter to India’s High Commissioner in Ottawa, Vikas Swarup. The letter was sent by Raj Grewal who represents Brampton East in the House of Commons and Randeep Sarai, the MP from Surrey Centre. A similar sentiment was also reportedly expressed by the World Sikh Organisation (WSO).

The charges of torture were categorically denied by the Punjab Police that claimed that due process of law was followed at every stage with the accused allowed access to his counsel and family members as also a team from the United Kingdom High Commission.

According to a police spokesperson, “Not only did it have sufficient evidence to prove the complicity of Jagtar alias Jaggi in the cases of targeted killings, the police had also ensured that there was no violation of his rights at any stage.”

According to The Tribune the British government on Tuesday said that it would take 'extreme action' if any British citizen is being tortured as the case was raised in the House of Commons.

Local MP Martin Docherty Hughes of the Scottish National Party (SNP) asked the United Kingdom Foreign Office what representations were being made to the Indian government on reports of Johal's alleged 'torture' in custody.

"We take any allegation of torture very seriously, as indeed would the Indian government," foreign office minister Rory Stewart told Docherty-Hughes.

"It is completely unconstitutional, it is offensive to the British government and we will work very closely to investigate and, of course, we will take extreme action if a British citizen is being tortured," he said.

The issue was raised in Parliament a day after British Prime Minister Theresa May was confronted by the media to comment on Johal's arrest in India.

"I am aware of the concern that has been expressed about Jagtar Singh Johal. Representatives from the Foreign Office have met with him and are pursuing the case and looking at this case and watching what is happening with concern and will take action necessary," she said.

Johal's MP, Docherty-Hughes, has been campaigning for his freedom and has also written to Downing Street seeking a meeting for his UK-based family with the Prime Minister.

Online petitions and posts have also been doing the rounds since then.

A revival?

The arrests made by Punjab Police were appreciated reportedly by the RSS leaders. Observers are pointing to the political ramifications of the issue. Veteran political analyst Jagtar Singh wrote in an article that the arrests show that Punjab's militant struggle continues.

“Yet at another level, it could be the revival of that very struggle. Political violence in Punjab is cyclical in nature. The first phase of the Sikh militant struggle can be said to have ended with the assassination of Beant Singh on August 31, 1995 in front of the Punjab civil secretariat. Successive governments repeatedly claimed that peace had been restored. Former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal had claimed maintenance of peace and communal harmony as his main achievement when asked to list two major contributions in his entire political career at a meet-the-press programme at Chandigarh Press Club,” he wrote.

Radio journalist Shiv Inder Singh, who has been reporting for various networks run by Punjabi NRI's, spoke of how the arrests and their fallout are a continuation of Amarinder's tightrope walk on issues pertaining to Sikh radicals abroad, his carving a niche for himself in 'nationalist politics' and his playing up to the Hindu voters in Punjab who had shifted their support from the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD)-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) combine to the Congress during the polls.

“The issue is being discussed in the Punjabi media across various countries including Canada and United States of America. Johal was bringing out a periodical in which he was questioning the Indian establishment at repeated intervals. There are people raising questions whether this also has something to do with Johal's arrest. If this is true, it is an indicator of how the Indian government keep's a hawk's eye on what is being reported about it abroad by the NRIs,” he says.