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Indian Sikhs celebrate after separatist elected as MP from jail
Amritpal said he campaigns to uphold Sikh moral values, and tackle the key problems youth in Punjab face: unemployment and rampant drug addiction, especially heroin.
Amritpal Singh is awaiting trial after he was arrested last year / X
The face of newly elected Indian lawmaker Amritpal Singh stares out from posters and flutters on flags in his home village, but the firebrand Sikh separatist remains securely in jail.
Amritpal, 31, an outspoken supporter of the banned Khalistan movement for an independent Sikh homeland, was elected in India's just-concluded general elections from behind bars.
The campaign for Khalistan was at the heart of a diplomatic firestorm last year, after Indian intelligence were linked to the killing of a vocal Sikh leader in Canada and an attempted assassination in the United States—claims New Delhi rejected.
In Jallupur Khera, Amritpal's home village and part of his new constituency, supporter Sarabjit Singh said electing a man in jail "sends a message to the government".
Amritpal said he campaigns to uphold Sikh moral values, and tackle the key problems youth in Punjab face: unemployment and rampant drug addiction, especially heroin.
"All over Punjab, the biggest issue is drug addiction," said Sarabjit, 42, a builder and village leader. "I hope he comes out from jail soon and restarts his campaign."
Whether he will be allowed out of prison to participate in parliamentary votes will be at his jailers' discretion. Amritpal is awaiting trial after he was arrested last year following a month-long police manhunt in Punjab.
'Dedicated to the martyrs'
On June 5, lines of Sikh men in blue and saffron turbans arrived at Amritpal's house to congratulate his family, saying he offered them hope to solve their community's problems.
His father, Tarsem Singh, 63, said his son wanted only to help young people in Punjab return to their religion.
"Our young generation is being distracted and diverted away from our culture and my son is only trying to bring them back. "He was called a separatist and a religious fanatic just because he was raising rights of the people".
India's authorities tell a different story. Weeks before Amritpal's April 2023 arrest, he and armed supporters raided a police station, after one of the self-styled preacher's aides was arrested for assault and attempted kidnapping.
Amritpal has modelled himself after Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, a figurehead of the Khalistan movement, which murdered scores of Sikh political opponents and Hindu civilians. In 1984, Bhindranwale and followers barricaded themselves into the Golden Temple, the faith's holiest shrine in the city of Amritsar, and were killed when the Indian army stormed the site.
Soon afterwards, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was murdered by two of her bodyguards, both Sikhs, in retaliation for ordering the assault. The son of one of them, Beant Singh, who was shot dead at the scene of the assassination, was also elected to parliament on June 4, as an independent MP for another Punjab seat.
Their victories came on the 40th anniversary of the military operation at the Golden Temple, codenamed Operation Blue Star.
'Fight for a Sikh mindset'
Amritpal's mother on June 4 thanked voters for their support and "love" for her son, who stood as an independent in his Khadoor Sahib constituency and won by a margin of nearly 200,000 votes, defeating 26 other candidates.
"Our victory is dedicated to the martyrs," his mother Balwinder Kaur told reporters. Some of his supporters insisted that while their community was angry at the central government in New Delhi and Amritpal won because he promoted the Sikh religion and pride, they did not want separation.
"There's no demand for (Khalistan) here," said Vinod Singh, 28. "The actual issues are something else, and the government is not doing anything to solve them."
But Sarabjeet Singh Khalsa, the son of Indira Gandhi's assassin elected to parliament in a different constituency, was emphatic that he won because of his ancestry.
"I got the vote on his name, as son of the martyr Beant Singh," the new lawmaker told AFP. "My victory, and the victory of Amritpal, sends a message that there are still people who are there to fight for a Sikh mindset, for the Sikh religion," Sarabjeet said.
"But whatever I do in Punjab, I will do it democratically, and within legal framework."
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