Moosewala’s death, gangsters, and politics

I remember I was scrolling through my phone when a FB post appeared that he was like a brother. Nothing more on that. I knew somebody died, but the post didn’t give any name. Within next few posts the name appeared. I was shocked to hear that Sidhu Moosewala (Subhdeep Singh; Sidhu being his surname, Moosa is his village, wala works like an apostrophe s, so Moosa’s/Moosian Sidhu or Sidhu Moosewala) was shot dead.

There are many speculations for the reason of his assassination. The official ones are 1) his father said that Bishnoi Gang had been asking for extortion money on a number of accounts, for this reason Moosewala had turned his Toyota’s Fortuner into a bulletproof SUV, 2) the Delhi Police’s speculation is that this conspiracy was hatched in the Tihar Jail, and the reason behind his death could be his name that appeared in the assassination of Vicky Middukhera, the youth Akali Dal leader, last year. The three people who were arrested for killing Vicky Middukhera gave Moosewala’s and his manager’s names.

As Moosewala had a bulletproof SUV, he didn’t take it on Sunday when he went to go to his aunt’s (massi’s) house. He didn’t have his bodyguards with him as it’s not possible for five people to sit in Mahindra’s Thar, this was revealed by two of his people who were with him at the time of the attack. He, however, asked them to follow them in a separate car. His father said when Sidhu Moosewala left without protection, he took the bodyguard and followed him, saw the cars where the assailants were, but it’s too late for him to save his son.

It should be noted that AAP government never leaves a single act to show how they save the money for the Treasury Department. The attempts to reduce the security of the people were part of that. On the first page of Punjabi Tribune the news appeared on 29th May about curtailing of the security of a number of people, on the same day Sidhu Moosewala was shot dead. His name was also appeared on the list. This was a big misjudgment by the police and the agencies to reveal the list of people whose security was either removed or reduced to the public. AAP’s personal reporter Baltej Pannu – though it’s not official, but one can easily see this – shared a list on 12th May of some of people that why they needed the security. And then on 28th, he shared few of the names of the politicians and religious leaders who got their security reduced. How he or any other reporter got the list? Didn’t the government/agencies think of its consequences?

When these decisions backfired, Punjab DGP V K Bhawra said the security of people was reduced because of the Ghallughara Diwas on 6th June, and it’s temporary. Temporary or permanent, a life is lost, and the people have been blaming the Punjab Government and AAP since the killing. AAP Team knows this very well. This can be seen from this that since the sacking of the Punjab Health Minister Vijay Singla, a number of posts have been shared through the AAP Punjab’s FB page. Not only for one but for so many days to just show how good and corruptionless this government is. But now, no post has been shared since 29th May, and the last post on AAP Punjab’s page was of the condolences for the death of the singer. Similarly on Bhagwant Mann’s FB page, a post on 29th May for the condolences, nothing more after that.

On the other side, AAP didn’t call the reducing of the security as temporary and showed it as an achievement that under their government there’s no VIP culture. They specifically mentioned about the Jathedar of Akal Takhat and Sidhu Moosewala on their Twitter account.

One thing that I couldn’t grasp is if somehow the attackers knew the security has been reduced for Moosewala, he still had some bodyguards, why would they risk attacking a person during the presence of the police? Unless they were so desperate to have him dead. Secondly, what if he’d been travelling in his bulletproof SUV? In that case, their whole plan would’ve gone into pit. If we believe that someone might’ve told the attackers that he’s not in a bulletproof ride, then that would require very less time to prepare everything, even if everything’s at your disposal.

Goldy Brar from Canada has taken the responsibility on the FB page for the killing. He is associated with the Lawrence Bishnoi gang. As of now, Lawrence Bishnoi is in Tihar Jail.

What I am amazed at is that the Indian Government is always ready to remove the FB/Twitter accounts or ban the YouTube channels in India if they’re critical of the government, or specifically talk about the atrocities inflicted on the Sikh Youth by the security forces back in 1980s and 1990s in Punjab, but how they didn’t even look at these FB accounts and pages where the gangsters are taking the responsibility of the killing! They outright ban the accounts if the narrative is of not their taste, but killers are happened to have the account on the social media platforms and the government plays dumb!

After nearly two hours of Moosewala’s killing, the IT Cell appeared on Twitter and started the campaign that how Moosewala was associated with the Khalistan or his opinions about Bhindranwale Sant, so that people wouldn’t mourn his death.

One thing that the AAP Supremo and AAP leadership has forgotten since they won is that they didn’t come into power in Punjab because Punjabis love them. Their supporters are very less in Punjab, and they would never have made the government. The reason why they got the power is that the Punjabis were tired of SAD and Congress. If they think they would run the Punjab with the policies of Delhi, then remember that Punjab is Punjab, not Delhi. This can be seen on the posts of the AAP leaders where the Punjabis have commented that they’ve failed them and the Punjab.

Moosewala’s father wrote a letter to the Punjab CM with three demands, 1) to involve the NIA and CBI and, the High Court judge should look over the probe, 2) people should be held responsible who revealed his son’s security details and reduced the details, 3) Punjab DGP should apologize publicly as he associated his son’s murder with the gang war.

Some reporters tried to have parallel lines between the killing of Sidhu Moosewala and Pash/Chamkila and others in late 1980s during the militancy in Punjab. If people want to call Pash an artist and want to believe the artist was killed, then the reasons were totally different.

Lawrence Bishnoi has moved to the High Court fearing his extrajudicial killing by the Punjab Police after NIA court judge rejected his plea. There is no concrete evidence as of now that Bishnoi is involved in this, but the police’s speculations are that he was into this. Whether he’s the mastermind behind that or not, he’s been abused by all the fans of Moosewala as his name appeared in the killing. So tomorrow, if he’s killed in a shootout, nobody would care as his sympathizers in Punjab and Rajasthan are less than the fans of Sidhu Moosewala. In 2019, the police killed four accused in an extrajudicial shootout for raping and killing a doctor and called it self-defense as it shook the collective conscience of the nation. The killing was welcomed by many. Later it’s found that they’re killed in cold blood. The similar events may unfold in future related to Lawrence Bishnoi.

Sidhu Moosewala can be called an internationally known singer. In Singapore, Sidhu Moosewala tag was trending on twitter with 115k tweets.

 

Gangsters

There is no doubt that a number of Punjabi singers have elevated the gangsterism in the Punjabi songs, and I believe it has the effect on the minds of the Punjabi youth. If one asks them about it, they will point the finger at the other singer who’s done the same and hasn’t been questioned, forgetting that two wrongs don’t make a right. It has been also suggested by these singers that if their songs are the reason of the change in the mannerism of the Punjabi Youth, then why the good songs or movies don’t have the same effect?

I believe that’s a very crucial question and needs to be answered. The reason why the good movies don’t have same effect on the many youngsters is that it requires so much strength and motivation to do the right thing. Wrong acts don’t require much of motivation. Suppose there is a person who has two ways in front of him: 1) he will do hard-work and live a disciplined life to become a successfully person, 2) he will have a gun and loot the people. The second one doesn’t require any motivation and is easy. The first one requires so much strength and motivation to achieve something. A good movie can change the lives of people, and it does too, but not much if there are tens of bad movies/songs against it.

These gangsters usually are people who’re in the college or university politics, or in general student politics, who had the support of the political parties and politicians. This trend is still there in the Indian Universities where the President of the students is chosen based on the votes. I believe this should have the good effect on those who participate in it, but it has a negative effect because of the involvement of the national and regional politics. These Presidents then take a huge crowd with them to the political rallies of their parent parties or associated parties to show the strength. Lawrence Bishnoi’s story was the same as he’s president of SOPU.

It’s been said by some Facebook pages who stood guard to protect the Punjab’s Rights that there aren’t many gangsters in Punjab than in UP or Rajasthan or other Indian states. Maybe that’s true. But my question is why there should be gangsters at all in Punjab. I don’t want Punjab to become like it’s back during the Mumbai underworld. There is no doubt the small criminals and big gangsters have the links to the politicians and the police, who use them when required. Lakha Sidhana mentioned it in an interview too that how he was used by Sikander Singh Maluka (of SAD? The same guy who was sent to Moosewala’s house for condolences from SAD side?). Politicians can’t survive without criminals. Politicians can’t have their name in a police complaint, at least they try not to have it, so they tow in those who have the image of quarreling with others or involve in student politics.

Why anybody wants to become a gangster?

These gangsters can’t be said to have the desire to get killed in gang war or martyred for the right cause. They try to have numbers, gather around their target, and then shoot him. The same can be seen in Sidhu Moosewala’s and Vicky Middukhera’s case. Two reasons that I can think of are fame and money. Fame is more than money. In today’s world, most of the people want to have their name to be known. They want to become popular, either in good or bad acts. They want to have power so that people could fear them. When (gangster) Lakha Sidhana was asked his dream of becoming famous come true or not, he replied, “When I was shot the very first time, and I was hanging between life and death, then I realized there’s nothing in these (gangsterism) things. When I was hit again, I realized for sure that the idea of being famous (in these things) is worthless. Today if we die, it ends everything. Today it’s Lakha Sidhana, tomorrow there will be another person on his seat. And then another. Those who won the world didn’t stay in this world, who we are then.” That is very brave of him to admit, and I hope people who’re active in these things would abandon the path.

Punjabi youth hasn’t reached that stage yet where the boys in adolescent age think of turning into gangsters. Most of them turn into gangsters after getting into college because of the politics. They make groups there, fight other groups, and then climb the next step to have the weapons, this is from where their life goes into abysmal. It will be very rare that you look back and change the course of your life and not get into the gangster world.

So those who’re involved in active gangsterism, they should look back and do something meaningful for the Land of Five Rivers and Panth than being the puppets of the politicians and killers to have more fame and money.

 

Politics and the murder

You can’t be called a politician if you don’t blame the current government for the crisis. SAD and Congress have done the same. It is a fact that if any one of them were in power, they wouldn’t have blamed the government but opposition or some anti-social elements to disrupt peace in Punjab. It is same throughout India.

When the news of assassination of Moosewala appeared on the social media, few people said that the current government in Punjab, means AAP, wouldn’t do that as it’d imbalance their power and the  trust people have in them. It made me recall the sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib ji during SAD’s government. At that time people blamed the Badals, till now they’ve been blaming them. This blaming elevated before the 2022 Punjab Elections and turned the tables quickly. If you truly find yourself to be the one sticking to the rules and morals, then don’t be a dog of any political party. If anyone is wrong, say it.

We have seen the official statements of the police about Moosewala’s murder, but there are some speculations of the public too where they assumed that reason of his death was political. None of these speculations would come true if it happened like this.

The first speculation is that he’s killed by the central agencies as he has been open about Bhindranwale Sant and Khalistan, and he has a huge following. Some even included Deep Sidhu in this list too, who was killed in a road accident, but some people believe he’s killed too as he’d a huge following during the farmers protest. Both of them were open about Bhindranwale Sant, in the interviews too. Moosewala  posted a picture with a tattoo on his shoulder, which is a verse talking about the Sikh Sovereignty, “Nobody gives anybody the power to rule, whatever is taken is taken with your own power.”

Second speculation is the opposition killed him to question the government of their reduced security and its consequences. So Moosewala became a hard target because they knew it would have an upheaval.

Third is to remove Bhagwant Mann or the AAP government in Punjab. A popular singer shot dead in daylight. Bhagwant Mann would be asked to resign from the position and another puppet would replace him, or if the situation got out of hands, AAP government would be removed by the centre government.

Fourth is that he’s killed as he’s going to support Simranjit Singh Mann of SAD (A). Deep Sidhu had asked the people to vote for him. Similarly, Moosewala was going to do so. Some people see this similarity too between the two.

These may sound far-fetched speculations, but the truth is if any one of them is true, we will never figure it out. One fact remains the same that assailants killed him, they would be caught and charged and jailed, they can take the responsibility and have any story to tell the police by hiding the official one.

His death may trigger more violence as it’s reported that other rival gangsters had said they would avenge Moosewala’s death, and he’d nothing to do with Vicky Middukhera’s death.

We may or may not agree with the lyrics of his songs or opinions, but his death was unwanted especially if it’s a political murder.