How the ‘Satluj’ wave could shape Punjab politics

As people flock to informal public screenings of Satluj across Punjab’s villages and towns, the film on Punjabi human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra has revived memories of the violent days of Khalistani militancy and the subsequent state crackdown.

But the movie does not just enable Punjab to have a conversation about its violent past. As political parties wade into the debate, the film may also shape the state’s political discourse ahead of Assembly elections, observers told Scroll.

While the Bharatiya Janata Party government at the Centre has effectively banned the film, the Akali Dal, the ruling Aam Aadmi Party and even the Congress, which was in power in 1995 when Khalra was killed, have criticised the takedown of the film. But it is the positioning of the Bharatiya Janata Party that has evoked the most interest.

The BJP’s balancing act

After four years of waiting for the Central Board of Film Certification to allow its release, Satluj quietly premiered on the Zee5 platform on July 3.

Honey Trehan’s biopic tells the story of Khalra, who investigated allegations of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances during the peak years of militancy in Punjab. In September 1995, Khalra was abducted by Punjab police officials and eventually killed. His body was never found. Several policemen were convicted for the crime.

Two days after the film’s release, the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting ordered the film to be removed from Zee5 under provisions of the Information Technology Act.

The sudden ban lit a fire, as screenings of the film began to be organised across the state.

Given the widespread emotional response to the film, the BJP has found it difficult to defend the Centre’s decision.

Last week, the chief of the party in Punjab, Kewal Singh Dhillon, called the issue “highly sensitive” and said that the party stands firmly with the people of Punjab on the controversy. “The moment I learned about the movie, I immediately contacted the Union Information and Broadcasting Minister. I thank him for constituting a committee to examine the facts,” he said.

However, the committee set up by the Centre to examine the content of the film also backed the ban on the movie as it “allegedly goes against India's sovereignty and integrity”.

Going against attempts to soften the party’s stand, BJP leader Ravneet Singh Bittu has kept up a steady stream of criticism of the film, questioning the figure of 25,000 disappeared people cited in the movie.

A former Member of Parliament from Congress who joined Bharatiya Janata Party in the run-up to 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Bittu has claimed that the BJP-led Union government had no role in removing the film from the streaming platform. He has alleged it was the filmmakers themselves who uploaded it and took it down.

Very few in Punjab, however, share that view. “For three or four years, there was a lot of hype around the movie,” said Harjeshwar Pal Singh, assistant professor of history at Sri Guru Gobind Singh College in Chandigarh. “Then suddenly it was released on a [platform] aligned with the BJP and removed after two days.”

Zee5 is a streaming platform of the Zee Network, which is owned by Subhash Chandra, who became a Rajya Sabha MP with the BJP’s support.

According to Singh, Bittu’s fierce criticism of the film has to be seen through his legacy.

Bittu is the grandson of former Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh who was assassinated by militants in 1995, five days before Khalra was abducted – which is depicted in the movie Satluj as well.

Beant Singh was known for leading a tough campaign against militancy in Punjab. “As far as Bittu is concerned, his USP has always been to invoke his grandfather’s martyrdom, project himself as tough on national security and pro-Hindu. That perception has helped him to win and it continues to be the basis of his political relevance,” Singh added.

Bittu has also questioned the “selective portrayal of Punjab’s darkest chapter” in the movie. “Why are the massacres of innocent Hindus, bus passengers, shopkeepers, government employees, labourers and ordinary citizens brutally killed by terrorists not depicted with the same intensity?” he asked.

The BJP has been a marginal player in Punjab’s politics, largely dependent on a Hindu voter base.

Even so, Bittu’s polarising rhetoric about the Hindu victims of the Khalistani militancy has made his own party members uncomfortable.

On Sunday, senior BJP leader and former chairman of the National Minorities Commission Iqbal Singh Lalpura asked Bittu to refrain from questioning the figure of dead shown in the film. “When Jaswant Khalra spoke about the disappearances of 25,000 people, he gave a message. The claim was verified by the National Human Rights Commission. If Bittu Sahib wants the data, he can seek it from the NHRC (National Human Rights Commission)," he said.

To many observers, the different voices from within the BJP appear to be strategic.

“BJP looks to be playing both sides,” said Singh, the history professor.

Disadvantage Congress

Almost every political observer in Punjab agrees that if the film is damning for any political party, it is the Congress.

In Punjab, the party is largely held responsible for the violence in Punjab that started in early 1980s and culminated in the breakout of Khalistan militancy. Congress leader Indira Gandhi was the prime minister when she ordered the Army to storm the Golden Temple in Amritsar in 1984 to flush out Khalistani militants.

The Congress has the distinction of receiving a small share of votes from almost every social group, Singh pointed out. “At this stage, BJP cannot take on Congress in a one-to-one contest in Punjab especially when it is no longer aligned with Akali Dal. BJP would be hoping that even if it loses, at least Congress should not come to power.”

But despite its legacy, the Congress has come to power in Punjab several times in the aftermath of Operation Blue Star and 1984 anti-Sikh riots. In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, it won seven of the 13 parliamentary seats in the state.

Most Congress leaders have maintained a distance from the controversy. But senior leaders in the state, including its state chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring, have criticised the BJP for banning the movie.

Ashutosh Kumar, professor of political science at Panjab University, said the Congress has largely managed to move on from its turbulent past in the state. “The party has already distanced themselves from that period,” he said. “Rahul Gandhi has asked for forgiveness. He has been going to the Golden Temple.”

Kumar added: “Indira Gandhi is dead. In Sikhism, there is a tradition of revenge. Once she was killed, that revenge brought a sort of closure. It has been a long period since then.”

While the movie indicts the Congress rule in the 1980s, Kumar pointed out that many people realise that it is unlikely that the Bharatiya Janata Party would have taken a different approach to quelling the Khalistan movement. “The fact remains that the BJP also supported Operation Blue Star. It is a matter of record,” he said.

In contrast, for the ruling Aam Aadmi Party, the controversy over Satluj could not have come at a better time.

It has taken the spotlight away from Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann’s confrontation with the Akal Takht, the highest temporal authority of the Sikhs, which recently declared him a “Guru dokhi” (anti-Guru) and “Khalsa panth virodhi” (anti-Khalsa community) over a video that showed a man resembling Mann committing objectionable acts against Sikh gurus.

The AAP denied the man in the video was Mann. It accused the Shiromani Akali Dal and the Badal family of manipulating Sikh religious institutions.

The Akal Takht has also faced off with the Punjab government over a newly enacted anti-sacrilege law that it says encroaches on its religious authority.

On the film, the AAP has taken a cautious position. It has condemned the ban and called it a direct attack on freedom of expression, but said that the decision on the exhibition of the film ultimately rests with the central government. At the same time, the party has said it is not opposed to the private screenings of the movie across Punjab.

The Sikh vote

As Satluj brings back conversations about the Khalistani movement and police repression to the political discourse, Sikh bodies have taken the lead in condemning the ban.

The acting jathedar of the Akal Takht, the highest temporal authority of Sikhs, has accused the Union government of suppressing a “historical truth” by blocking the film.

One of the first political parties to respond to the takedown of director Honey Trehan’s film from the Zee5 streaming platform, two days after it was released, was the Shiromani Akali Dal. It objected to the ban on the film and promised to “screen it in every village and corner of Punjab.”

The Shiromani Akali Dal has been traditionally perceived as a party dominated by the Jat Sikh community, which comprises roughly 25-30 % of the total population of the state. Its core support base has been the landed peasantry in rural areas followed by the urban Sikh trading class.

Having emerged from a reform movement, Akali Dal also represents the Sikh identity or panthic politics in the state. While the party dominated that space for decades, its marginalisation over the years has meant that its monopoly over that space is over.

In fact, there are multiple splinter groups of Akali Dal in Punjab now, each claiming to be the true heirs of panthic politics.

The Satluj controversy is just one example of that contestation.

For example, another party that took the lead in organising screenings of the film was a rival claimant to the religious Sikh vote – Akali Dal Waris Punjab De.

The new party is led by jailed Member of Parliament, Amritpal Singh, who styles himself after militant leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale – the man who led a movement for a sovereign Sikh state of Khalistan and was killed during Operation Blue Star inside the Golden Temple in 1984.

Tapping into the sentiments around Khalra, the party’s MP from Faridkot, Sarabjeet Singh Khalsa, has even announced a grant of Rs 1 crore for the construction of a memorial dedicated to the human rights activist.

Interestingly, Khalsa is the son of Beant Singh, one of the bodyguards and assassins of former Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

The polarisation gambit

In this background, Bittu’s polarising rhetoric around the Hindu victims of militancy depicted in the movie has to be seen in the context of electoral arithmetic, said history professor Harjeshwar Pal Singh. “The BJP has tried its old and tested formula of polarisation in this case,” he said.

If more radical parties like Waris Punjab De find a way to appeal to the Sikh vote because of the emotional response to Satluj, Singh said, the BJP stands to gain.

“If the rural Sikh vote is polarised and the Hindu vote consolidates to one side, it benefits the party while hurting the Congress,” he said.

The biggest losers, in that case, would be the Akali Dal. “But even if the rural and radical Sikh vote goes to Waris Punjab de instead of Akali Dal, it is not a major loss to BJP. It is willing to wait to play a long-term game,” he added. “It would even be satisfied if AAP comes back to power.”