Diljit Dosanjh Film Faces 120 Cuts: Why is Govt Scared of Jaswant Singh Khalra?

Punjab '95 relies only on official reports on Jaswant Singh Khalra, so why is the BJP government censoring it?

(The biopic on Jaswant Singh Khalra is being held up due to cuts by the CBFC)

(Aroop Mishra/The Quint)

Shaheed Jaswant Singh Khalra. Remember this name, because this is a name that the government wants you to forget. Even 30 years after his abduction and killing by Punjab Police personnel, Khalra continues to be the victim of a cover-up.

A biopic on Khalra - 'Punjab '95' directed by Honey Trehan and starring Diljit Dosanjh as the activist - is held up with the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC). According to reports, the board, which is controlled by the central government, initially recommended 21 cuts which later increased to 85 and finally 120. The board even went to the extent of telling the filmmakers to remove even the name of Jaswant Singh Khalra.

We had the opportunity to watch the uncut version of the film at a private screening.

• What does the film show?

• Why does the government want to erase the story of Jaswant Singh Khalra?

Jaswant Singh Khalra's Story

Jaswant Singh was born in 1952 at Khalra village near the India-Pakistan border in Amritsar district but the core of his story lies in the early 1990s.

This was a period of terror in which the people were caught between the militants on one hand and on the other the police and security forces who were spreading terror in the name of eliminating terrorism.

It was a time in which people were routinely picked up from their homes, tortured, and killed in fake encounters. While some of these individuals were indeed militants, many had no connection at all to the insurgency.

At this time, Jaswant Singh Khalra was a director with a bank in Amritsar. He had a well-paying job, a respectable position, and a doting family. But when a case of missing persons came to his notice, he began visiting police stations and mortuaries. That’s when he received a tip-off that led him to municipal crematoriums.

Khalra discovered that hundreds of unclaimed bodies had been cremated in crematoriums in Patti, Tarn Taran, and Durgiana (Amritsar). The registers at these sites listed names of the people cremated and many of them turned out to be people who had gone "missing".

Khalra also came across another crucial document — receipts for the wood used in cremations, which often bore the names of police officials.

The truth that the government wanted to hide had been exposed - rather than handing over the bodies of those they killed to their families, the police were declaring them unclaimed and cremating them in secret, so no one could identify them.

This is what made Khalra "Lawaaris Lashan da Waaris".

Khalra found documents for 2,097 suspicious cremations from just three cremation sites. He believed the actual number across Punjab could be as high as 25,000.

Naturally, this revelation shook the establishment. Chief Minister Beant Singh and DGP KPS Gill now saw Khalra as a major problem. The rattled government had no answers and even began claiming that these missing people hadn’t been killed, but had migrated abroad for work.

Beant Singh was killed in a bomb blast, but KPS Gill remained in power. He began seeing Khalra as a threat and sent notorious police officer Ajit Singh Sandhu to Tarn Taran.

Soon, Khalra, his family, and associates began receiving threats. Surveillance on them increased. Every move was being watched.

Then came the fateful morning of 6 September 1995. While meeting a journalist at his home in Amritsar, Khalra was abducted by unidentified men in a van. An eyewitness identified them as Tarn Taran police officers.

Despite protests from his family, human rights organisations, and the opposition, Khalra was never produced in court.

Eventually, a CBI investigation revealed that he had been abducted by Ajit Sandhu and his team, tortured for days at the Chabal police station, and then killed. His body was allegedly dumped in the Harike canal near the border.

The body of the 'Lawaaris Lashaan da Waris' was never found.

What Does the Film Show?

Honey Trehan's film 'Punjab '95' is almost entirely based on court documents, CBI reports, press coverage, and findings of the National Human Rights Commission. Trehan has made a remarkably understated film that remains true to its source material. The names of a few key figures like Beant Singh, KPS Gill, Ajit Singh Sandhu and the witnesses in the Khalra case, have been changed.

Diljit Dosanjh has effectively been able to bring to life different aspects of Khalra's personality - a man who was extremely tender and yet strong, vulnerable and yet courageous.

But the biggest success of the film is how it showed the 'systemic' nature of the killings that were being carried out in Punjab. It wasn't just a case of a few cruel officers. An entire system was in place in which officers guilty of abducting, torturing and killing people were not just allowed to function but were also given out-of-turn promotions and medals.

It is this aspect which truly takes the depiction of the truth of what happened in Punjab in the 1980s and 1990s to the next level compared to earlier films made on the same theme - Anurag Singh's Diljit Dosanjh-starrer film 'Punjab 1984' (2014), Gulzar's 'Maachis' (1996) and Amitoj Mann's 'Hawayein' (2003).

One interesting bit of casting in Punjab '95 is SM Zaheer as the CM (based on Beant Singh) and Kanwaljit Singh as the DGP (based on KPS Gill). They happen to be the two main police officers - Khurana and Vohra respectively - in Gulzar's 'Maachis'. They had been humanised in that film - Kanwaljit's character even says at one point that police officers don't really want violence and are forced to take that path. This did dilute the depiction of the police atrocities in Punjab to some extent.

By choosing the same actors as the faces of state atrocities of that period, Punjab '95 both gives a hat-tip to Maachis while also giving a much-needed corrigendum.

However, Honey Trehan doesn't tar the entire establishment with the same brush and shows the nuances within the system. On one hand there is the sadistic SSP Sugga, played with menacing brilliance by Suvinder Vicky (It is amazing how Vicky as a cop in Kohrra, CAT and Punjab '95 are completely different from each other).

On the other hand, the characters played by Saurabh Sachdeva and Jagjeet Sandhu bring out the torment of a security personnel witness to unspeakable acts of cruelty. Then there is the CBI officer played by Arjun Rampal who is shown as earnestly trying to bring out the truth of what happened to Khalra.

Despite all its nuance and accuracy, the film has been subjected to extensive cuts by the censor board.

So, the question is: Why doesn’t the current government want people to watch this film?

Why is the Govt Afraid of Punjab '95?

First, it is in line with the Modi government’s Punjab policy - from the beginning, there has been an effort to silence voices questioning the government. Journalists, activists, and farmers’ social media handles have been regularly banned. People have been arrested under UAPA and NSA. Many Punjabi singers and actors who supported the farmers' movement have faced threats.

Though the Modi government never stops talking about the Congress party’s past mistakes, when it comes to Punjab or the Sikhs, they often try to cover up Congress-era atrocities.

Blocking this film is proof of that policy. In fact, BJP’s approach to Punjab isn't specific to the Modi government. LK Advani openly supported Operation Bluestar in 1984. Arun Nehru, an important minister during the 1984 anti-Sikh pogrom, later joined the BJP.

KPS Gill was made an advisor by Narendra Modi when he was Gujarat CM. Beant Singh’s grandson Ravneet Bittu is today BJP’s only minister from Punjab. Despite losing the election, he has been made a minister.

So, when it comes to Punjab, it’s clear—the BJP seems to agree with the Congress' policies of the 1980s and 1990s.

Second, there is a key facet of Hindutva — monopoly over victimhood. The regime decides which oppression is considered valid and which isn't.

Only the atrocities committed by Mughals or Islamic terrorists on Hindus are acknowledged. But films like Punjab 95 or Santosh, which expose police brutality, face censorship.

Diljit Dosanjh is praised for Chamkila, a film that paints some sections among Sikhs in a bad light. But he gets no support when he plays Jaswant Singh Khalra.

The director of The Kerala Story openly admits using fabricated statistics, yet no action is taken. Meanwhile, films on Mahatma Jotiba Phule are censored for mentioning caste or Manuvaad.

Exposing caste is forbidden. Telling the truth about the mass killings in Punjab is forbidden. Talking about the 2002 Gujarat pogrom is forbidden.

But you can make pro-Hindutva or anti-Muslim films that openly spread untruths, and still be rewarded. Some of these films are even made tax-free and promoted by the ruling party.

Be it as a victim of murder in 1995 or a victim of censorship 30 years later, Jaswant Singh Khalra remains a symbol against oppression and lies.