Deep Sidhu: How a Bollywood star became Panjab youth role model and heartbeat of the Panth

Deep Singh Sidhu. Background: Farmers in the Delhi protest which began in 2020

By Gurnam Singh | Opinion |

Known across the world for his role in Bollywood movies, the actor cum political activist in the Punjab farmer’s movement, Sandeep Singh Sidhu, a.k.a. Deep Sidhu, died on 15 February 2022 in a car crash. Ironically that fateful crash took place near the Singhu Border outside Delhi where the farmers had encamped for over 12 months! Though understandably, there has been some speculation on social media of a conspiracy by the Indian State, according to police officials, he was involved in an accident and died at the scene.

Sidhu, 37, was born in Panjab state in Northern India. Though he lost his mother at the young age of 3 years, through a combination of good looks and family support, he was able to achieve what many of his peers could only dream about. He started his career as a model and became the winner of the ‘Kingfisher Model Hunt’ and then he took part in the ‘Grasim Mr India Pageant’ which is used to represent India at the Mister World contest. His success led to a modelling career for designers such as Hemant Trivedi and Rohit Gandhi. This naturally led to an acting career, which began with a Punjabi film Ramta Jogi. And in 2017, he came out with the blockbuster movie, ‘Jora 10 Numbaria’.

Quite amazingly, in and amongst pursuing his modelling and acting, Deep Sidhu also excelled as a lawyer. After completing his law degree at Kingston University in London, UK, he returned to India and completed his first placement with Sahara India Pariwar as a legal advisor. He later went on to work with a British law firm Hammonds and then Balaji Telefilms, as its legal head. Indeed, it was this job that provided him with an opportunity to pursue an acting career.

ENTERING PANTHIC POLITICS

Despite Deep Sidhu’s meteoric rise in his professional life, in terms of Panjab and Panthic politics, he was an unknown. And this is what makes his meteoric rise the stuff of legends. And in this regard, the Sikh Panth and the Panjabi Nation, which has suffered so much over the past four decades, need to learn an important lesson from the short yet bright life of Deep Singh Sidhu. The lesson: How, in less than 2 years, from relative obscurity, Deep Sidhu was able to win the hearts and minds of the Panth.

For sure, he was emotionally moved by the farmer’s struggle, but this issue alone did not inspire him to virtually abandon a successful and lucrative career as a Bollywood actor and successful lawyer. There was something much more fundamental, which could have only been possible with somebody with the unique skillset he possed.

As a lawyer, as his speeches over the past 18 months revealed, he was deeply imbued with the basic principles of justice, truth and citizenship rights, particularly within democratic systems. As an actor, he had a deep appreciation of emotion, morality, betrayal, tragedy and tradition. And, as a model, he had the looks and photogenic aura to become something of a role model for the youth. It was the amalgamation of all these factors, infused by a deep understanding of the glorious history of the Panjab and the importance and the central role of Sikhi and the Khalsa Panth, that enabled him to win the hearts and minds of Panjabi’s and the youth in particular, to who he was simply ‘Deep Bhjai’.

What Deep Sidhu had realised was that the three farming ordinances, was the straw that broke the camels back. More than most, he was able to understand the severity of the situation. He knew, coupled with the ongoing crisis of drug addiction, brain drain out of Panjab, the ongoing human rights abuses, endemic corruption and the BJP/RSS infiltration into the Panthic institutions, and through sponsoring and promoting fake criminal Godmen, Panjab was on the brink of existential crisis. Though during election times, as we have been seeing over the past few weeks, the established political class routinely mobilise slogans such as “Panth bachao” (save the Panth), “Punjab bachao”, immediately after, they go silent!

What could have been a script for a Bollywood movie, from almost political obscurity Deep Sidhu appears like a breath of fresh air to awaken the hearts and minds of the Panjabi youth. Of course, Sidhu did have a little dabble in politics. As the lead campaigner for the actor and hugely disappointing Sunny Deol, he enabled him to be elected to the Lok Sabha in April 2019 as a BJP Member of Parliament for Gurdaspur. Though Sidhu had to constantly repel allegations that, because of his past associations with Sunny Deol, he was a BJP agent, his actions spoke much louder than the cheap propaganda by the Godhi Media machine. And boy did he do it in such spectacular fashion.

Commencing at the Shambhu border between Panjal and Haryana, via the Singhu border outside Delhi, and ending up in the historic Red Fort of Delhi on 26 January 2021, by the unfurling of the Khalsa Nishan, he was able to invoke the legendary sacking of Delhi during the Sikh Missal Period in the late 18th Century. It was on 11 March 1783, under the combined command of Baghel Singh’s Karorasinghia misl, Jassa Singh Ahluwalia Misl and Jassa Singh Ramgarhia Misl, that the Sikhs defeated the Mughal army to capture the Red Fort in Delhi, and the rest is the stuff of legends.

WHAT NEXT?

It is difficult to make any judgement about what impact the death of Deep Sidhu will have on the ongoing political turmoil in Panjab. The current election campaign has simply provided further evidence for the suggestion that Panjab is in terminal decline. Indeed, this has been the main slogan for all the political groups. The irony is that besides the newly established kirsani (farmers) party and the relatively new kid on the block, the Aam Adami Party (AAM), all the others have at some time over the past 40 years presided over the slow death of Panjab. The mismanagement and corruption, according to the latest Reserve Bank of India report on state finances, puts Panjab at the top of the table when it comes debt-to-GDP at 49.1% in 2021, a 6.6 percentage rise from 2020. And all reliable estimates suggest the current debt level for the state is a staggering 500,000 crore rupees or £49 billion pounds.

One theory emerging is that as things can get no worse, the only way is up. But the problem is, and this is something that Deep Sidhu repeatedly alluded to in his erudite discourses, that there is no point fixing the roof if the house itself is collapsing. Put another way, what needs reforming is the fundamental nature of the relationship between Panjab and the Central Indian State, which, under the BJP/RSS is eroding what powers the state government has to determine its policies and ultimately its future.

And in this regard, he was a firm advocate of autonomous status for Panjab and the vision that was articulated in the Anandpur Resolution and the thinking of Baba Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, who 40 years previously had realised that the centralising Indian State would one day threaten the survival of the Panth, Panjab and Panjabiat. Indeed, Deep Sidhu’s differences with the Kirsani leaders was precisely on this point, namely that the fight against the farming ordinances could not be separated from the wider and deeper struggle for the future of the Panth.

In the early 1980’s the youth of Punjab rose up against what are uncannily very similar issues, namely, the rights of Panjab to its waters, the bleeding of Panjab resources, the poor returns that farmers get for their produce, the outward migration of its youth and the promotion of criminal Godmen by criminal politicians. One does get a sense of deja vous and history repeating itself. Last time, following the storming of the Darbar Sahib in June 1984 by the Indian Army and the Delhi genocide of Sikhs in November that year, the Indian State embarked on a policy of extra judicial killings resulting in some 150,000 youth in Panjab and Northern India being murdered in fake police encounters.

One can only hope and pray that this time around, sense will prevail and that democracy can be seen to work, not to line the pockets of politicians and the corporates, but to empower ordinary people. The victory of the Kirsani Morcha (farmers’ agitation) is a source of hope and coupled with the power of social media, it is much more difficult for the Government to enact the kinds of genocidal policies of the past. But we must stay vigilant and perhaps, if not in life, certainly in death, those who labelled Deep Singh Sidhu as an agent of the state and an enemy of Panjab, will realise that all he wanted was to serve his people. And with his mind, body and wealth, he did precisely that. Though he is no longer with us, long may his thoughts guide the long-suffering and brave people of Panjab along the path towards liberation.



Gurnam Singh is an academic activist dedicated to human rights, liberty, equality, social and environmental justice. He is an Associate Professor of Sociology at University of Warwick, UK. He can be contacted at Gurnam.singh.1@warwick.ac.uk

* This is the opinion of the writer and does not necessarily represent the views of Asia Samachar.



RELATED STORY:

Actor and farmers’ protest lightning bolt Deep Sidhu dies in car crash (Asia Samachar, 16 Feb 2022)

A victory, one year later. Farmers call off agitation (Asia Samachar, 9 Dec 2021)



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