On the outskirts of the quiet Nurpur Jattan village in Punjab’s Hoshiarpur district is a modest yellow structure. Mounted upon it is a statue of Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedkar in a glass enclosure. On March 30, the statue was desecrated, triggering immediate outrage among villagers and members of Dalit groups.

The statue was repaired within a few days, but the wounds of Punjab’s Dalit community remain raw. Two police officers now stand guard round the clock to prevent a repeat of the incident. Dalits saw the attack on the statue as yet another act of provocation meant to fracture Punjab’s social fabric for political and monetary gains. Last year, the same statue of the icon of the Dalit rights movement was vandalised.

Multiple incidents of vandalism or attempts to desecrate Dr. Ambedkar’s statues have occurred in the past two years across the State, where Scheduled Castes (Dalits) account for about 32% of the population, as per the 2011 Census. On January 26, 2025, a man was seen defacing Baba Saheb’s statue in Amritsar’s heritage street, close to the Golden Temple. In 2024, a bust of Dr. Ambedkar was defaced at Phillaur in Jalandhar district, while in 2022, his statue was damaged in Phagwara. Statues have been targeted in Patiala and Faridkot districts as well, resulting in unrest in the Dalit community.

Gurpatwant Singh Pannun of the New York-based Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) claimed responsibility for the latest act at Nurpur Jattan. The SFJ is designated as an “unlawful association” by the Indian government. Pannun, whose SFJ is a pro-Khalistan group advocating for a sovereign state for Sikhs, claimed responsibility in a press release after the incident. He urged “the Dalit community to abandon Ambedkar and worship Guru Ravi Das, whose teachings have been incorporated in the Guru Granth Sahib”.

At Nurpur Jattan, residents feel the recurring desecration of Dr. Ambedkar’s statues is a deliberate attempt to fracture the Dalit-Sikh social fabric. In Punjab, the agricultural Jat Sikhs have dominated politics, but both communities remain resolute not to allow divisions to happen.

Balbir Kaur, who belongs to the SC community, says, “It’s painful when such an incident occurs. The statues are usually vandalised in the darkness of night. If the perpetrators have the courage, they should come forward and talk to us directly.”

Nodding in agreement, Gurbaksh Kaur says, “The vandalism of statues is not right. It’s due to Baba Saheb’s effort that we have equal rights through the Constitution. The government should take steps to protect statues. In my village, though, people from different sects and religions are united. The ill-planned efforts of those behind the desecration will not succeed.”

The Punjab police responded rapidly to the incident, registering a First Information Report under Sections 298 (injuring or defiling a place of worship with intent to insult the religion of any class) and 61(2) (criminal conspiracy) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. Pannun has been named as an accused in the FIR. The unidentified accused are still at large, even as the hunt to nab them is under way.

“About 10-12 teams of police personnel are on the job to trace the accused and we are probing all possible angles, and are hopeful of their arrest soon,” says Madan Singh, the Station House Officer at Mahilpur, where the case has been registered. Singh, who was at the incident site for a follow-up on April 5, says, “In 2025, when it was damaged, we arrested two men. The proceedings to file the charge sheet are under way.”

Balwinder Pal, the local Municipal Councillor from Mahilpur, on whose statement the FIR was registered, asserts that the intention behind the incident was to create discord between the Sikh and Dalit communities. “The police should thoroughly probe all these incidents and the conspirators should be exposed at the earliest,” he demands.

Early tremors

As the sensitive issue continues to be debated in the village, septuagenarian Mahinder Singh, his voice carrying the weight of decades of lived experience, warns that while the community has long prided itself on unity and harmonious coexistence, repeated provocations like these could slowly damage the foundation. “We have lived together as brothers for generations. When such incidents happen once, it is an accident. When they keep happening, it becomes a pattern. And patterns breed mistrust,” he says.

He urges the government not to treat these flashpoints as isolated law-and-order problems, but as early tremors of a larger fault line. “Governments, the State and Central, should take these repeated incidents seriously so that any untoward situation is avoided. They should act now. If they wait too long, then what was once harmony could become history,” he adds.

Shingara Ram, the Sarpanch (village head) of Nurpur Jattan, says the government should take swift action to ensure the protection of the symbol. “Locals have been deliberating over safeguarding the statue themselves, but full-time protection is not possible, as most villagers are engaged in work on daily wages. We are willing to extend whatever help is possible, but the government should take some concrete steps towards safety,” he says.

The desecration has reverberated in political circles and almost all political parties have aired their views on the issue, joining the chorus of outrage.

Political parties protest

As he visits the vandalised site in the village, Paramjit Singh Kainth, vice-president of the Bharatiya Janata Party Scheduled Caste Morcha, the wing that looks after the welfare and mobilisation of the SC community, asserts that a systematic and deliberate pattern of targeting Dalit symbols is unfolding in Punjab.

He says that these incidents are a direct and open assault on the identity, dignity, and Constitutional rights of the Dalit community. Kainth, who is also president of the non-profit National Scheduled Castes Alliance, says, “The recurrence of identical incidents makes it evident that either the State government is incapable, or it is deliberately turning a blind eye. A high-level investigative committee should be set up to expose all elements involved in this conspiracy, whether operating within Punjab or from outside.” He emphasises that arrests will not suffice; the entire network backing such acts must be dismantled. He also urges the BJP-dominated Central government to intervene without delay to safeguard constitutional values and restore public confidence. Punjab is currently governed by the Aam Aadmi Party.

Around 12 kilometres from Nurpur Jattan in Garshankar town, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) members have started a sit-in protest outside the office of the Deputy Superintendent of Police against the desecration of the statue. They are demanding the arrest of those responsible for it.

“We will continue with our protest till April 18, when we plan to hold a rally here. Both the State and Central governments have failed to protect the dignity of Baba Saheb. The governments have failed in their duty. They should take immediate steps for the safety of the statues across Punjab,” says Gurnam Singh, a senior party leader participating in the protest. He says the community is not satisfied with the way statues are being protected, they would intensify the agitation. “The decision will be taken after the rally. These incidents have usually been taking place around Ambedkar Jayanti (April 14), or March 31, when the Bharat Ratna was conferred posthumously on Baba Saheb, which indicates that the objective is to hit the sentiments of his followers,” he adds.

SCs constitute close to 32% of Punjab’s population, the highest percentage of SC populations among the States in the country, as per the 2011 Census. As per an estimate, in Punjab, Dalit voters have a high to moderate electoral influence in at least 55 Assembly constituencies of the 117. The SCs of Punjab are not a homogeneous category and are sharply divided into around three dozen castes among themselves and are further fragmented into different blended faiths. Garnering their support remains a priority as well as a challenge for all political parties.

Santhok Singh, a 50-year-old retired Army Subedar, stands tall, both in bearing and conviction. For him, the attacks are not merely on statues but on the very idea of equality enshrined in the Constitution. Dr. Ambedkar had led the Constituent Assembly that framed India’s Constitution. “Those orchestrating these repeated acts will never succeed in their sinister designs. They can damage one statue, but 10 more will rise in its place,” he says with quiet defiance, as he makes his way to the protest site.

Forces from outside

Sociologists and law enforcement analysts see these incidents as an attempt to ferment the politics of polarisation, while serving the financial interests of anti-social elements, especially abroad.

Professor Manjit Singh, former head of the Department of Sociology, Panjab University, Chandigarh, notes that there are some “agencies” within the country and abroad that are exploiting sensitive fault lines for political mileage.

“For instance, SFJ’s Gurpatwant Pannun runs an agenda in the name of Khalistan, fully aware it is unachievable. The pattern of statue desecrations witnessed across Punjab in recent years is no coincidence. It is an effort to pit Sikhs (particularly Jat Sikhs) against Dalits and ignite polarisation politics in the State,” he says, adding that by attributing the defacement of statues to Khalistan, it is a calculated move to portray Sikhs as adversaries of Dalits.

Shashi Kant, a former Punjab Director General of Police, who has served in numerous intelligence agencies, says, “There’s no doubt that through the acts of desecration, the attempt is to create instability and an atmosphere of fear, given the fact that Assembly election in Punjab are around the corner (in 2027).” Kant says “people like Pannun” don’t have any influence on the ground here in Punjab.

As the anger among the community is palpable, the Aam Aadmi Party’s prominent Dalit leader and Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema says directions have been given to deploy special security across Punjab for the protection of statues. Pointing at the foreign hand, he adds, “Those behind these acts are sitting abroad and have even claimed responsibility. It is now imperative that the Union Home Ministry steps in to bring these elements to justice so that legal action can be taken against them.”

vikas.vasudeva@thehindu.co.in

Edited by Sunalini Mathew