Bhagwant Mann's U-turn on Jagtar Singh Hawara, not a humanitarian gesture but a Political Gambit?
Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann’s appeal to Governor Gulab Chand Kataria for 10 days’ parole for Jagtar Singh Hawara to meet his ailing mother may appear humanitarian, but its timing and the Mann government’s earlier stand make it a politically significant move ahead of the 2027 Assembly elections.
Spotlight returns on Prof Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar, lodged in Amritsar jail
By Satinder Bains
CHANDIGARH: Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann’s appeal to Governor Gulab Chand Kataria for 10 days’ parole for Jagtar Singh Hawara to meet his ailing mother may appear humanitarian, but its timing and the Mann government’s earlier stand make it a politically significant move ahead of the 2027 Assembly elections.
In March this year, the AAP government led By Bahgwant Mann had reportedly opposed Hawara’s parole. Months later, Mann has personally appealed for his temporary release on humanitarian grounds. The question is obvious: what changed—the circumstances of Hawara’s mother or the political circumstances of the Mann government?
Hawara, serving a life sentence in the Beant Singh assassination case, is lodged in Tihar Jail. Mann cannot order his release because of the jurisdictional issues involved. His intervention is essentially a request to the competent authorities through the Governor.
The timing is particularly significant as Sikh organisations continue their agitation for the release of Bandi Singhs and Punjab moves towards the 2027 elections. The issue has the potential to influence the Panthic vote, an electoral space AAP cannot afford to ignore.
Mann has made a safe political move, If Hawara gets parole, Mann can claim credit for having intervened. If the request is rejected, he can argue that he had made the appeal but the final decision rested with authorities outside his jurisdiction—and potentially blame the BJP-led establishment for blocking a humanitarian request. In either eventuality, Mann gets a political narrative. Against this backdrop, Mann’s Hawara appeal is aimed to send a message to Sikh voters without assuming responsibility for the final decision.
Mann’s sudden humanitarian concern for Hawara also throws the spotlight on Professor Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar, who is lodged in Amritsar jail. For Sikh organisations, this selective intervention can reasonably be seen as double standards.Mann’s silence on Bhullar despite repeated appeals by his family and Sikh organisations for his release exposes the political motives behind Hawara appeal.
If Mann considers the suffering of an elderly mother sufficient reason to intervene personally in Hawara’s case, why has he not displayed the same urgency in Bhullar’s case? Mann has never advocated for the release of Bhullar and other Sikh prisoners who have completed their sentence for reasons best known to him.
The two cases are legally different—Hawara is seeking temporary parole, while Bhullar’s case concerns premature release—but the humanitarian argument invoked by Mann is difficult to reconcile with his silence on a prisoner whose family and Sikh organisations have repeatedly sought his release.
Bhullar, convicted in the 1993 Delhi bombing case, was sentenced to death before the Supreme Court commuted his sentence to life imprisonment in 2014, citing the extraordinary delay in deciding his mercy petition and his mental-health condition.
Bhullar’s premature-release plea was rejected seven times by the Delhi Sentence Review Board during the Kejriwal government’s tenure. The pleas were rejected twice in 2018, once in 2019, three times in 2020 and again in 2023.
The latest rejection came after the BJP returned to power in Delhi in February 2025. The Sentence Review Board rejected Bhullar’s plea in December 2025, with the decision communicated in February 2026, under the BJP government headed by Chief Minister Rekha Gupta.
The Chief Minister is facing continuing pressure from Sikh organisations demanding release of Bandi Singhs who, they maintain, have completed their sentences. Quami Insaaf Morcha is demanding immediate release of nine Bnadi Sikhs who are languishing in jails after completing jail terms.
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