Chandigarh: Amid a raging political controversy over the alleged suicide of unemployed college teacher Balwinder Kaur, her family cremated her Thursday following a promise by the Punjab government that it would give a job to her five-year-old daughter when she turned 18.
Balwinder is believed to have killed herself Saturday by jumping into a canal in Rupnagar city, from where her body was recovered earlier this week.
In a purported suicide note that has gone viral, she cited her family problems but also wrote that Punjab education minister Harjot Bains was solely to be blamed for her being unemployed despite having been selected as an assistant professor. The handwritten note was stamped with drops of her blood and signed with her name.
Sharing a photo of the “written assurance” of the job to Balwinder’s daughter on social media, BJP leader Manjinder Singh Sirsa termed Punjab Chief Minister and AAP leader Bhagwant Mann a “bigger fraud” than AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal.
“He has given written (assurance) to Balwinder Kaur’s daughter to provide her govt job as & when she will be eligible. She will be 18 after 13 years! Shame on you Mann Sahab — You couldn’t give Job to Balwinder Kaur who committed suicide and now you are just cajoling her 5-year old daughter. Fraud of this Century!!” he wrote Thursday.
Balwinder was a member of ‘1158 Assistant Professor and Librarian Front’, a union of unemployed teachers protesting against the AAP-led Punjab government at Anandpur Sahib for the past two months, demanding jobs in government colleges.
Since the matter came to light, Balwinder’s family and several politicians have called for Bains’ resignation and action against him. Her family had earlier refused to cremate her body demanding action in the case.
While the Ropar police have booked Balwinder’s husband and father-in-law on abetment-to-suicide charges, no action has been initiated against the minister.
ThePrint tried to get in touch with Bains through phone calls and WhatsApp messages with queries on the subject, but there was no response till the time of publishing this report.
AAP’s chief spokesperson, Malvinder Singh Kang, said on social media Saturday that Balwinder’s “unfortunate demise” was “due to harassment from her husband”.
Members of 1158 Assistant Professor and Librarian Front, along with Balwinder’s family, had been protesting outside Ropar Civil Hospital, where her body was kept. They had called for the registration of a case against Bains, and Balwinder’s family members met Punjab Governor Banwarilal Purohit demanding action in the matter.
“We were told by the police that the education minister’s name will be in a daily diary report of the incident but we were also told that the daily diary report cannot be handed over to us because of a technical issue,” Rohit Digra, a leader of 1158 Assistant Professor and Librarian Front, told ThePrint Thursday, adding that they were “disappointed” at the “compromise” her family had reached with the government.
“On the intervening night between Wednesday and Thursday, senior officers of the Ropar administration started holding closed-door talks with the family members and promised that they will give a job to Kaur’s five-year-old daughter when she turns a major. The family agreed and cremated Kaur in the afternoon today,” said Digra. “It is disappointing because the family should have stood by the front in the manner that Balwinder stood by us till her last breath.”
Several farmer bodies had also joined the Ropar protest, along with students from Punjabi University, Patiala, and Guru Nanak Dev University in Amritsar.
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Row over appointments
Balwinder was one of 1,158 assistant professors and librarians who had been appointed by the Punjab government in 2021 to serve in government colleges across the state. These selections had taken place during the few months that Congress leader Charanjit Singh Channi was chief minister of Punjab.
The appointments were, however, challenged through multiple petitions in the Punjab and Haryana High Court on the grounds that several rules had been ignored during the selection process.
In August 2022, the court quashed the appointments and members of 1158 Assistant Professor and Librarian Front have since been demanding fresh postings.
Balwinder’s case has, meanwhile, snowballed into a major political issue.
Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Bikram Singh Majithia Saturday called for Bains’ immediate resignation and arrest, while BJP’s Sirsa said Sunday that the AAP government’s “apathy” was responsible for “the loss of an innocent life”.
Leader of the opposition and Congress MLA Partap Singh Bajwa wrote on X Saturday: “Punjab Education Minister @harjotbains must be booked and arrested for abetting a woman professor to commit suicide. CM @BhagwantMann, who also holds the home portfolio must act efficiently and ask the police to pick up the education minister before he goes underground. This is the time for the @AAPPunjab govt to demonstrate its unbiased stance.”
Various political leaders also visited Balwinder’s family. Majithia, along with Akali supporters, visited the Ropar SSP’s office Tuesday demanding action against Bains.
In response to the charges, AAP chief spokesperson Malvinder Singh Kang released a long statement where he alleged that the “vulture kingdom” had propagated a false narrative around her death.
“The entire ‘Vulture’ kingdom, as I shall aptly refer to them, has shamelessly propagated false narratives based on a purported suicide note, cynically targeting @harjotbains,” he wrote.
“In times like these, we should be united in empathy and compassion, offering support to those affected by this heart-wrenching event,” he said, adding that “it is a time for dignified reflection, not for the politics of character assassination and false allegations”.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)