The SGPC should have honored Pandit Lekh Ram Ji for saving Sikh dignity. Yet they don’t even acknowledge this debate. You can ask any Ahmadi Muslim — they will all tell you about the famous debate that took place in Lahore between Pandit Lekh Ram Ji and Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, which was held on behalf of the Sikhs.
Instead, the SGPC constantly curses the Arya Samaj and behaves like complete ehsan faramosh (ungrateful people).
I worked in Punjab as a journalist during the peak of militancy. Later in my career, I headed the Punjab Cell in the CBI, which had, in its past, investigated cases of fake encounters as well as the assassination of Sardar Beant Singh.
Those experiences gave me a rare opportunity to see both sides of that tragic period. They taught me that any honest account of those years must acknowledge both sides of the story.
And that is exactly my concern with Satluj: not what it shows, but what it leaves out. It tells only half the truth; the other half is left unsaid, deliberately, and with a purpose.
The film decontextualizes Jaswant Singh Khalra and the human rights debate from the Pakistan-backed, brutal Khalistani insurgency. This omission is neither an innocent creative choice nor an inadvertent one. And, in my view, the intent behind such a selective portrayal should matter to every Indian.