'Tamas', Pash's poems saved Canada minister from Bihar cops 26 yrs ago

PATIALA: Twenty-six years ago, poems by revolutionary Punjabi poet Avtar Pash, a copy of Bhisham Sahni's novel 'Tamas' and a cold cream had helped rescue Amarjit Sohi from the clutches of Bihar police. Sohi was on Wednesday sworn in as infrastructure and community minister in Justin Trudeau-led Canadian government.
His tale of solitary confinement in Bihar's Gaya jail in 1988 is already well known - both in Canada and Punjab.But had he not been lucky, Sohi might still be languishing in an Indian jail as a 'Canadian-Punjabi Khalistani terrorist who wanted to train Naxalites in Bihar'.
Amita Paul, a senior Bihar-cadre Punjabi IAS officer, revealed this while talking to TOI from Patna about what happened the day she confronted Sohi 26 years ago. Jagmohan Singh, a friend of Sohi who pursued the case legally in Bihar during his 22-month confinement under the Terrorism and Disruptive Activities Act (TADA), substantiated the story.
"Sohi was arrested by Bihar police in 1988 and taken to Jehanabad," said Jagmohan. "Nobody among Bihar's police brass believed his innocence. Bihar police were keen to establish that Sohi was a Khalistani terrorist who had returned from Canada on an invitation from Naxalites to train their cadres."
Paul was Jehanabad district magistrate at the time. "The moment she got to know that police in her district were holding a young man in solitary confinement on terror charges, she went to question Sohi," Jagmohan said.
Sohi, who was 25 then, maintained that he was a Leftist but not a Khalistani. "Amita had a literary background," Jagmohan said. "She asked him to narrate a poem by any Leftist poet. Sohi narrated a few poems of Pash. When she asked police officials what Sohi was carrying when he was arrested, she was told that he had a copy of 'Tamas', the novel set around the time of Partition. After that, the DM was convinced that Sohi couldn't be a Khalistani terrorist."
Paul, a 1980-batch officer who is now chief adviser to the Bihar planning board, said: "Yes, I questioned him then. Not only 'Tamas', police also showed that he was carrying Ponds cold cream. Terrorists hardly carry such stuff. Sohi also told me that he was a theatre activist. I can still recall that when I told him to recite something, he recited Pash's popular poem 'Kranti diya gallaan karan waaleyo, kranti jad aayi tuhanu vi taare vikha devegi (O you who are talking about revolution; revolution, when it comes, will knock the daylights out of you)."
Paul said she was largely convinced by Sohi's claim. "Today, I am happy that he has been sworn in as a Canadian minister," she said.
Jagmohan said after the DM was convinced, she prevailed over police to produce Sohi in a local court, where he was proven not guilty. Sohi was released from jail after about two years.
Sohi, who had migrated to Canada in 1981, went back after his release from jail in 1990. Before being elected MP from Edmond-Millwoods constituency, he was councillor from Edmonton, Alberta for eight years.