Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann’s request to Governor Gulab Chand Kataria for 10-day parole for Jagtar Singh Hawara to meet his ailing mother has reignited the debate over the release of “Bandi Singhs” — Sikh prisoners whose cases have long been a political and religious flashpoint in the state. Hawara was convicted for the assassination of former Punjab CM Beant Singh.Mann’s move is the first instance of a sitting CM seeking parole for a convict serving a life sentence in the assassination of a former CM.AdvertisementWhat the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government has described as a purely humanitarian request has acquired political, religious and electoral overtones.In a letter to Kataria on Saturday, Mann said Hawara’s mother, owing to her old age, was facing “age-related health issues.”. “Therefore, on humanitarian grounds, I wish to request you that, keeping in view the deteriorating health of Hawara’s mother, he may kindly be granted parole for 10 days at the earliest,” the CM wrote to Kataria, who is also the Chandigarh Administrator.The High Court had last month directed authorities at Delhi’s Mandoli prison, where Hawara is lodged, to decide his parole application in a time-bound manner after seeking recommendations from the Chandigarh administration.AdvertisementEarlier this month, a delegation of the Shiromani Akali Dal (Punar Surjit) had also met the Governor, seeking his intervention to enable Hawara to meet his ailing mother.AAP defendsDefending Mann’s move, AAP MP Malvinder Singh Kang said the request was purely humanitarian. “What has the CM said? He has only said it on humanitarian grounds. I visited his mother two months ago. This is humanity. He has already served his sentence,” Kang said.Kang also pointed to support for the demand at the grassroots level. “Two hundred panchayats have passed resolutions (supporting the demand). There is nothing political, it is only humanitarian,” he said.The demand for the release of “Bandi Singhs” has for years been a major issue among Sikh organisations and Panthic political parties. It has gained renewed political salience with the emergence of Akali Dal (Waris Punjab De), led by jailed Khadoor Sahib MP Amritpal Singh.Akalis reactThe AAP government’s move, which takes the party into terrain traditionally occupied by the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and signals its bid to reach out to Sikh voters, has evoked reactions from the SAD.Senior party leader Bikram Singh Majithia attacked Mann and AAP over the issue, alleging “double standards”. In a post on X, Majithia said, “Always opposed, now playing politics. Actions speak louder than words.”He referred to the case of Prof Davinder Pal Singh Bhullar, a convict in the 1993 Delhi bomb blast case, alleging that when Arvind Kejriwal was Delhi Chief Minister, his government had deferred Bhullar’s release. Majithia asked why the AAP government was now seeking to project itself as sympathetic towards Bandi Singhs.Majithia also alleged that the Punjab Jail Department file dated February 19, 2026, had carried a “Non Recommendation” for Hawara’s parole and questioned the Mann government’s stance on Balwant Singh Rajoana, another convict in the Beant Singh assassination case.Even as the AAP cited “humanitarian grounds”, political observers point to the religious and political significance attached to Hawara’s name.“Hawara is considered a parallel Akal Takht Jathedar of the Akal Takht – the highest temporal seat of the Sikhs. There are multiple dimensions to this development. Bandi Singhs is the main agenda of Akali Dal-WPD and several other Panthic outfits, including the SAD. The AAP is in a running battle against the SAD over control of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC),” a political observer said.Hawara’s significanceHawara is serving a life sentence in the case relating to the August 31, 1995 assassination of Beant Singh, who was killed along with 16 others in a bomb blast outside the Punjab Civil Secretariat in Chandigarh.Hawara and Rajoana were sentenced to death by a trial court in 2007. In 2010, the Punjab and Haryana High Court commuted their sentence to life imprisonment.Hawara’s appointment as the parallel Jathedar of the Akal Takht was disputed and not recognised by the SGPC.Rivals back MannMann, however, has found support from two leaders who are political rivals. Former CM Captain Amarinder Singh, now with the BJP, backed his request. “I am against holding people in jail after they have served their sentence. They have been there for 30 years,” he said.you may like“If he wants to go to meet his ailing mother, the least we can do is to let him go. If you want to honour the law, then let him go. Because he has broken jail once, he will not keep doing it forever,” the former CM added.Amarinder’s support for Mann is significant as he was the CM of the Congress government, which took a tough position on issues concerning militancy and national security.BJP leader and Beant Singh’s grandson Ravneet Singh Bittu also backed Mann’s argument while maintaining that the law should take its course. “If he has done wrong, why should his mother be punished? What is her fault? The law has to take its own course but, if you ask me, then the mother should not pay for her son’s wrongdoing,” Bittu said.