Mithu for mayor
Wed, April 30 2008
Winning by one vote and overcoming his foes who are still seething with anger for secretly marrying a woman from a higher social standing, Sukwinder is now an elected member of the Koanke Khosa Gram Panchayat.
Gram Panchayats in India are a village's body of elected representatives. The council of elected members decides on issues key to a village's social, cultural and economic life.
It is part of India’s Panchayati Raj system of governance in which Gram Panchayats are the basic units of administration. The Panchayati Raj system has 3 levels: At the village level, it is called a Panchayat. The block-level institution is called the Panchayat Samiti. The district-level institution is called the Zilla Parishad.
Sukhwinder Singh was one of 75,000 candidates who stood for elections in over 11,000 Gram Panchayats in Punjab last week.
Sukhwinder Singh aka Mithu is the central figure in an international saga of forbidden love that culminated in the cultural murder of Jaswinder Kaur Sidhu, a beautician from Maple Ridge, British Columbia.
Jaswinder or Jassi was 25-years-old when she was kidnapped, tortured and killed in the spring of 2000 after going against her family's wishes to marry Mithu.
Mithu, a poor auto-rickshaw driver, was hacked by swords and left for dead after his wife was whisked away.
Just as Jassi’s murder trial in India got underway in 2004, Mithu a key witness to the killing — was charged with raping a girl from his village.
Since August 2004, Mithu fought for his freedom with the help of Vancouver-based publisher Harbinder Singh Sewak.
Sewak set up a website called JusticeforJassi.com to bring international awareness to the case and hired lawyers in India to pursue Mithu’s freedom.
Last April, Iqbal Kaur, 19, who accused Mithu of rape confessed before Additional Session Judge A S Grewal in Ludhiana, Punjab that she had falsely named Mithu as the rapist at the behest of Jassi’s family in India.
"I have been back in my village for less than a month and the residents urged me to stand for elections..They smpathise with me and the suffering I have gone through for marrying the woman I loved,” he told JusticeForJassi.com
Mithu said it was the lower caste Dalit population that supported him strongly as the richer villagers who are aligned to his wife’s family did not want him on the village council.
Ten votes for him were discounted before he was declared a winner by a margin of one over his closest rival.
“I will do my best to represent my village and make sure justice is done in all cases,” said Mithu, who has been thrown in jail several times by corrupt cops.
Jassi's mother Malkiat Kaur and uncle, Surjit Singh Badesha both of Maple Ridge, who have been charged with conspiracy to commit murder and other members of her family have constantly denied any involvement in her murder.
Indian police have revised their extradition requests several times but the duo remains free in Canada.
The RCMP will only say that the file remains open.
Four others convicted of killing Jassi are serving life terms in India.
Tell us what you think
Reader comments are edited for clarity and may be selected to appear in the print version of the Asian Pacific Post.
