Do the names Govind Ram and Rajan ring a bell? No? I will introduce you to both, but a little later in this column. Let’s first talk about the movie, Satluj. I watched it the day it was released on OTT. I felt it forwarded half-truths and biased narratives about the period it is based on.

Some facts kept gnawing at me throughout the film. I am convinced that KPS Gill was not a villain, nor did the Punjab Police ever degenerate into a gang of brigands. The violence of the time threatened the very soul of Punjab and punjabiyat.

The distress the security forces and people faced can be understood from the accounts of Major AK Ravindran. One afternoon, he received information about an incident near Harike. At the spot, he found a mother and her three daughters, broken and distraught. How he tracked down seven terrorists — the women’s captors — gave chase and killed them is a story for a different day. The women’s testimony gave away the contours of Punjab’s tragedy of those years. Their ordeal moved the battle-hardened soldier to tears. The terrorists, the self-styled religious zealots, raped the women throughout the preceding night. Their bodies bore deep gashes and........

© hindustantimes