Deep Sidhu

Sandeep Singh Sidhu (2 April 1984 – 15 February 2022), also known as Deep Sidhu, was an Indian film actor and Sikh separatist leader.

He worked in Punjabi films, starting his acting career with the film Ramta Jogi produced by Dharmendra under his banner Vijayta Films.

Deep Sidhu was born on 2 April 1984 (or 1979, per his driving licence), to a Punjabi family in Udekaran village of Muktsar district of Punjab.

His father Sardar Surjit Singh Sidhu was a lawyer; his mother died when he was 4 years old.

He has two brothers – Surjeet and Mandeep Singh.

He obtained a degree in law from Punjabi University in Patiala.

He dated Punjabi actress Reena Rai who was also his co-star in two of his movies.

He worked in legal positions for a few years, as a legal advisor to Sahara India Pariwar, in the British legal firm Hammonds, and as the legal head of Balaji Telefilms.

Later, he founded a law firm Lex Legal in Mumbai.

He made his acting debut in Ramta Jogi, which brought him the PTC Punjabi Film Award for Best Male Debut in Punjabi Cinema in 2016.

He rose to greater prominence with Jora 10 Numbaria (2017), in which he played the lead role of a gangster, making him a star.

He followed that with Rang Panjab (2018), Desi (2019), Jora: The Second Chapter (2020) and Saade Aale (2022).

The release of Jora: The Second Chapter, which was a sequel to the successful Jora 10 Numbaria, was affected by the COVID-19 lockdowns in India.

Saade Aale was released in April 2022, two months after his death.

Sidhu entered political arena in 2019, campaigning for the BJP candidate Sunny Deol, and later trying to take a leading role in the 2020-2021 farmers' protest.

A few months before his death in a road accident, he founded a Punjabi Sikh socio-political organisation Waris Punjab De.

Sidhu entered the political sphere during the 2019 Indian general election when he campaigned for the actor-turned-politician Sunny Deol, who was the BJP candidate for the Gurdaspur constituency.

He was said to have been close to Deol and his pictures with Deol and prime minister Narendra Modi got circulated later in 2020.

During the Covid-19 lockdown in India, Sidhu is said to have read the works of Ajmer Singh, about Punjab and Sikh history.

This led to his political awakening, as Ajmer Singh had argued that Punjab's history has been "tampered with".

He uploaded several videos on social media on Punjab's history, culture and economy, and acquired a wide following.

When farmers' protests began in Punjab in late 2020, against the BJP government's farm laws, the artistes of Punjab were prodded on social media into supporting the protests.

Deep Sidhu organised a protest at Shambu on Punjab–Haryana border on 25 September, along with a former gangster called Lakha Sidhana, which came to be called the "Shambu Morcha".

The artist-organised protests did not meet with the approval of the farmer unions, who saw them as upstaging their own protests.

They also said that these protests were misguiding the youth.

Moreover, Sidhu and Sidhana were asking the protesters to broaden the agenda beyond the farm bills into a general protest against the Union government, in opposition to an alleged "attack on Punjab".

Sidhu also rebuffed the objections of the farmer unions saying that he would not abide by directives that were issued from closed-door meetings.

After the "symbolic protest" on 25 September, he launched a permanent "Shambu Morcha on 4 October, which continued, until, in collaboration with Bharatiya Kisan Union (Sidhupur), the morcha broke the barricades at the Shambu barrier and marched towards Delhi. This forced the other unions also to march to Delhi.

Throughout this period Sidhu was firm in his position that the protests were not merely about the farm bills, but to "change the entire power equation".

They had to be seen in the context of the "federal structure and existence of Punjab".

When farmer unions complained that the youth participating in his morcha did not even read the farm bills, he replied that they did not need to.

If they understood that Modi wanted to "capture our lands", that was enough.

At one stage, one of the protesting youth raised pro-Khalistan slogans, and the morcha manager Hakam Singh handed him over to the police.

Sidhu said that it was harsh treatment and expelled the manager.

His Shambu Morcha, which is said to have been independent of the farmer unions, was live streamed by pro-Khalistan channels.

The farmers that reached Delhi were blocked at the outer periphery of Delhi, where they continued their protest.

For the Republic Day on 26 January 2021, the farmer unions planned a "Kisan Parade" on tractors through the Outer Ring Road, along a route agreed upon with the police.

On the day before, Sidhu took over the main stage at Singhu, and argued for marching "inside Delhi".

During the parade, some farmers that bought into the idea diverted from the agreed route, entered central Delhi near the ITO metro station, broke the police barricades and clashed with the police.

There was rioting.