New Delhi: With the new MP-elects Amritpal Singh and Engineer Rashid arm-twisting the system by using the loopholes, former Solicitor General of India, Senior Supreme Court Advocate and King's counsel Harish Salve spoke with Republic Media Network's Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami on SuperPrimeTime Max of the Debate With Arnab Thursday, during which the duo, along with other panelists, discussed the implications of Khalistani sympathisers and separatists being chosen as the representatives in Lok Sabha (lower house of Parliament).

Calling it “a blot" on what has otherwise been such a “wonderful demonstration of democracy” with around 630 million votes cast, Salve told Arnab that the duo's victory sets a precedent which concerns India as a whole, and not just “anybody's politics”.

Amritpal Singh, who fought the elections from jail as an Independent candidate, won the Khadoor Sahib Lok Sabha constituency in Punjab by a margin of 1,97,120 votes, defeating Congress candidate Kulbir Singh Zira.

“Whatever maybe the differences between political parties, this is the issue where they have to put their heads together”, he asserted amid Singh-Rashid's Lok Sabha win setting a worrying trend.

A day after Amritpal won the Khadoor Sahib seat, his lawyer Rajdeo Singh Khalsa said all necessary legal steps were being taken to ensure Amritpal Singh's release from jail. Khalsa along with Singh's wife Kirandeep Kaur met with him at the Dibrugarh Central Jail where the Khalistani extremist has been lodged since April 2023.

Responding to a question on whether or not the MP-elects would truly abide by the pledge of upholding India's sovereignty and integrity, the senior SC Advocate stressed, “He (Amritpal) has to take an oath to protect and preserve the constitution, and if he doesn't do that then he will not be an MP but just an MP-elect”.

Noting that the Sikh MP-to-be happens to be the “son of one of the assassins of Mrs Gandhi”, the King's counsel underlined a rather troubling concern of rise in extremism.

“The trouble is that the framers of our constitution (Ambedkar) would have never thought that there would (come a day when India would witness widespread) terrorism, and (on top of that) a terrorist would be elected in the country”, Salve lamented.

Meanwhile, Amritpal's lawyer has asserted that Singh should soon be released as both the AAP government in Punjab and the NDA government at the Centre "have no other alternative". Calling Singh's arrest "unconstitutional and unlawful", Khalsa reportedly said his victory in the elections proved that “people were with him”.

Now that the “war of elections” is over, Salve continued, “What the political parties really need to find out is: what is going on in Punjab? How did a person like him get any traction?”

Asserting that the Congress Party “will be fully on board”, Salve further said they will have serious concerns over how ”a person like him (Amritpal) got into the mainstream politics". 

I'm sure all right thinking people will have their concerns, he added.

Ten members of Waris Punjab De, including Singh and one of his uncles, have been in jail since last year after they were arrested under the stringent National Security Act (NSA) from different parts of Punjab following a crackdown on the pro-Khalistani outfit.

Khalistani Terrorist Amritpal Singh's Poll Victory a Worrying Trend | Watch The Full Debate