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Punjab enters domain of politics of confrontation close to elections

  Punjab enters domain of politics of confrontation close to elections Jagtar Singh Ground Zero May 17: Developments in Punjab are moving at a rapid pace. The land of the Gurus is entering domain of confrontational politics. It cannot be ruled out that both the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which governs Punjab, and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which rules at the Centre, stand to gain politically from the escalating confrontations that began last month with the defection of seven AAP Rajya Sabha members to the BJP. At the same time, the Bhagwant Mann government has entered into direct confrontation with the Akal Takht, the supreme temporal institution of the Sikhs, over the sacrilege law enacted by the state government on April 13. The narrative emerging from these confrontations is reshaping electoral equations at a time when the Assembly elections are only months away. At least one of these developments is unprecedented and did not receive the attention it deserved: the...
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Defection in AAP and fast changing political narrative in Punjab

  Defection in AAP and fast changing political narrative in Punjab Ground Zero Jagtar Singh   Seven of the 10 Rajya Sabha members belonging to the Aam Aadmi Party hit party chief Arvind Kejriwal hard with the announcement to shift their loyalties to the Bharatiya Janata Party. Rajya Sabha chairman C. P. Radhakrishnan approved their merger with the BJP on Monday morning. What is all the more important is that six of these MPs had been elected to the Rajya Sabha from Punjab. The logical corollary would be the likely impact of this revolt on the electoral dynamics of this border state whose religio-political dynamics is unique as compared to other states in India. Of course, the religio-political domain in Punjab has historical tendency to erupt. The eruption on April 24 was confined purely to political domain. The tremors this time are strong and would continue to be felt in the days to come. At the same time,   this revolt is not rooted in Punjab but in Delhi. This...
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Damdami Taksal collaborates in Sikh religio-political domain with BJP that is eyeing Punjab in 2027 Assembly elections

Of Saffron Turbans , BJP and the Sikhs Jagtar Singh Chandigarh:  The Maharashtra government released ads in newspapers earlier regarding function to commemorate 350 th martyrdom anniversary of the ninth Sikh Guru, Guru Tegh Bahadur, in Navi Mumbai. Guru Tegh Bahadur was martyred in Delhi on the orders of Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb. The Guru   opted for this supreme sacrifice for human rights and religious freedom. There should be nothing unusual about a state government inserting such ad in the newspapers. However, it was unusual at one level. The leaders whose pictures the ad carried included Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, his deputy chief minister Eknath Shinde and others.   What was striking about this ad was that all these leaders donned turbans with saffron being the dominant colour. The Ninth Sikh Guru sacrificed his life for the cause of humanity and human rights. It may be mention...
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Strategic polarisation by BJP has potential to dislocate social secularism in Punjab

  Strategic polarisation by BJP has potential to dislocate social secularism in Punjab Jagtar Singh Chandigarh: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent visit to Dera Sachkhand Ballan in the Doaba heartland—an area where Dalit social and religious formations wield considerable influence—has once again revived the debate on the role of deras in Punjab’s complex religio-political landscape. Punjab, a border state that has historically witnessed alternating cycles of violent and remarkably peaceful mobilisations over more than a century, continues to remain politically sensitive and socially layered. This is typical Punjab whose political discourse has invariably been dictated by the Sikh religio-political discourse, at least till recently. This dominant Panthic religio-political discourse has now got fragmented over the period, thereby yielding space to new permutations and combinations in the state’s religio-political matrix. It can safely be said that Punjab is in a flux. The ...
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Damage to institution of Akal Takht symbolising Sikh sovereignty more important dimension of current crisis in Sikh domain

  Ideological Damage to Akal Takht most important dimension of Akali Crisis Ground Zero By Jagtar Singh The Sikh religio-political discourse entered a new phase on Baisakhi 2025 — the historic day on which Guru Gobind Singh, in 1699, created the Khalsa at Anandpur Sahib, completing the ideological foundation laid by Guru Nanak Dev, the founder of the Sikh faith. Significant developments emerged from the well-attended Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) conference held at Takht Sri Damdama Sahib on April 13. It was the first major public appearance of Sukhbir Singh Badal since his re-election as party president on April 12, marking his return to the helm after a brief interregnum. Sukhbir, who first succeeded his father, Parkash Singh Badal, as party president in 2008, resumes leadership of a party long dominated by the Badal family—an influence that has spanned over three decades, the longest in the SAD’s history. For months, the religio-political landscape of Punjab has remained i...
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Akal Takht intervenes to reset Sikh religio-political discourse

  Akal Takht intervenes to reset Sikh religio-political discourse Ground Zero Jagtar Singh Chandigarh, Dec 8: The Sikh religio-political domain has the tendency to dictate religio-political discourse of Punjab whose polity is different from other regions in the country. This is the state where a national dynamic minority is in majority. This minority was the third entity in all the political negotiations leading to India’s independence. What happened in Punjab on December 2 has to be reviewed in this backdrop as this development is going to have far-reaching impact not only on the future of the Shiromani Akali Dal but also the political tendencies at several levels. It is pertinent to mention at this stage itself that the Sikh religio-political discourse is presently affecting even India’s geo-politics, especially in the American sub-continent in the context of the activities of a section of the Sikh Diaspora. December 2 was unprecedented in the history of more than a c...
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