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Crisis of credibility for Akali Dal after snub from BJP, shoud reject CAA after supporting it in Parliament



Image result for images of parkash singh badal and sukhbir badal with harsimrat"


Chandigarh: The Shiromani Akali Dal seems to have miscalculated even after having been let down by its alliance partner the Bharatiya Janata Party in Haryana Assembly elections. The BJP has refused to honour this alliance in Delhi Assembly polls. The Akali Dal has taken shelter under the argument that the BJP set the precondition of support to the Citizenship (Amendment) Act in present form, the controversial legislation that this party supported in both the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. What an irony. There should have been a better excuse.
The CAA excludes the Muslims, the first legislation in India after 1947 that discriminates on the basis of religion.
The Shiromani Akali Dal announced its withdrawal from the Delhi polls last evening.
Not only the Akali Dal supported the CAA in both houses of Parliament, the party did not support the resolution adopted in the Punjab Assembly that was moved by the ruling party demanding its repeal. It is this positioning that is important.
It is outside the legislative forums that the Akali Dal has been taking the stand of including the Muslims as well under this legislation that in effect means nothing. This party that for years articulated the aspirations and ambitions of the Sikhs, the second largest and aggressive minority, went against the basic Sikh doctrine of universal brotherhood while extending this support to the CAA.
More important is as to what went wrong as it was the Akali Dal that had been talking of contesting Delhi elections in alliance with the BJP all these days. This has to be seen in the context of current political discourse in Punjab too.
The perception in  Delhi is that the Sikhs by and large would vote for the Aam Aadmi Party. The alliance would not have helped the BJP. The BJP wanted the Akali Dal to context four seats at its own. That would have been a total disaster for the Akali Dal. In the process, however, the party might have secured a few hundred votes in each seat and that would have been the perceived gain to the BJP.
The split in the Akali Dal in Delhi has further damaged the party. Former Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee chief Manjit Singh GK after having been sacked from the Shiromani Akali Dal has succeeded in roping in all the non-Badal Akali formations including the Delhi Akali Dal led by Paramjit Singh Sarna. Sarna is considered close to the Congress.
It is pertinent to mention that it was Sarna who was given the signal by the BJP top brass about evolving alternative to the Akali Dal. Rajya Sabha member Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa is moving in that direction.
The BJP has made it clear that the Shiromani Akali Dal is of no use to it. Earlier, the party refused to have alliance with this party in Haryana. It was not unusual as the Akali Dal used to be in the company of Om Parkash Chauatala’s party. However, it was the Akali Dal that wanted to contest Haryana polls in alliance  with the BJP last time.
Delhi is the second turf where the BJP has rejected it.
Here is one more dimension to the CAA argument.
The BJP has not ditched its alliance partner the JD(U) despite the fact that Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has opposed both the CAA and the NRC. How come that the BJP did not ask the Bihar CM to change his stand? This party too had supported the CAA in the Lok Sabha but repositioned itself after review of the situation. Nitish rather has gone a step ahead on NRC.
It is for this reason that the argument extended by the Akali Dal lacks weight and is unconvincing.
The Shiromani Akali Dal is losing whatever credibility is has in its 99th year.


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