Shiromani Akali Dal walking out of alliance with BJP could be matter of time, party reacts to Delhi violence but had kept mum in 2002 during Gujarat mayhem

Akali Dal patriarch and 5-time chief minister Parkash Singh Badal has given out unambiguous hints that the second oldest political party in the country has finally opted to end his party’s  alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party that dates back to 1996.

Badal Senior has again been brought of out self-imposed hibernation under the changing situation. The relationship of the two alliance partner has been far from smooth for the last some time and the situation got precipitated during the Delhi Assembly elections. While the alliance has been facing rough weather, the Akali Dal in general and the Badal family in particular is facing accelerated onslaught from within the religio-political domain.

The Akali Dal had supported the controversial CAA while the people in the state in general have taken the position against this legislation. Punjab is one state where people have joined the Shaheen Bagh movement in large numbers. The farmers and workers organisations have launched a sustained campaign against CAA.

Badal gave out clear signal at the Bathinda rally of the party on Sunday where he talked of increasing feeling of insecurity among the minorities and the fear factor that has gripped the country.

He said, “There is a growing climate of fear, insecurity and uncertainty in the minds of the members of the minority communities” and referred to what he described as “deeply disturbing threat to  peace, communal harmony and secular values in the country.”

This was with reference to the communal violence in Delhi unleashed by the Hindutva brigade shouting “goli maro..” slogans and shouting “Jai Shri Ram”  against the Muslims. This violence has come as culmination of the campaign of hatred and bigotry that had been launched by the Sangh Parivar associations whose political wing is the BJP.

It needs to be recalled that the Akali Dal has not condemned communal violence against Muslims in Gujrat in 2002 when Narendra Modi was the chief minister. It is for this reason that the calculated articulation by Badal at this juncture is significant.

Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal is daughter-in-law of Parkash Singh Badal.

The withdrawal of Harsimrat would be strategically timed, it is learnt.

The veiled attack by Badal on Modi government and Sangh Parivar is the first step to pave the way for Akali Dal chief Sukhbir Singh Badal to announce the formal separation.

The sources maintain that the alternative of having political arrangement with the Bahujan Samaj Party is already being worked out. The BSP too needs such arrangement. It may be mentioned that the two parties had contested the 1996 Lok Sabha elections under alliance. BSP chief Kanshi Ram had won from Hoshiarpur under that arrangement.

The political discourse in Sikh-dominated Punjab is different from other states in the country. It is for this reason that the BJP has failed to expand here. The party had exhibited ambition of dictating terms to the Akali Dal of late but there is nothing much on the ground. The party has been contesting in alliance with the Akali Dal since 1997 Assembly elections.

The alliance dates back to the period when the Akali Dal extended unconditional support to Atal Behari Vajpayee in 1996.

The ground for withdrawal has to be prepared by Badal as he had been the most vociferous advocate of this alliance marketing it as “relationship of nail with the flesh” and a “social alliance rather than being political” with the objective of maintaining peace, amity and harmony.

Badal’s veiled attack on BJP has to be seen in this framework.

The political situation in Punjab is presently in a flux.

The Congress government headed by Capt Amarinder Singh has come to be associated with stagnation and non-functioning, a government on contract. Even the Congress leaders have come out opening against this non-functioning.

The Aam Aadmi Party that had emerged as the main opposition in 2017 Assembly elections replacing the Akali Dal, is in total disarray.

The splinter Akali factions at present are not in a position to take the space of Shiromani Akali Dal and can only harm the party in elections.

The space for third alternative has always been vacant in Punjab for the last two decades.

At the personal level, the stakes are too high for Sukhbir Singh Badal.