‘Jai Sri Ram’ marks completion of Akali Dal’s ideological shift from Panth under Sukhbir Singh Badal
‘Jai Sri Ram’ marks completion of Akali Dal’s
ideological shift from Panth
Ground Zero
Jagtar Singh
Sikhism is universal and inclusive in its approach
with emphasis on human brotherhood but at the same time, its boundaries are
clearly defined.
Guru Nanak Dev, the founder of this Faith,
demonstrated this model of egalitarianism and brotherhood at the practical
level at Kartarpur Sahib now in Pakistan where he spent his last years.
The Shiromani Akali Dal that was created by the Sikh
leadership within days of the founding of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak
Committee on November 15, 1920 at Akal Takht, the seat manifesting the Sikh
sovereignty. It is not a religious shrine in that context but temporal seat.
Over the years, the Akali Dal evolved as political
assertion of the Sikhs replacing the Sikh League created a year before the
Akali Dal in 1919 that phased out in 1933. The party has since then been
articulating political concerns, ambitions and aspirations of the Sikhs.
It is in this contest that the raising of the slogan
of ‘Jai Sri Ram’ yesterday by its president Sukhbir Singh Badal has to be
assessed. He had greeted the entry into of the Akali Dal of former BJP minister
Anil Joshi and several of his associates by ending his speech with Jai Sri Ram,
Aslam Walekum and Hallelujah.
The party press release stated, “The ‘pandal’
reverberated with slogans of “Bole so Nihal, Sat Sri Akal”, “Har Har Mahadev”
and “Jaikara Sheranwali Da” in keeping with pluralistic culture of Punjab”.
Nothing wrong with any other party, or even the
Shiromani Akali Dal while raising these Jaikaras and slogans on the surface.
The issue here is the complete transformation of the
Shiromani Akali Dal from Panthic to an ordinary political party playing only
the power politics. This is the party that has the glorious history of fighting
unprecedented battles for the Panthic and Punjab concerns.
The minorities need their own parties and in case of
the Sikhs, that party was the Shiromani Akali Dal. This shift has the potential
to create the gap.
Even the Hindu majority has its voice in the Bharatiya
Janata Party with which the Akali Dal was in alliance for more than two decades
thereby supporting even its anti-minority dynamics although it was the Congress
that at one time used to be known as the Hindu Congress.
The ideological shift exhibited by the Akali Dal
yesterday is significant in this framework.
The first historic ideological shift in the Akali Dal
had emerged at 75th anniversary conference at Moga on February 25,
1996 under Parkash Singh Badal who was the first non-Panthic president of the
till then Panthic party. All of his predecessors were well versed with Panthic
ideology and idiom.
That shift was from Panthic to Punjabiat.
The seeds of Moga ideological shift can be traced to
the earlier party programme of April 14, 1995 that stated at the end: “Presenting and projecting the above
programmes, the Shiromani Akali Dal calls upon all the Punjabis for a
determined, enthusiastic response. The Shiromani Akali Dal gives unto itself
and to the Sikhs and the Punjabis in general, as well to the people of India, a
solemn pledge for a peaceful, democratic, sustained struggle, in cooperation
with other like-minded parties, for realizing the above-mentioned goals and
objectives, invoking the archetypal Punjabi spirit embodied in the Mahavak
(holy revelation): Victory with Determination.”
At the Moga
conference, it was in the speech of Badal that Punjab, Punjabi and Punjabiat
were emphasised. It was this emphasis that came to be known as the Moga
Declaration although there was no resolution to this effect. It was after this
conference that the party started shifting away from the Panthic idiom and
finally opted for alliance with the BJP by extending unconditional support to
the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government in 1996 after earlier short term romance
with the BSP in the Lok Sabha polls.
It was under
this qualitative shift that the party started drifting away from the Panthic
domain and seeking electoral support in non-Sikh domains. It was this politics
that created Bargari tragedy associated with sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib and
related issues in 2015 when the party was in power.
It is
pertinent to mention here in this context that the party after coming into
power in 1997 had backtracked from its promise of ordering probe into period of
militancy and action against police officers associated with human rights excesses.
Jai Sri Ram
was a normal greeting in the Hindi heartland till it was politicised by the
Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh as part of anti-minorities Hindutva and Hindu
Rashtra agenda with Ram Mandir at Ayodhya in place of Babri Masjid. This is a
continuing project. However, this slogan has been heard from the Akali Dal
platform for the first time and that too having been raised by the second
non-Panthic president of the party.
Having got
alienated from a section of its Sikh support base especially after the Bargari
narrative, the Akali Dal is desperately trying to make inroads into non-Sikh
electoral mobilisations. The party can’t come to power without support from non-Sikh sections.
The BSP might
not fill the gap left by the BJP.
However, the
Akali Dal can’t make a clean break with the Panthic domain so long as it
controls the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee. It is because of this
duality that the credibility of Sikh institutions has been getting eroded in
the past, even to the extent that then Akal Takht chief Giani Gurbachan Singh
was not allowed even to perform his duties at the highest seat.
But then the
Akali Dal leadership has already exercised its option of beak with the Panthic
domain.
The tragedy
is that the effort by a section of the Sikhs over the years to float another
outfit to articulate the Sikh concerns has utterly failed as this section too
suffers from the credibility problem.
Anyway, the second
oldest political party has entered yet another interesting and second phase in
its life.
It is to be
seen as to how the dynamics of Panthic domain would be impacted with this shift
in the once Panthic party.
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