‘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 75^th 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.