Shiromani Akali Dal is now first target from erstwhile ally BJP as the party still symbolises Punjab and the Panth

  

 

Why strong Akali Dal is in the interest of Punjab and the Panth

Ground Zero

Jagtar Singh

 

This is irrespective of the negativity that the Shiromani Akali Dal has come to be associated with during the last some years, especially after the shift away from the Panthic domain.

Shiromani Akali Dal was and is an institution of the Sikhs and a weak institution of any religious formation has its own implications. It is also true at the same time that the present leadership of this oldest party of Punjab has also been under attack for weakening the Sikh institutions including the Akal Takht and the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee.

However, the present sharp attack from the ally for more than two decades that is the Bharatiya Janata Party is a challenge that the Akali Dal has to confront boldly. This attack can be countered only from within the Sikh religio-political matrix and not the broader Punjabiat domain. The Akali Dal had hurt itself at one level due to this alliance with the Hindutva party and even supported its designs like homogenisation and centralisation against the values of diversification and federalism of which the Akali Dal used to stand for.

One has to go into the brief history of the Akali Dal to understand the present situation in proper context and the need to strengthen this party.

Akali Dal was created more than 100 years ago to articulate the Sikh concerns and the party played a historic role through interventions at crucial junctures. The Akali Dal is the only party in India that has such glorious history of struggles and sacrifices. The present situation is just one low phase in its illustrious narrative. At one time, the Akali Dal led a national struggle against the Emergency and has the envious record of being the only party to launch and sustain that struggle.

The articulation of party stalwart Gurcharan Singh Tohra of 2003 who presided over the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee for more than a quarter of a century is very relevant to the present situation.

Both Parkash Singh Badal and his son Sukhbir were lodged in Patiala jail remanded to judicial custody by a Ropar court in 2003.

Village Tohra is only about 20 minute drive from Patiala jail via a link road. The SGPC chief would make it a point to reach Patiala jail in the morning despite ill health. His presence galvanised the Akali Dal.

This journalist too visited Patiala jail during that period.

As he was feeling exhausted  after a bit long speech to the hundreds of party activists at the jail gate,  he took some rest in a car parked nearby. It was at that point that he was asked as to why he had gone of the way to mobilise the Akali Dal to defend the very leader whom he used to attack is corrupt at one time.

Tohra went back in history to articulate his logic. He said, “It is not Parkash Singh Badal and Sukhbir who are under attack from Capt Amarinder Singh but the Akali Dal itself. The party can’t be allowed to be weakened. Sardar Sham Singh Attari was sitting at home following differences with the Khalsa Durbar. He returned to be part of the Anglo-Sikh War to protect the Khalsa. It was a matter of principles and I am only following that tradition”.

The attack now is from the erstwhile ally and hence it is more pernicious.

Manjinder Singh Sirsa should have faced the onslaught boldly  but he just collapsed. The reason is simple. He was already practicing policies of the BJP and was allowed by the party leadership to contest from BJP ticket. This should be a lesson for the Akali Dal leadership.

No other body has come up to replace the Shiromani Akali Dal to be the voice of the Sikhs at the global level despite several efforts in recent past. However, the leaders of these diverse formations have failed to come up with the situations. The failure after the massive mobilisation of Sikhs at Chabba village near Amritsar in November 2015, against the incidents of sacrilege and Behbal Kalan firing against Sikh protesters to evolve alternative leadership, just failed and that was the last such big move. The leadership leading that mobilisation had failed the Sikhs at that time.

It is in this context that  a strong Akali Dal is in the interest of Punjab and the Sikhs as this is the only party that is identified with a specific role despite all the weaknesses.

Tohra used to defend the party during crises despite strong policy differences with the dominating leadership as he fully realised the implications of a weak Akali Dal for Punjab and the Panth.

That very culture needs to be revived.