Akali Dal goes the Congress way to maintain leadership status quo after humiliation in Assembly poll
Akali Dal
Patron Badal Senior saves Sukhbir who continues as party president
Ground Zero
Jagtar Singh
It seems the
outcome of the meeting of the core committee that had been summoned to discuss
the worst ever humiliating debacle faced by the Shiromani Akali Dal in the recent
Assembly elections was already scripted.
Faqr-e-Qaum
Panth Rattaan, 5-time chief minister and party patron Parkash Singh Badal
intervened to scuttle discussion and facilitate continuation of his son Sukhbir
Singh Badal as the party chief. Both the Badals have lost the election.
This is the
second consecutive defeat of the Akali Dal in the Assembly elections under the
leadership of the Badals.
“There is no
use of discussion. If you want to retain Sukhbir, then praise Sukhbir or tell
him to pack up. The proceedings would get leaked in the media,” Badal
intervened as Prem Singh Chandumajra was speaking on the need for taking
corrective measures. Chandumajra and his son too have been defeated.
The issue
was first raised by senior leader Charanjit Singh Atwal followed by Jagmeet
Singh Brar who spoke almost in the same tone.
Chandumajra too
was taking the same line as Parkash Singh Badal suddenly stopped him.
Chandumajra was
stressing the need for introspection arguing otherwise there was no need to
call the meeting.
It may be
mentioned here that the party had not done any introspection in 2017 or after
the 2019 Lok Sabha election.
It is the
argument advanced by Badal Senior that is interesting cover up for the party’s
humiliation. He recalled the drubbing that the Akali Dal had received in 1989
Lok Sabha election when the candidates from the radical stream supported by the
All India Sikh Students Federation including Simranjit Singh Mann had won with
a massive margin driving the traditional Akalis to the margin.
Parkash
Singh Badal had later captured the Akali domain in 1994 after many ups and
downs beginning with the Ajnala and followed by Gidderbaha byelections. He never
looked back. He is learnt to have described the present low as the routine
while citing the 1989 example.
It was at
this stage that one of the leaders proposed that at least a committee should be
set up to dissect the defeat. However, Mahesh Inder Singh Grewal blocked this
move saying Sukhbir should be authorised to constitute this committee.
Expressing disgust,
one of the members proposed that then resolution should be moved praising
Sukhbir’s leadership.
The
resolution released after the meeting expressed “full faith and pride in the
firm and far sighted leadership of the party president Sardar Sukhbir Singh
Badal.”
It stated: “The
Core Committee is especially proud of
the brave, selfless and tireless manner in which the President led the
party from the front in true Panthic traditions during the six-month long campaign for the just concluded poll for the
Punjab Vidhan Sabha”.
The basic
issue is whether the party can be revived under the given situation and under
the present leadership going by the post 2017 situation.
The party resolution
talks of Panthic traditions that were dumped after 1996 systematically.
The functioning
of Parkash Singh Badal during his three full terms beginning 1997 in the
context of the Panthic traditions is questionable. He even went to the extent promoting those police
officers who were known for worst type of state repression and human rights
violations during the radical Sikh struggle. This has to be seen in the context
that Badal himself at one stage had supported the radicals.
The Bargari
sacrilege and the related narrative has not been forgotten by the people in
Punjab going by this worst ever defeat. The role of the Badal family during the
farmers agitation too had come under attack. The people of Punjab just refused
to trust the Akalis.
The Akali
Dal has gone the Congress way.
Both the
parties are the oldest in the country.
Both these
parties are now family controlled.
Both these
parties have been dumped by the people.
The leadership
of both these parties has managed to maintain the grip.
There is,
however, one major difference between the two.
The Akali
Dal used to be an institution of the Sikhs, at least till 1996.
This party
controls the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee and the Akal Takht through
this route.
The SGPC is
elected by the Sikhs in this region under the Sikh Gurdwara Act, 1925. The Sikh
institutions already stand damaged.
The defeat
in the forthcoming SGPC polls would have
the potential to write Akali Dal’s obit.
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