Skip to main content

Akali Dal on verge of disintegration as revolt erupts against leadership following crushing defeat in election

 


Akali Dal in turmoil after humiliating defeat, loses grip on Delhi gurdwara panel

 

Ground Zero

Jagtar Singh.

Shiromani Akali Dal is on the verge of disintegration following crushing defeat in the Assembly election. The party has lost control over the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee, the second most important gurdwara body after the Amritsar-based Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee.

Crisis has hit the Sikh religio-political domain too as the Ragi Sabha of Darbar Sahib (Golden Temple) has questioned the position taken by Akal Takht acting Jathedar Giani Harpreet Singh in his reaction to the defeat of the Akali Dal thereby taking a partisan stand.

Shiromani Akali Dal members of the DSGMC led by Harmeet Singh Kalka today announced the setting up a new party and named it Shiromani Akali Dal Delhi State. He was sacked from the Shiromani Akali Dal yesterday as news appeared of his decision to float a new party  along with these members. Within hours after the defeat in Punjab, this is the second worst situation that the Akali Dal is now confronted with.

It may be mentioned that a few months earlier, DSGMC chief Manjinder Singh Sirsa, a close confidant of SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal had left the party to join the Bharatiya Janata Party.

The core committee of the party that met after the defeat had decided to maintain the leadership status quo following intervention by 5-time chief minister Parkash Singh Badal whose long inning has ended on a note of embarrassing defeat.

However, going by what has happened in Delhi, revolt has already got triggered against the incumbent leadership as discordant voices are getting shriller. Sarup Chand Singla, who was the party candidate from Bathinda Urban, has resigned while levelling serious allegations against Sukhbir Singh Badal.

The religio-political domain today witnessed repeat of the 2015 narrative on the issue of exoneration of Dera Sirsa chief Gurmit Ram Rahim by the Akal Takht Jathedar led clergy. That exoneration had been manipulated by chief minister Badal who had summoned these high priests at his official residence in Chandigarh in violation of the Sikh Maryada (Code of Conduct).

The Ragi Sabha today submitted a memorandum to the office of the Akal Takht Jathedar questioning statement of Giani Harpreet Singh calling upon the Sikhs to save the Akali Dal. His appeal has been interpreted as the move to save leadership of Badals.

Not only the Ragis of Darbar Sahib, many of the Sikh leaders have strongly reacted to Harpreet Singh thereby further eroding what little credibility this supreme institution of the Sikhs for prayer and politics has been left with. Akal Takht created by the 6th Guru, Guru Hargobind, symbolises the Sikh sovereignty and this basic character has witnessed steady dilution over the years.

SGPC general secretary Karnail Singh Panjoli has already called for reverting to Panthic and democratic character of the Shiromani Akali Dal from which the party distanced over the years under the leadership of the Badals for which they themselves have paid a heavy cost.

This defeat is unlike in 1989 Lok Sabha election when the party was marginalised by the candidates put up by the Sikh radicals and thus the Akali Dal was pushed to the margins by the Sikhs, unlike the 2022 situation. Now the Akali Dal has been  defeated by the Aam Aadmi Party that is not a Sikh party.

That defeat had forced Badal to sign even the Khalistan memorandum submitted to the United Nations before he staged a come back as the militant movement phased out.

It is for this reason that the defeat in 2022 is different.

In order to emerge unchallenged leader, Badal started exerting total control over Sikh institutions since 1999. These very institutions used to be the main strength of the Akali Dal in the Panthic domain. Badals are now paying the cost of this type of politics.

The crisis faced by the Akali Dal continues to deepen.

 

 

 


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Sinister and deep design to divide Sikhs and Hindus in Canada needs to be exposed

  Sinister and deep design to divide Sikhs and Hindus in Canada needs to be exposed Ground Zero Jagtar Singh Chandigarh: Let us decode deeper design in what apparently seems to be deliberate distortion of facts in case of the so-called Sikh-Hindu clash in Canada to project it as confrontation between the two communities. The Indian media and the establishment gave it out as a communal conflict and attack on a Mandir, the Hindu place of worship. Let us first put the matter straight from the evidence available in the form of videos relating to every dimension of this narrative and the statements. It was neither a Sikh-Hindu clash nor an attack on the Hindu temple per se. It was a protest by the SFJ activists against the Indian consulate organizing a camp there. Such protests have been held against the consulate outside the gurdwaras too as per the record. The saner statement issued by the Hindu Federation of November 4 is very important in the interpretation of this narra...

History seems to be ominously repeating itself to drive Punjab into religio-political minefield again

  History ominously repeating itself to drive Punjab into religio-political minefield again Ground Zero Jagtar Singh This headline is not rooted in some sort of pessimism. The signals are loud and clear. The onus to counter such signals is on the Punjab government. History in Punjab seems to be repeating itself to push Punjab into yet another cycle of what can be termed as the avoidable toxic situation. That cycle has now impacted even geo-political relations of India with some countries, especially Canada where the Sikhs are settled in sizeable numbers. In the context of the Sikhs as a globalized people, it is pertinent to mention that even in United Kingdom House of Commons, the representation of the Sikhs is now in double digit after the recent elections. Punjab is still impacted by the tremors of religio-political   dynamics that got triggered in 1978 with the Sikh-Nirankari clash on the Baisakhi on April 13 at Amritsar, the religious capital of the Sikhs. ...

Two binaries emerging in Punjab’s multi-polar polls where last 72 hours are always crucial

  Two binaries emerging in Punjab’s multi-polar polls where last 72 hours are always crucial   Ground Zero Jagtar Singh Chandigarh, May 28: The inter-play of socio-political forces in Punjab in the run up to the June 1 Lok Sabha elections is unprecedented. This is besides that established fact that the religio-political dynamics of this state has always been different from the rest of India, even when the boundaries of this country touched the Khyber Pass connecting with Afghanistan. It is for the first time that so many main political players are in the fray independently thereby making the contest multi-polar. Then there are two other eruptions in the electoral matrix making the multi-polar contest all the more interesting, and also important for future dynamics of not only Punjab but also India as the roots of this phenomena are not in too distant a past but in not so recent period of militancy. It is after decades that Punjab is going to the polls without a...