Comatose Akali Dal needs intensive surgery for
revival beginning from top
Ground Zero
Jagtar Singh
Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal
today set up a 16-member committee to recommend measures for the rejuvenation
of the historic Shiromani Akali Dal.
As per the party readout, the mandate is to “recommend
sweeping changes to safeguard the core principles of the party.”
He said, “The Committee would introspect on the recent
assembly election results and take feedback from the grass root level on the
steps needed to strengthen the party…. the Committee would also suggest changes
needed at the organizational level.”
However, the situation confronting this once party of
the Sikhs is unprecedented in this more than a century old Akali Dal and
somewhat different from the oldest party in the country that is the Congress. Akali
Dal is the second oldest. Both the Congress and the Akali Dal have been
subjected to humiliating defeat.
However, in case of Shiromani Akali Dal, it is not
just defeat but decimation, having been reduced to just three seats in the
Assembly having 117 members.
Both its Patron and the President too have lost.
It was anticipated that Sukhbir Singh Badal would own
moral responsibility for this decimation and quit, the second under his command,
leaving aside Parliamentary polls.
However, his father and party Patron Parkash Singh
Badal intervened in the core committee meeting that he attended after a long
time to save his son saying the defeat was just routine and the party had faced
a similar situation earlier in 1989 Lok Sabha elections. These two elections
are not comparable as the Akali Dal was marginalized by the radical Sikh
leaders in 1989, not any other party.
The decimation is the result of a long process rooted
in 1996 when the party consciously drifted away from its core that used to be the
Panth and opted for Punjabiat at its 75th anniversary conference at
Moga. There was something deeper in this shift. The Indian State was emphasizing
on Punjabiat at that time as part of the policy to counter radical discourse in
this border state.
Over the years, it was this shift that produced the
tragedy of Bargari sacrilege in 2015 under the Badal government. This tragedy
was compounded as both father and son started ridiculing and confronting the
Sikh devotees demanding justice for the sacrilege and related incidents
including police firing at Behbal. This was witnessed even in 2018 when protest
was started at Bargari on June 1, 2018 demanding justice. This tragedy is still
to witness closure.
The Badals have never even regretted for the Bargari
sacrilege tragedy. Not that they were responsible for it but for different
reasons. Badal Senior was instrumental in facilitating exoneration of Dera
Sacha Sauda chief Gurmit Ram Rahim from the highest Sikh clergy. It is this
dera that is the accused in Bargari sacrilege.
The Sikhs turned against the Shiromani Akali Dal in
the religio-political domain. It is this domain that used to be the core of the
Shiromani Akali Dal for decades.
In the process, Akal Takht and Shiromani Gurdwara
Parbandhak Committee were adversely hit as both these highest Sikh institutions
were misused by to defend such anti-Sikh actions. The credibility of both these
institutions is now at the lowest. SGPC which is an elected statutory body is controlled
by the Akali Dal.
The corporate model that Sukhbir Singh Badal introduced
in the SGPC created havoc over the years and it has become as corrupt a body as
any government department.
This model is the same as introduced by him in the
Shiromani Akali Dal.
The party has been turned into corporate entity based
upon partnership that is controlled by a group whose members represent various interest
groups, not in political domain but in business. The second dimension is the
family control leaving virtually no space for party activists. This party used
to be open and democratic in its functioning. Now it is access-controlled party,
cut off from its own roots.
It is in this context that the 16-member committee won’t
be able to recommend drastic changes that are called for.
It has already been realized that the worst is still
to come and that is the election to the general house of the SGPC that has
historically been the Akali Dal domain. Alert has been sounded by Badal Senior
himself. The party has already lost control over the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara
Management Committee.
It is time for leaders to show moral courage for the
revival of this party whose resurrection is now all the more needed when the
Sikhs have turned global. The irony is its leaders can’t even visit countries
like Canada and USA for fear of the Sikh anger overseas against them.
It is time for both Badals to make sacrifice for the
cause of the Shiromani Akali Dal and also the two other Sikh institutions.
The entire Sikh leadership in the religio-political
domain must apologise at Akal Takht for the what can be termed as sins
committed over the years, the first being the withdrawal of blasphemy case
against Ram Rahim five days before Assembly election in 2012. This apology
should follow after Badals resigns as patron and party president. The SGPC
chief and the Akal Takht Jathedar should seek forgiveness for turning these two
institutions as instruments of the vested interests over the years. The issue
is that of institutions, not just the individuals.
A meeting of the party’s general house should be
summoned at Amritsar to take emergency measures. Let collective leadership in
true Sikh tradition take over till the recommendations made by the 16-member
committee after which the election should be held to elect the new president,
even if he happens to be Sukhbir Singh Badal.
Resurrection of Shiromani Akali Dal is a must for
Sikhs and Punjab under whatever leadership.
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