Akali Dal lands in crisis as its legislature party leader refuses to vote for NDA presidential candidate questioning party decision, leadership

 

Crisis in Akali Dal deepens with first open challenge to leadership of Sukhbir S Badal

Ground Zero

Jagtar Singh

Chandigarh: Revolt has finally erupted against the leadership of Sukhbir Singh Badal under whose presidency  Shiromani Akali Dal, the oldest political party in the country constituted by the Indians, was reduced to just three seats, the worst performance ever, in the last Assembly elections.

The challenge to Sukhbir Singh Badal has been articulated by none other but one of the three party MLAs Manpreet Singh Ayali, who also heads this miniscule group that is Akali Dal Legislature Party.

He today announced boycott of presidential election saying he could not go by party decision to vote for BJP’s candidate D Murmu as the role of this party has been anti-Panth and anti-Punjab. At the same time, he asserted that going by historical reasons, the Congress candidate could not even be considered.

At the same time, he  raised the demand for change in leadership while logically articulating the arguments in support of his strategic decision and assertions and challenge.

Earlier, it was only Karnail Singh Panjoli, the general secretary of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, who has been raising the issue of change in leadership but not forcefully the way Ayali has done.

Ayali, in his video message, has underlined that the Akali Dal was constituted to take up issues and concerns of the Panth and not just confine itself to power politics. It is too well known that the Shiromani Akali Dal started distancing from the core Panthic and Akali concerns especially after 1997 when Parkash Singh Badal took over as the chief minister as militancy had already phased out but the issues relating to that period  started getting ignored. He had become president in 1995.

The House of Badals hegemonized the Akali affairs and the highest Sikh institutions in the process. At the same time, the party distanced itself from the issues not only those relating to militancy but also the legacy ones.

The worst was the handling of Bargari chain of incidents relating to sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib in 2015. The Badal government opted for those police officers who were associated with brazen human rights violations including the appointment of Sumedh Singh Saini as the police chief.

The Badals have not offered regret, what to talk of apology, for such decisions. The highest institutions like the sovereign Akal Takht and the SGPC were severely dented during this period.

The Akali Dal getting reduced to just three seats was the cumulative effect of the style of functioning and wrong priorities of the Badals.

Shiromani Akali Dal is not just a political party but one of the three institutions of the Sikhs, the other two being the Akal Takht and the SGPC, in that order. The Akali Dal has glorious history of struggles, both before and after independence. However, the Badals reduced it to a family controlled outfit with only objective being power. The Badals encouraged dynasties in the party to justify their own grip.

Sukhbir Singh Badal used to be hailed as poll strategist after 2007. If he was given the credit, he also should have own moral responsibility for humiliation of this historical outfit.

The Jhoonda committee that was constituted to go into the causes of defeat and recommend measures to rejuvenate it, met people in almost all districts and the main issue that people talked of was leadership change and return to Panthic agenda.

This report is yet to be discussed by the core committee of the party.

Now the volcano has  suddenly erupted with the decision by Ayali to boycott presidential poll while attacking Badals and their non-Panthic priorities over the years.

It may be recalled that as anger flared up following  implementation of the three farm laws that a year long agitation at the Delhi doorsteps forced Prime Minister Narendra Modi to withdraw, the Badals hailed these laws as pro-farmers. First to support these laws was Harsimrat Kaur Badal, then a minister in the Modi cabinet followed by her husband and Akali Dal chief Sukhbir Singh Badal the very next day. As these two leaders failed to mollify the farmers, Parkash Singh Badal too was brought in. at one time, farmers used to be the core support base of this party.

Parkash Singh Badal too lost in last Assembly election after creating a record of being the 5-time chief minister.

The Sikh affairs have entered a crucial phase as the next challenge is going to be election to the general house of the SGPC.

The Shiromani Akali Dal needs to be revived by then but that is not possible under the present leadership.

Not only the leadership has to change, the leadership that includes the core committee must apologise for the acts of omission and commission relating to Bargari, exoneration of Dera Sacha Sauda chief of blasphemy cases at the behest of Badals and the related issues.

The beginning should be made with leadership change.