Responsible for existential crisis of Akali Dal are policies and politics, not organisational structure

 

Responsible for existential crisis of  Akali Dal are policies and politics, not organisational structure

 

Ground Zero

Jagtar Singh

 

Coming into offensive mode, Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal, in an unprecedented and unexpected move, Thursday evening dissolved the organisational structure of this oldest party in India constituted by the Indians and the second oldest after the Congress  that otherwise is the first political party.

The move quickly followed the authorisation from the core committee  that had met earlier in the day to deliberate upon the report on the party’s worst ever performance in its electoral history and discuss necessary steps for its revival.

As per the leaked reports appearing in the media over time and not denied earlier, this committee headed by Iqbal Singh Jhoonda has recommended total overhaul of leadership and policy and programme. The core committee had constituted a 13-member committee headed by senior party leader and Badal family loyalist Balwinder Singh Bhunder for this purpose that had set up the Jhoonda Committee. Ideally, the Bhunder panel should have first studied the Jhoonda Committee report before making its recommendations to the core committee that is presided over by the party president.

The tradition earlier was that the Akal Takht, the Sikh sovereign seat for [prayer and politics, used to intervene in case of any crisis in the Akali Dal but now this route can’t be resorted to as it can invite disqualification from the Election Commission.

The basic question following this quick action taken by the president is whether present crisis is rooted mainly in the organisational weaknesses? What is the share of policies and programmes in this crisis followed by the [party over the years?

The Sikh religion is rooted in democratic ethos and so was the Akali Dal that had came up as a Sikh party in 1920. The party turned dynastic after having been hegemonized by Parkash singh Badal in 1996 who completely monopolised the power structure in 1999.

 It may be recalled that the Akali Dal in alliance with the BJP had received massive mandate in 1997 elections as the people expected Parkash Singh Badal to take corrective steps at every level which he had also promised that also included taking action against the police officers guilty of brazen human rights violations during militancy. Badal backtracked within weeks.

Despite such mandate, the Akali Dal faced people’s anger in the Adampur byelection and lost to the Congress in 1998 that used to be under attack for Operation Bluestar, code name for army action in the Darbar Sahib (Golden Temple) complex in June 1984. The party plunged into crisis as then all powerful Akali stalwart Gurcharan Singh Tohra whose name was synonymous with the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee raised his voice and called for making amends in the organisational structure. Badal had retained party presidency and Tohra had proposed appointment of a working president with party president. Tohra faced expulsion and Badal monopolised the Sikh matrix thereby commanding every Sikh institution directly and indirectly. In the process started the decline  and degeneration of Akal Takht and the SGPC.

All policies and programmes since then have flowed from the top downwards and it is this dimension that is most important in the context of the action to dissolve organisational structure.

In the context of the Akali Dal going back to Panthic agenda, it is pertinent to mention that the party leadership had arrived at tacit understanding with the controversial Dera Sacha Sauda in the run up to the 2009 Lok Sabha election in which Sukhbir’s wife Harsimrat Kaur was fielded from Bathinda that was her debut. the Akal Takht in 2007 had called upon the Sikhs to boycott this Dera for blasphemy. The organisational structure had little role to play in this understanding. Badal government subsequently withdrew the blasphemy case against Dera chief from the court.

Weeks before that Bargari sacrilege narrative in 2015, the Sikh clergy headed by Akal Takht Jathedar had exonerated Dera chief following a meeting at official residence of Badal in violation of the Sikh code of conduct. It was for the first time that the Sikhs protesting on a religious issue were fired upon under an Akali government. The Akali Dal went to the extent of opposing agitation launched on June 1, 2018 by  the Sikh organisations demanding justice in cases related to Bargari narrative started. The list of such misdemeanours  is long. The organisational structure had little role in such strategies and  tactics.

Not only that. The Badal government encouraged the very same police officers against whom action had been promised in 1996 and this included appointment of Sumedh Singh Saini as the director general of police.

Accountability must be fixed for these policies, strategies and tactics that have landed the party in this abyss.

One should have the courage to own moral responsibility.