Bibi Jagir
Kaur triggers churning in Panthic domain with decision to contest SGPC
presidential poll
Ground Zero
Jagtar Singh
Bibi Jagir
Kaur, who has announced her candidature for election to the office of the
Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee while exercising her democratic right,
today set the short-term and long term Panthic agenda for the revival of the
highest institutions of Akal Takht and the apex elected body of the Sikhs that
used to dictate religio-political affairs of the Sikhs at one time.
The Akal
Takht, the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee and the Shiromani Akali Dal are
the three main components that are
considered to comprise the Panthic matrix that is religio-political. At one
level, the Shiromani Akali Dal used to draw its strength from the other two
main institutions.
However, the
institution of Akal Takht and the SGPC stand degenerated during the last more
than one decade.
And the
Akali Dal, repeatedly rejected by the people in Punjab, is fighting its
existentialist battle.
It is under
such a situation that Bibi Jagir Kaur, who earlier headed the SGPC multiple
times and has the distinction of its being the first ever woman president, has come
out to the forefront to throw her hat in the annual election to its presidency
claiming it her democratic right, the right that has been questioned by her party.
Fore about
two decades, the practice has been that the members of the general house of the
SGPC from the Akali Dal would authorise the party president to finalise the
name of the president and other members of the executive committee that would
be announced during the election meeting.
This is what
came to be known as the ‘Lifafa Culture’.
Bibi Jagir
Kaur has now dictated party president Sukhbir Singh Badal to announce the
candidate days ahead of the poll and his choice is renomination of Harjinder
Singh Dhami. Bibi Jagir Kaur is already facing disciplinary action.
She today went
ahead and formally announced her candidature while releasing the agenda.
She talked
of restoring the autonomy of this
elected statutory mini-parliament of the Sikhs and thereby intensify the
Panthic activity. “It is my first promise with the Sikh Panth that given the
chance to serve, the autonomous and independent status of the SGPC would be restored”, she said.
The
credibility of both the SGPC and the Akal Takht nosedived especially during the
Bargari sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib and firing on Sikh devotees demanding
justice during the Akal Dal government.
There has
been no regret from the political leadership.
Bargari is
one of the main factors that pushed the Akali Dal to the margins but there is
no indication that this has been realised by the party leadership that in
effect is Badal and Badal.
It is in
this context that the challenge posed by Bibi Jagir Kaur, once a strong
loyalist of the Badal family, has to be assessed.
The
leadership of Sukhbir Singh Badal has been under attack since the party was
reduced to just three seats in the last Assembly election. The worst the party
faced was its performance in the Sangrur Lok Sabha by-election in which the
party was pushed down to the fifth place, even below its erstwhile alliance
partner the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Badal Junior
has so far managed to frustrate
challenge to his leadership of this completely marginalised party. The problem
is that other senior leaders lack unanimity on a new leader.
Bibi Jagir
Kaur today set the agenda that the people have been otherwise talking about in
the Panthic domain and these are the very issues that have been relegated to
the background.
As she was
releasing her agenda, the Akali Dal served yet another ultimatum on her till
tomorrow noon.
The issue is
not the notice issued to her by the disciplinary action committee whose very
existence she has questioned.
It is the
churning in the religio-political domain that has been sparked by her
candidature that is multi-dimensional in the context of the situation in the
party since the successive humiliating defeats posing challenge to its very
existence.
The party
has several senior leaders who are
fence-sitters as they favour change at the top but can’t take the decisive
step.
Here is the
time for them to act and act decisively.
The issue is
not victory or defeat of Bibi Jagir Kaur but the issues that she has
precipitated and the bold challenge to the Badals.
The churning
beneath the surface could play crucial role in the presidential election that
otherwise used to be routine.
This
election is going to have long term impact on the Akali Dal.
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