Shiromani Akali Dal bid to return to roots has to be accompanied by restoration of credibility

 

Shiromani Akali Dal bid to return to roots has to be accompanied by restoration of credibility

Ground Zero

Jagtar Singh

Chandigarh: Shiromani Akali Dal on March 22 last undertook a bold exercise after more than two and a half decades to shift to what at one time  was the traditional Panthic track, an ideological position with which it had emerged as the main voice of the Sikhs, not just in Punjab but even at the global level.

This second oldest party in the country after the Congress and the first regional party in India that included present day Pakistan and Bangladesh has virtually been forced by the alienation from its very roots to change the gear after having been reduced to the lowest ever three seats in the state Assembly with little signal of revival in near future.

Would this shift be easily accepted by the Sikhs at large and facilitate its early revival, not by the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections at least? Not necessarily. With the ideological shift of March 22, the necessary condition has been met but this is leaves open the party to meet the sufficient conditions.

The party has a glorious history or struggles and sacrifices ever since it was created at Akal Takht, the sovereign seat of the Sikhs, on December 14, 1920 by the newly formed Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee earlier on November 15-16 as its volunteer force.

The last such qualitative shift was observed in February 1996 at its delayed 75^th anniversary conference at Moga in the Malwa hinterland.

The ideological thrust at Moga had shifted to Punjab, Punjabi and Panjabiat from earlier Panth and Punjab under the leadership of 2-times chief minister Parkash Singh Badal. Punjab had then just come out of more than a decade long period of what can be termed as Sikh struggle. The shift in agenda at Moga in favour of Panjabiat created a vacuum over the years in the Sikh religio-political matrix as the party concentrated mainly on power politics overlooking the issues that were the legacy of the Sikh struggle.

Akali Dal turned unipolar after the death of party stalwart Gurcharan Singh Tohra. The Sikh institutions that earlier were the driving force behind the Akali Dal were hit by cumulative decline eroding their very credibility as the power came to be concentrated in the House of Badals. The monopolization of power hit the party hard.

The March 22 resolution adopted on March 22 has to be viewed in this backdrop. This resolution staters: “The party will continue to put principles above politics and it will never deviate from its historic role as a champion of the interests of Khalsa Panth, all minorities as well as all Punjabis. At the same time, we will continue to devote all our energies towards preserving the atmosphere of peace and communal harmony on the basis of the vision of Sarbat da Bhala. As the sole representatives of the Sikhs and of all Punjabis, the party will continue its fight for more powers and genuine autonomy to the States .We have never compromised on these interests nor will let its vigil down on these in future”.

It may be mentioned here that the reference to Panjabiat at the Moga conference was not new going by the 1969 manifesto of the party for the Assembly elections but it was for the first time that the term Panth had been pushed back.

Interestingly, the party has invariably resorted to ideological repositioning when out of power. Both the Batala resolution in 1968 and the Anandpur Sahib resolution on autonomy in 1973 were adopted under such circumstances. The 1973 resolution passed by the working committee that was adopted by the general house in 1977 spelled out the political objective in following phraseology: “The political goal of the Panth, without doubt, is enshrined in the commandments of the Tenth Lord, on the pages of the Sikh history and in the very heart of the Khalsa Panth, the ultimate objective of which is the pre-eminence of the Khalsa. The fundamental policy of the Shiromani Akali Dal is to seek  realization of this birth right of the Khalsa through creation of a geo-political environment and a political set up.”

This political goal was amended at the Ludhiana conference in 1978 when the party was in power in Punjab and part of the government at the centre. Here is the modified version, “Shiromani Akali Dal realizes that India is a federal and geographical entity of different languages, religions and cultures. To safeguard fundamental rights of the religious and linguistic minorities, to fulfill the demands of the democratic traditions  and to pave the way for economic progress, it has become imperative that that the constitutional infrastructure should be given  federal shape by redefining central and state relations and rights on the lines of the aforesaid principle and objectives.”

The Akali Dal government headed by Parkash Singh Badal was dismissed as the Congress returned to power in early January 1980 and in the following Assembly elections, Akali Dal returned to the Assembly on the opposition benches.

Here was yet another important shift. The party working committee at its meeting at Amritsar on August 20, 1980 returned to the Anandpur Sahib resolution. The working committee resolution stated: “This historic general body conclave of the Shiromani Akali Dal has arrived at the conclusion after intensive deliberations that the only way out of the crisis the country has landed into is decentralization of political power by giving more rights to the states. It is for this reason that the Shiromani Akali Dal has been consistently striving that the constitutional structure of the country should be recast to make it truly federal so that the powers are decentralized and the states get more fiscal and political powers. So for the creation of such an autonomous state, the Shiromani Akali Dal resolutely and firmly demands that the constitution of the country should be recast to make it truly federal in accordance with the Anandpur Sahib Resolution that facilitates the creation of geo-political environment under which the Sikh aspirations find full manifestation and the country and the states become more prosperous.”

The Anandpur Sahib resolution that became one of the demands of the Dharamyudh Morcha launched on August 4, 1982 was adopted by Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale.

Rest is history.

Shiromani Akali Dal changed its priority to Punjab, Punjabi and Panjabiat at its Moga conclave in 1996. It is from the 1996 line that the party has now gone back to Panth, Punjab and Panjabiat. 

The party had adopted its political programme in 1974 constitution based upon the Anandpur Sahib resolution of 1973. This objective states: “To reinforce the exclusive Sikh identity and strive for the creation of geo-political environment in which national sentiments and aspirations of the Sikh Panth are fully manifested and flourish.” The Moga conclave distanced from this goal.

One of the reasons of the party’s terminal decline has been its unequal support to the agenda of its alliance partner the Bharatiya Janata Party. This alliance with the BJP in in contradiction of the Panthic values as this party is associated with divisive ideology that is Hindutva.

The Akali Dal got isolated from its traditional support base of Panth and the farmers.

The credibility of the party suffered what at one time appeared to be irreversible damage rotted in shift away from the core value system.

Ironically, at the time when the party has shifted back to Panthic values, though on paper, the leaders who are well-versed in Panthic idiom can be counted on finger tips. The party president would have to work hard to adopt to the Panthic terminology.

The path to revival is arduous journey and the March 22 resolution is just the first step. The top party leadership would also have to at least dilute, if not end, the perception of its iron grip over the highest Sikh institutions whose autonomy must be restored.

More importantly, the people would have to be convinced that they would not be betrayed again. Restoration of credibility is a must.

The issue of alliance is secondary.

 

 

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