Controversy over resolution on confidence in Sukhbir Badal further dents Akali Dal’s credibility

 

Controversy over resolution on confidence in Sukhbir Badal further dents Akali Dal’s credibility

 

Ground Zero

Jagtar Singh

Chandigarh, June 17: When the resolution of the core committee, the highest body of the 103-year-old Shiromani Akali Dal reposing faith in the leadership of Sukhbir Singh Badal who has been heading this party since 2008 was released late in the evening, it was taken to be a routine exercise. However, it was not as the subsequent events started unfolding. The controversy relating to it has further dented what remains of the Akali Dal’s credibility.

One of the senior leaders and the core committee members Prem Singh Chandumajra went public questioning this resolution expressing faith in the leadership of the party president after another humiliating debacle, this time in the Lok Sabha election. He said he came to know about the resolution only through the newspapers as this issue never came up for discussion and the agenda of the core committee meeting was mainly to dissect the results.

The resolution had rather gone a step ahead of just expressing faith in the leadership of the party chief and stated:

-The meeting placed on record its whole hearted  appreciation of the “ spirited,    selfless and resolute  leadership provided by the party president,  Sardar Sukhbir Singh Badal especially  during the past  six  months leading up to the polling date. “ The manner in which  the SAD president  took brave and selfless decisions , making unheard of personal  sacrifices for  the party’s interests , is a matter of pride for the entire  party. The party places full faith and confidence in his leadership and salutes his single minded devotion to the party’s interests.”

Chandumajra’s questioning has been fully supported by another core committee member and party’s secretary for years Dr. Daljit Singh Cheema considered to be Badal confidant. He has been reportedly said in a section of the media, “It is a clerical mistake. Neither there was any requirement got the resolution  nor was it passed by the core committee”.

It is the second part of Dr. Cheema’s statement that is relevant and important.

Resolution stating confidence in the leadership at the time when the party is at its lowest ebb just cannot be termed as just a clerical mistake. A mistake could have been rectified after it was released to the media that include TV and social media, not just print media. Everything is public minutes after the release.

This “clerical mistake” has further hit credibility of the party that has been under a non-stop decline over the years.

It may be mentioned here that the party succeeded in retaining Bathinda, the Badal family bastion, but forfeited security deposit in ten others.

In democratic system, what matters the most is credibility of the political formation and Shiromani Akali Dal with its glorious history is not just a political formation to which it has been reduced. This party had been the articulator of the Sikh aspirations and concerns till 1996.

The people of Punjab, coming out of years of religio-political turbulence brought the Akali Dal to power with a massive mandate in 1997. The people of Punjab in general and the Sikhs in particular had expressed total faith in Akali Dal.

The party betrayed that faith thereby triggering decline in its credibility.

The exact date is August 10, 1997.

The Akali Dal has been promising to the people to provide justice in the matter of excesses and human rights violations committed by the state over the years. The party had promised high level probe, besides taking action against the guilty officials.

When questioned at a meet-the-press programme in Chandigarh Press Club about this promise on August 10, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal flatly refused arguing it would reopen the old wounds.

People of Punjab have now lost all hope, despite some stray cases of killings in fake encounters surfacing occasionally with conviction of the guilty cops.

Not only that.

This narrative does not end here. One of the guilty cops, Mohammed Izhar Alam, was admitted to the party and his family rewarded while Sumedh Singh Saini about whom the perception was the same was made the police chief.

There might be several factors for continuous decline of the party but this one is more serious in the context of party’s credibility. It amounted to betrayal of trust reposed by the party.

The questioning of confidence resolution by the core committee members has to be studied in this context.

Can any statement of document of the historic Shiromani Akali Dal be relied upon henceforth?

Clarification should come from Sukhbir Singh Badal himself.