Fallout of Badal-Tohra feud
MR Hari Jaisingh in his article
"Badal, Tohra and Daler Mehndis" (March 5,
1999) has made a fair analysis of the Badal-Tohra tussle
and its fallout. The political and religious scenario on
the eve of the tercentenary celebrations of the Khalsa is
dismal.
Holding of two separate
functions at Anandpur Sahib on Hola Mohalla and the
levelling of charges and counter-charges against each
other by the two warring leaders shows that the Akali Dal
is heading for a vertical split. This has inflicted a
severe blow to the stature and credibility of the two
leaders, who have a bounden duty to come up to the hopes
and expectations of the electorate. Fighting and
mud-slinging by the two is for their own vested interests
at the cost of the crying needs of people and issues of
much wider significance.
The government has not
taken proper cognisance of rural discontent, witnessed in
the form of more than 100 suicides committed by Punjab
farmers. No effort has been made to revive the rural
economy. Even in the industrial sector, the Badal
government has failed to deliver the goods. The common
man is worst hit by non-governance and all-pervasive
corruption. The state is passing through an unprecedented
financial crisis. Yet the Chief Minister is seen spending
lakhs of rupees on media publicity every day. All the
moves and manoeuvres of the Chief Minister, including his
support to the BJP on the use of Article 356 in Bihar,
seem to be dictated by political expediency.
The phenomenon of
unlimited power in the hands of one leader is fraught
with grave dangers. At stake is not merely the image of
the Akali Dal but also the prestige and sanctity of the
institutions like the SGPC and Akal Takht. The
unceremonious manner in which Bhai Ranjit Singh has been
removed from his office has no parallel in history. It
has endangered the time-honoured institution of Akal
Takht. The Badal group may be the immediate beneficiary
of this game, but it does not augur well for the future
of the state.
As it has been rightly
pointed out, Punjab needs a dynamic and charismatic
leader with a vision and statesmanship who can inspire
hope and confidence among all sections of society. A
sizeable section of the people are disappointed with the
lacklustre performance of the Badal government.
GURDARSHAN SINGH
DHILLON
Chandigarh
Fight to finish:
It is an admitted fact that when out of office the Akalis
fight unitedly against the powers that be, but when in
power they fight among themselves. However, this is
perhaps for the first time that the intra-party fight is
religion versus politics.
Another feature of the
present confrontation is that unlike in the past when Mr
Parkash Singh Badal, who commanded the support of an
overwhelming majority in the Akali Dal, fought shy to
oppose the fundamentalist minority headed by Mr Gurcharan
Singh Tohra, he has come out openly against the
manipulative politics of the SGPC President. The present
situation leaves nobody in doubt that Mr Badal is
determined to take the fight to the finish. All the signs
of a split are discernible in the latest developments in
the Akali Dal.
There is no doubt that Mr
Badal has been the best bet for Hindu-Sikh unity in
Punjab and a bulwark against the return of militancy in
the state. The author and several others are of the view
that the apprehensions of the state lapsing back to the
bad old days of militant violence in the 1980s are
misplaced. It is true that many factors which combined to
cause and sustain terrorism in Punjab during those days
are non-existent now. But new factors have arisen. The
seeds of militancy will be sown if the intra-Akali power
struggle is allowed to develop into a fight between
religious extremists and political moderates.
The confrontation between
the two Akali stalwarts has already reached the point of
no return. The focus has shifted from good governance to
competitive religiosity. May better sense prevail upon
either side because neither Punjab nor the country can
afford even the slightest hint of religion-based violence
returning to the state!
K.M. VASHISHT
Mansa
NEWTON'S LAW &
AKALIS: Being the one who has conducted Mr
Badal's blood tests when he became suddenly ill in
Amritsar on February 10, 1998, in my opinion, his
physical condition may be stable now but his political
condition has suffered a serious setback and is unstable.
Contrary to Newton's Law, Mr Badal is acting
unequally" to his rivals actions. So
much so that one gets the impression of "panic"
reaction. As rightly advocated by Mr Jaisingh, he needs
to focus on "performance", for at risk is his
reputation of being "Swaran Singh of the
Akalis"!
K.J.S. AHLUWALIA
Amritsar
CM'S DETRACTORS: Punjab
is the granary of the country. It feeds India's defence
forces in a big way. It has been second only to
Maharashtra in prosperity. But the way the feuding
leaders are behaving in the open does no service to the
state, nor to the country.
The Chief Minister, Mr
Parkash Singh Badal, is facing a crafty politician in Mr
G.S. Tohra, who seems to be lying low at the moment, but
he has the capacity to come back to the fore. Through the
gurdwara politics he has good enough hold on the rural
Sikhs.
It is as a result of his
feud with Mr Tohra and others that the Chief Minister has
lost his grip on the state administration though he
enjoys popular goodwill and is a mass leader. He has to
get firm with his detractors and act with an iron hand.
He must attend to real business. As the writer has
rightly held, "Punjab needs an all-round revolution
in education, employment generation, social uplift and
infrastructural development." Will Mr Badal address
himself to these tasks with determination?
DURGA BHARDWAJ
Solan
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