The Akali Dal crisis is more than just a political one

ALL of a sudden, the Akal Takht — the supreme temporal seat of Sikhism — has become a refuge for top leaders of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), desperate to claw back into favour with the Sikh masses after a series of electoral defeats. They are flocking for forgiveness to the very institution whose loss of prestige they are being held responsible for. Can the Akal Takht free itself from the overriding influence of the SAD and take a decision that is seen as impartial and has the approval of the Sikh community?

Last month, a rebel group of senior Akali politicians created a flutter when it listed some ‘anti-Panth’ activities of SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal and sought his ouster. The group presented the alleged ‘crimes’ in a letter to the Akal Takht Jathedar, Giani Raghbir Singh. The group members also admitted to religious and political lapses made by them while they were part of the SAD governments between 2007 and 2017 and sought atonement for them. In other words, they admitted to being party to the same wrongs.

Just a few days later, Sukhbir also went to the Akal Takht and apologised in writing for the lapses during the party’s 10-year rule. His letter of apology, in which he took responsibility for his actions, was made public on Monday. The SGPC (Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee), the apex body controlling Sikh gurdwaras, has also submitted an apology.

The apologies centre around four major issues that have been riling the Sikh community for several years. The first is related to the 2007 blasphemy case against Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh for impersonating Guru Gobind Singh. The case was later quietly withdrawn. The second pertains to the alleged manipulation of an apology issued by the dera for impersonating the Guru. Ram Rahim was pardoned by the Akal Takht in September 2015. But as he continued to face anger and protests from the community, the pardon was revoked less than a month later.

The SGPC, controlled by the SAD, reportedly spent

Rs 90 lakh on advertisements to defend the decision to pardon the dera head. Akali leaders now openly accuse Sukhbir of pressuring the then Akal Takht Jathedar to pardon Ram Rahim. Worse, when three sacrilege incidents concerning the holy birs of the Guru Granth Sahib occurred in 2015, the alleged perpetrators, belonging to the dera, were not prosecuted.

More recent revelations claim that Sukhbir secretly met the dera chief in Jaipur and Delhi in 2017 to mobilise electoral support. This was in defiance of a 2007 Akal Takht edict forbidding Sikhs to have any ties with Ram Rahim. More evidence of the betrayal of ‘Sikhi’ by the leadership of a party of the Sikhs was a body blow to Sukhbir’s political persona.

In the midst of this, nine top rebel leaders were expelled from the party when they launched the ‘Shiromani Akali Dal Sudhar Lehar’ (reform movement) to “strengthen and uplift” the party. But this is just the political aspect of the ongoing crisis.

To restore the spiritual dominance of ‘Sikhi’ in the fabric of the SAD is the other goal, which is more challenging. Punjabis are watching this unprecedented churn in the Sikh domain with a sense of hope that things will change for the better. The sentiment calls for a return to the core religious values that were allegedly abandoned by the Akali Dal during the Badals’ regimes in pursuit of electoral gains.

Since its inception in 1920, the Akali Dal has championed the aspirations of the Sikh community, fashioning its politics around the Sikh concept of Miri Piri, which prioritises spiritual or religious authority over political power. The decay set in during the Badal era, when the spiritual authority of Sikh institutions like the SGPC and the Akal Takht became subservient to the party. These revered institutions began to be used as instruments to further the political prospects of the Akali party, and they gradually lost their importance as robust religious institutions that were meant to guide the Sikh Panth. The stranglehold of the Badal family over the party and such institutions began to be resented within the party and outside, though none spoke openly about this till the time Parkash Singh Badal was alive.

If today the Sikh Panth is rejecting Sukhbir’s politics and, by extension, that of his father, it is because of the setting in of a deep revulsion over the blatant misuse of Sikh religious institutions. Ten of the party’s 13 Lok Sabha candidates lost their security deposits in the General Election held earlier this year, taking the party to rock bottom. Its vote share is down to 13.4 per cent, even lower than that of its one-time junior partner, the BJP, which now stands at 18.5 per cent. The situation was equally bad in the 2022 Assembly elections, when the party won only three seats.

But nobody wants to see the demise of the SAD. Not even its enemies. Because Punjab needs a strong Akali Dal to balance its delicate politics and social harmony. For long, the party was the voice of the Sikhs and exerted a moderating influence on the community. Today, as it flounders and the Sikhs find themselves rudderless in the state’s changing polity, radical elements like Amritpal Singh have emerged.

The Badal camp has described the rebels’ actions as a conspiracy hatched by its political opponents, the BJP and AAP. But given the adverse baggage accumulated by Sukhbir, it is hard to see him winning back the trust of the Sikhs and Punjabis in the near future. Though one can never write off a politician, this does seem like the beginning of the end of the Badal era.