‘All for panth’ in power play : The Tribune India

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‘All for panth’ in power play

Being the undisputed political representative of the Sikh community is not the one-point agenda of SAD leaders alone.

‘All for panth’ in power play

Owning Up: Both SAD and Congress have been resorting to panthic agenda to gain support of the Sikhs



Ruchika M. Khanna in Chandigarh

Being the undisputed political representative of the Sikh community is not the one-point agenda of SAD leaders alone. Congress, especially under the leadership of Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh, too, has tried to stake claim for the “coveted” position. The difference between the two, however, is that while the Akali Dal has been resorting to panthic politics when out of power, the Congress has been adopting it when in power.

While the entire Congress party trained its guns on the two Akali leaders and some openly blamed the Captain of being hand-in-glove with the Badals, he quietly went about his politics of striking the most lethal blow of all on his bête noire, Parkash Singh Badal, Sukhbir and other political leaders of the Akali Dal. This blow came in shape of the report of the Commission of Inquiry headed by Justice  Ranjit Singh (retd), probing sacrilege cases. The CM did not hit the Badals’ financial interests; he used the report to deal a blow that has made it difficult for the Akali Dal to get up and take control. The report does not indict the Badals directly, but puts the blame on the followers of Dera Sacha Sauda and accuses the SAD of patronising the dera.

In the run up to the 2017 Assembly elections, the Akali Dal tried to make up for its governance failures by promoting the panthic agenda and by taking a slew of measures like  special trains for pilgrimage of Sikhs, setting up memorials of prominent Sikh leaders and warriors, celebrating the birth anniversary of Guru Gobind Singh with great pomp and show, etc. This did not, however, help and the party suffered its worst drubbing, securing just 15 seats. After the polls, even as the ‘panthic party’ tried to re-organise its core vote bank through a series of rallies and protests over Congress failures over governance, it had already been damaged politically.

Over the past few months, the party has been increasingly using the SGPC, where the Akali Dal has a clear majority, to connect with the Sikh voters.

In a new twist, even though an apology has not come from the Akali Dal for the sacrilege incidents or the controversial granting of pardon to the dera chief, there has been a change in stand. The SGPC president and some senior Akali Dal leaders (Badal loyalists) have been saying that the grant of pardon to the dera head was a mistake. The spin doctors in the party know that acceptance of mistake would go down well to re-connect with the voters. Once the connection is made, it will be easy for the party to highlight the anti-incumbency factor against the Congress regime, and better their poll prospects before the 2019 General Election.

The SGPC as well as the Akali Dal are also going full throttle to make the 550th birth anniversary celebrations of Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism, in November 2019. The party will be using this occasion to its political advantage. How far these attempts succeed, only time will tell, especially when the Congress government, too, is wooing the Sikh community with its own plans for the celebrations.

Political attempts will also be made by the Congress, just as in its previous tenure (2002-07), to wrest control over the SGPC. Voices are already growing louder, seeking a re-election. Many ministers, including the Rural Development and Housing Minister Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa, Cooperation Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa and Local Bodies Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu, have been openly challenging to field their candidates in the SGPC election. The days to come will see the fight to be more panthic than the other (between Akali Dal and Congress) only grow louder and harsher.

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