Badals Fight to Retain Control Of Akali Dal

The implosion being witnessed in Shiromani Akali Dal-Badal remains the centre of attention in Punjab. Sukhbir Singh Badal and his wife Harsimrat Kaur Badal, are fighting with their backs to the wall to retain their grip on the party. Shiromani Akali Dal-Badal is India’s oldest regional political force, and has a rich legacy of over a century.

The saying that time and tide spare no one, seems to be coming true for the Badals. The ‘first family of Punjab’ was once seen as invincible and their fortress impregnable till a few years ago.

The question now is whether this is the beginning of an end for the Badals as far as their hold goes for the Akali Dal, or will they be able to tide over the rebellion launched by several of the senior leaders of the party. Most of the rebels have already been suspended.

Politics also is a realm of different shades. The same is true for what is going on in the Akali Dal. In the social and political domain there is nothing that happens in isolation. It is here that things also need to be seen in terms of the turbulence that is going on the Panthic turf.

The Badals’ in their fight back are reverting to issues that were once the hallmark of the Akali Dal as it represented the federal interests of Punjab or its peasantry.

This can be gauged from the developments that have taken place over the last couple of weeks, as a fall out of the rebel Akali leaders including Professor Prem Singh Chandumajra, Bibi Jagir Kaur, Sikandar Singh Maluka, Parminder Singh Dhindsa and Sarwan Singh Phillaur appearing before the Akal Takht Jathedar.

They sought forgiveness for the ‘mistakes’ during the Akali regime that was in power between 2007 to 2017 in the state with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as an ally. They had handed over an apology letter to Giani Raghbir Singh at the Akal Takht secretariat in the Golden Temple complex in Amritsar.

Akal Takht is the supreme temporal seat of the Sikhs. They had offered to undergo punishment as per the tenets of Sikhism.

Things reached a different level when the Akal Takht made public an apology tendered by Sukhbir Badal wherein he reportedly sought unconditional apology for ‘all mistakes committed by the party and its government’.

According to the rebels these mistakes have led to the weakening of the Akali Dal. These include granting apology to Dera Sacha Sauda head Ram Rahim that was later withdrawn after a public outcry for a blasphemous act of imitating Guru Gobind Singh, the failure to punish those responsible for sacrilege of holy texts and also for the police action against peaceful protestors at Kotkapura and Behbal Kalan besides failing to bring to book those responsible for fake encounters.

The Badals including former Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, and Sukhbir Badal, were also facing public ire for appointment of controversial police officer Sumedh Singh Saini as the Director General of Police during their rule.

In his apology letter, Sukhbir Badal reportedly said, “Arguments are made in case one wants to convince the other and he or she has an intention to hide anything. I am a humble servant of Guru Ghar and am always committed to Sri Guru Granth Sahib and Akal Takht Sahib.

“I am praying before the Guru with a true heart without indulging in a debate. Whatever written is lodged against us, the servant (Sukhbir) apologises to Guru Sahib and Guru Panth unconditionally by appearing at the Akal Takht Sahib.

“Being head of the family, the servant accepts all the mistakes. Be it the party which committed the mistakes, or the government, the servant seeks forgiveness consciously or unconsciously for them.”

Before making the letter public the Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Raghbir Singh, Takht Damdama Sahib Jathedar Giani Harpreet Singh and Takht Kesgarh Sahib Jathedar Giani Sultan Singh had held an informal meeting at the Takht secretariat.

Thereafter a spokesperson reportedly said, “The clarification letter has been made public keeping in view the confusion being created about it. The final decision will be taken about this in light of Sikh principles at the next meeting of the Panj Singh Sahiban (Sikh clergy) to be held in the near future at Takht Sahib.”

Alongside the Badals have been in the process of upping their ante. On July 30, the party expelled eight leaders from the primary membership of the party for indulging in anti-party activities with immediate effect. This was accompanied by the removal of seven leaders as ‘halka incharges’.

The decision came from the party’s disciplinary committee headed by Balwinder Singh Bhundur with Maheshinder Singh Grewal and Gulzar Singh Ranike as the other members. The leaders that were expelled included Gurpartap Singh Wadala, Bibi Jagir Kaur, Prem Singh Chandumajra, Parminder Singh Dhindsa, Sikander Singh Maluka, Surjit Singh Rakhra, Surinder Singh Thekedar and Charanjit Singh Brar.

Bhundur accused them of actively colluding with the Akali Dal’s enemies to create divisions in the party and weaken it. He said, “It was also felt that these leaders have willfully damaged the image of the party as part of a wider conspiracy.

“They were given ample opportunity to discuss their issues in the party forum. The Working Committee meeting of June 26 had also through a resolution appealed to them to discuss their misgivings in the party forum but they refused to do so.”

The next day it was the turn of the party patron and one of the senior most leaders Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa to be removed from the primary membership of the party for not only indulging in anti-party activities but also taking on the leadership of the expelled leaders.

Referring to this decision Maheshinder Grewal said, “The committee was of the opinion that Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa was not upholding the honour of his post. He was not only issuing unauthorised statements but was also acting against the party’s constitutions and its rich and glorious traditions.”

Bhundur said that Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa had forced the party to take this action. He said the party on its part had invited all the disgruntled party leaders to attend party meetings and discuss their misgivings in the party forum.

What he said gives another twist to the saga: “Instead of doing this the disgruntled leaders became part of a conspiracy scripted in Nagpur to weaken and divide the party. These leaders have even given credence to the wild allegations of the main perpetrator of the sacrilege of Sri Guru Granth Sahib in 2015.

“When due action was taken against them Dhindsa sought to come to the rescue of the leaders and even tried to mislead the party cadre by asserting he had overruled the same. Now the party has taken definite action against Dhindsa to set the record straight.”

Grewal while dismissing Dhindsa’s contention that the expelled leaders had tried to initiate a reform movement in the party said, “Building a parallel organisation along with a Presidium can only be considered as an anti-party activity.”

He added that Dhindsa had as disciplinary committee chairman expelled then Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) president Gurcharan Singh Tohra from the party for appealing to Parkash Singh Badal to appoint an acting president of the party.

He also cited how Dhindsa did not find anything wrong with Sukhbir Badal’s conduct when he had rejoined the party on March 5 this year but started questioning the latter’s leadership only when his son Parminder Dhindsa was not given the ticket from Sangrur to contest the Lok Sabha polls.

Grewal also took on Chandumajra saying the latter had approved Operation Black Thunder as a cabinet minister in 1985 and had even hailed the apology granted to the Dera Sacha Sauda head. He said for Chandumajra the party president was good till the latter acceded to all his demands including two assembly seats for his family and a Lok Sabha ticket for himself even though he had no natural right over the same.

While Bhundur talked of a conspiracy scripted in Nagpur, the party on July 30 had come out saying that the allegations of the prime accused in the sacrilege case of Sri Guru Granth Sahib were part of a calculated move by central agencies and anti-Punjab forces including the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) to marginalise the SAD.

A few days later it was the turn of Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann to train his guns against Sukhbir Badal when he accused the latter of “trying to mislead the people through his political gimmicks”. Mann said that “the scion of the Badal family is now seeking pardon for his actions but he should remember one thing that apology may be given for the misdeeds but sins are unpardonable”.

The Chief Minister said that the Badal family has committed heinous sins against the state and its people which can never be forgiven. He said the state government is gathering evidence about the sacrilege incidents adding that the real culprit of this crime will be behind the bars soon.

Taking on the rebel Akali leadership, Mann said that these leaders are now shedding crocodile tears over the issue whereas they were part and parcel of the Badal family during these sins. He said that these leaders cannot absolve themselves from the sin merely by issuing statements now.

The Akalis have announced a three-day delegate session in the first week of November at Anandpur Sahib to prepare ‘the long term future agenda’ of the party.

The party’s core committee decided last week that the delegate session would deliberate on important issues including “injustices perpetrated on Punjab as well as issues of health, education, environment, NRI community and ways and means to strengthen federalism.

It also decided to hold political conferences on August 15 to commemorate the martyrdom of Karnail Singh Isru at Isru village in Khanna, August 19 at Baba Bakala on the occasion of Rakhar Punia and on August 20 at Longowal to commemorate the death anniversary of Sant Harchand Singh Longowal.”

Meanwhile, both the working committee and the core committee while confirming the decisions taken by the disciplinary committee of the party on July 30 and August 1 also passed a resolution giving their approval to party president Sukhbir Badal to fill up the vacancies created in the working committee due to the death of some members as well as those who had either left the party or had been expelled.

During the core committee meeting Sukhbir Badal took notice of the political vendetta unleashed against senior party leader Bikram Singh Majithia while accusing the AAP of pursuing a ‘false and fabricated case’ registered against Majithia under the NDPS Act and making multiple special investigation teams (SITs) to frame him but to no avail.

They said the present SIT had gone to the extent of preventing Majithia from attending court hearings by issuing repeated summons in an attempt to make him suffer an adverse court order.

Party spokesperson Dr Daljit Cheema in his media interaction also brought up the ‘precarious financial situation’ in Punjab stating the state debt had gone up to Rs 3.5 lakh crore with the AAP government alone accumulating a debt of Rs 65,000 crore. The party also condemned the manner in which the AAP government was taking long term loans to fund its share in capital expenditure projects.

Meanwhile, the party’s lone Lok Sabha member Harsimrat Kaur Badal has also been using the Parliament to rake up issues pertaining to the peasantry and the common people besides those pertaining to Sikhs in particular. In the process she has also been trying to revive the Akali Dal tradition of being the most vocal when it comes to fighting for the federal rights of Punjab.

She raised the issue of linking of Takht Damdama Sahib with the other Takhts of the Sikh community besides seeking early completion of the Rama Mandi – Talwandi Sabo rail link that would make the linking of various Takhts possible.

She said that though a survey had been done in 2014 to establish the Rama Mandi- Talwandi Sabo link, work on the same was still to be taken up. She also called for connecting Nanakmatta Sahib in Uttarakhand, which was associated with the first Sikh Guru, with Punjab while asserting that a large number of Sikh pilgrims would be facilitated by this move.

During the recently concluded Parliament session she castigated the union government for failing the farmers by refusing to implement the Swaminathan Commission recommendations on minimum support price (MSP) for crops, even as she called for implementing the Bhav Antar scheme till this was not done. She also called for reopening the Wagah border for international trade which is another demand aired by the people of Punjab from time to time. In addition to this she sought concessions for the cycles and sports industry of Punjab besides releasing Rural Development Fund and Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan dues to Punjab.

Speaking on the budget, the Bathinda MP also called for righting the historical wrongs done to Punjab by giving it compensation for grant of 8 million acre feet (MAF) water to Rajasthan as well as ensuring the transfer of Chandigarh to the State.

Water dues and the issue of Chandigarh go back several decades and in the past it was the Akali Dal that had been the most vociferous in airing these demands.

In her speech she said it was shocking that even natural calamities like floods and religious circuits had not been spared from bias. “Religious circuits and temples have received special grants but Sri Darbar Sahib, Amritsar where two lakh devotees from across the globe visit every day, has not been given any grant under the religious tourism head,” she said while adding that a pick and choose policy had been implemented in the case of natural calamities as well.

Harsimrat Kaur said Himachal Pradesh had received flood relief “but Punjab, which is flooded when gates of dams in Himachal are thrown open, has been forgotten”. Asking if the centre had any enmity with Punjab, she said, “When there are floods Punjab suffers but when there is water shortage all parties including the Congress, the BJP and the AAP demand the SYL (Sutlej Yamuna Link) canal be constructed to rob Punjab of its river waters.”

Asserting that the issue of cost to be imposed on 8 MAF water given to Rajasthan was dragging for the last 70 years, she said either water going to Rajasthan should be stopped or compensation should be given to Punjab for the same.

Harsimrat Kaur also took on the central government on its promise to double farmers’ income while the truth was that agricultural growth which was 4.7 per cent in 2022-23 was now 1.4 per cent.

Speaking about the decline in the industrial sector in Punjab due to tax incentives to hill states, she said the finance minister during her recent visit to Ludhiana had promised to revoke amendment Section 43B (h) of the IT Act which mandates companies to make payments within 44 days to MSME vendors to claim IT deductions or else forfeit their right to deduct those expenses from their taxable income.

She said this promise had not been fulfilled in the budget. She also spoke about unemployment and drug abuse and the need to allocate funds to deal with these twin issues besides highlighting the massive corruption in the ICDS (Integrated Child Development Services) program under which government contracts for making food for lactating mothers and children had been withdrawn and given to a private company in Punjab.

There are many questions around the Badals and the Akali Dal that continue to do the rounds. The first is: who will prevail, the Badals who have the resource strings or the rebels who are likely to spell their next course of action around August 20.

The second is: whose interest in the political game is served by a weak Akali Dal? The third of course is whether the people are in a mood to pardon the Akalis for aligning with the BJP in the past, an issue on which trust deficit is raging. The answers will emerge with the passage of time but one thing is sure that there is a lot to come in the Akali Dal saga.