Road to revival, via SGPC

GS Paul in Amritsar

In a bid to make itself relevant again, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) is trying to revive Sikh politics with the help of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC). The Akali Dal has always reserved the privilege of playing religion and politics together by having the SGPC and their men as jathedars of the takhts. It has tactically used the Indian Army’s Operation Bluestar and the 1984 anti-Sikh riots against the Congress party to serve its own political interests.

Post the bitter defeat in the Assembly polls, SAD has been trying to stage a comeback. Trudging on the panthic route now, it is working closely with the SGPC. As such, to throttle a revolt from ‘taksali’ veterans expelled for indulging in ‘anti-party’ activities, SAD tried to play proxy politics at the recent SGPC elections by including five members from the Majha region and repeating the incumbents for key posts.

The SGPC, under former SAD MLA from Dhuri, Gobind Singh Longowal, has been toeing the party’s religious agenda. On November 1, the SAD and SGPC held a 48-hour dharna against the government for hurting the sentiments of the Sikh community by distorting Sikh history in the Class XII textbook of Punjab School Education Board. Later, the SGPC removed Dr Kirpal Singh as chairperson of Sikh History Resource Editing Project.

The SAD and SGPC have blessed the boundary between religion and politics earlier too when the name of the then SGPC chief Kirpal Singh Badungar was included in SAD’s list of 40 star campaigners during the Assembly polls. Badungar was again in the news when, in June 2017, he joined the SAD in protest against Congress government’s failure to fulfil promises made in the Congress manifesto and over then cabinet minister Rana Gurjit Singh’s involvement in the sand mining scam. A day later, former Akal Takht jathedar Giani Gurbachan Singh issued a statement saying Badungar should have stayed away from political protests, following which the latter had to submit a clarification.

To rebuild its credibility, the SAD and the SGPC have been preparing for a grand celebration of the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak next year. The party is banking on yet another issue dear to the Sikhs: the Kartarpur corridor. Though it would be possible only through a dialogue between the governments on both sides, the SAD has been pushing for it together with the SGPC.

Interestingly, when the SAD-BJP alliance came to power in 2007, it put the panthic agenda on the backburner and focused on development. In the run up to the 2019 parliamentary polls, however, the Akalis have gone back to panthic politics. Will it succeed? Former secretary Dalmeg Singh, who has had a 35-year stint with the SGPC, says SGPC’s graph started declining after 1997 when political powers took the lead in religious affairs. “Post-Tohra, only ‘yes men’ were chosen to head the SGPC. Earlier, young leaders came from AISSF. Special religious camps would be conducted then. This set up suffered a hit during the 1980s and moderate Akalis took the lead,” he said. How will the current upheaval shape up for the SGPC and the SAD, only time will tell.