Chandigarh: Almost a week after Khalistani preacher Amritpal Singh appealed to the Akal Takht to call a ‘sarbat Khalsa’, or a general assembly of Sikhs, on Baisakhi day, the Akal Takht has chosen to maintain silence on the issue.
The Akal Takht, the highest temporal body of the Sikhs, had taken a proactive stand in favour of the youth who were arrested following the statewide crackdown on Amritpal and his men on 18 March. However, since Amritpal’s video appeal to the Akal Takht last week, there has been no word from either the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) or the jathedar of the Akal Takht, Giani Harpreet Singh.
Political observers believe that any move by the Akal Takht to convene a sarbat Khalsa on Amritpal’s call would be counter-productive for the Sikh body. “The Akal Takht as an institution will take a big hit at a sarbat Khalsa that has been called on the demand of Amritpal Singh. He is asking for the sarbat Khalsa while in hiding. It is clear that at the sarbat Khalsa he will raise himself to the position of the uncrowned leader of the radical Sikhs, and the Akal Takht will further lose its legitimacy,” said Jagroop Singh Sekhon, eminent political scientist and former professor at Guru Nanak Dev University, to ThePrint.
When contacted by ThePrint, SGPC’s media office said that in case a decision in this regard is taken, media persons will be informed.
Following the crackdown on Amritpal, Akal Takht jathedar Singh had asked the radical preacher to surrender to the authorities. On 27 March, the jathedar chaired a meeting of several radical Sikh bodies at the Golden Temple in Amritsar following which it was jointly decided that they will give the Punjab government a 24-hour ultimatum to release the Sikh youth arrested during the crackdown.
It was also decided that the Akal Takht will organise religious marches across villages to protest against the negative narrative being generated by various governments against the Sikhs.
In his video appeal, Amritpal had also said the Akal Takht need not carry out religious marches, or vaheers, but focus only on the sarbat Khalsa.
However, the SGPC has made it clear that it would be going ahead with its plan to carry out religious marches. SGPC general secretary Bhai Gurcharan Singh Grewal told media persons last week that religious marches will be organised by the Akal Takht after Baisakhi.
On 31 March, the SGPC, led by President Harjinder Singh Dhami, even held a protest march to the office of the Amritsar Deputy Commissioner against the arrests of innocent youth.
“A sarbat Khalsa cannot be called on the demand of a single person. It is not a small event. It’s a historic event with long-term impact on the future of the Sikh community. A decision to this effect, if any, has to be taken by the Akal Takht in consultation with other Sikh bodies. And if it is decided that a sarbat Khalsa has to be called, there is a process of asking Sikhs across the world to select their representative for it. Even as a logistical exercise, it will take months,” said Kanwar Pal Singh, general secretary of the Dal Khalsa, to ThePrint.
Also read: 5,400 CCTVs, cell tower data, ‘hit teams’— cops hot on Amritpal’s trail, but blame ‘Pakistan script’
Akali Dal’s political revival
The Akal Takht’s move to speak up in support of the Sikh youth, hundreds of whom were jailed following the crackdown on Amritpal, was largely seen as an opportunity by the body to rally the radical element among the Sikhs in Punjab around itself.
The move was also expected to politically help the beleaguered Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) which has now been out of power for almost six years and is desperately trying to win back its core Panthic vote bank.
Following the ultimatum, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann had taken a dig at the jathedar saying that it was “well-known” that the Akal Takht favoured the Akali Dal.
The SAD is seen to have lost its Panthic vote base following incidents of sacrilege of the Guru Granth Sahib in 2015 when the SAD-BJP combine was in power. The Guru Granth Sahib, considered to be a living Guru by the Sikhs, was desecrated and the government, then led by CM Parkash Singh Badal and his son and deputy CM Sukhbir Badal, were criticised for not taking any steps.
The Akalis were seen to have done nothing to nab those responsible for the incidents. Subsequently, police firing at a crowd of protesting Sikhs demanding justice at Behbal Kalan, which led to the death of two persons, had added insult to injury.
Since then, the SAD has been trying to win back its Panthic cadre. Apart from the Akal Takht, the party, too, openly declared that it was standing with the Sikh youth who were arrested, and had offered legal aid to their families.
“Whatever political benefit the Akalis had to gain from supporting the Sikh youth after the crackdown on Amritpal, they have achieved it. But if they further try to indulge the supporters of Amritpal, to the point of actually calling a sarbat Khalsa, it will be suicidal for the Akal Takht,” said Harjeshwar Singh, political expert and professor of history at Khalsa College, Chandigarh.
While the Akalis were quick to lash out at the Mann government for cracking down on Sikh youth, the party has gone quiet on Amritpal himself. Earlier, it had taken a strong stand against the radical preacher with senior leader and former cabinet minister Bikram Singh Majithia referring to him as “duplicate” Bhindranwale on several occasions.
“We don’t know if the video which has been issued (by Amritpal) is genuine or not, so I don’t want to comment on that. But the Akali Dal is the real waris (heir) of Punjab and has always stood by Punjabis,” Sukhbir Badal had told media persons when asked about Amritpal’s video appeal.
Congress MP from Ludhiana Ravneet Singh Bittu has criticised the Akalis for their “U-turn” on Amritpal. “Amritpal has asked the jathedar to carry forward his agenda and it is clear that the Akalis are in cohorts with Amritpal. Earlier they were speaking against him and now they are not,” said Bittu talking to media persons last week.
(Edited by Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri)