Following the assassination attempt on Sukhbir Singh Badal, former president of the Shiromani Akali Dal or SAD, there is turmoil in the Sikh world. As accusations fly thick and fast, a predictable slugfest has broken out among the political parties in Punjab, with almost all of them blaming the ruling Aam Aadmi Party for the lapse.
A top police officer has added another twist to the ongoing drama by hinting that the assassination attempt could even be the work of the SAD to garner sympathy for the beleaguered Badal, politically and morally bruised at the hands of the Akal Takht – Sikhism’s highest temporal seat.
It should, however, be noted that the assailant Narain Singh Chaura, a former Sikh militant, has long been at odds with the Badal family as also the moderate, inclusive face the SAD has sported for the last three decades. The brazen attack has revived fears that violence might once again dominate Punjab, this time because of an open confrontation between the radical and moderate streams of Sikhism.
The issue assumes importance at a time when the SAD has been instructed by the Akal Takht to revamp itself. It must merge all factions, establish a new structure, and elect new leaders to ultimately become a vehicle to watch over Sikh interests.
Radicals unhappy with SAD
The radical stream has been unhappy with the SAD for opening its doors to other communities and championing the idea of Punjabiyat. It’s quite obvious that the radicals will now push for a return to the SAD’s old, narrow, conservative “panthic” persona.
What will the new Akali Dal look like? Will the experience of the last few years—in which it lost the support of its core Jat Sikh peasant vote bank—force it to abandon its outreach to non-Sikh communities?
The present crackdown by the Akal Takht is, after all, the result of the SAD’s attempt to get a chunk of the Dalit and OBC votes controlled by the Sirsa dera head Gurmeet Ram Rahim. Ram Rahim is seen as an enemy of the Sikh panth because he committed blasphemy by impersonating Guru Gobind Singh.
The Badals orchestrated Ram Rahim’s pardon by the Akal Takht in 2015. However, they did not anticipate the strong reaction from the community, which forced then-Takht jathedar Giani Gurbachan Singh to revoke the pardon.
At the forefront of the September 2015 protests against the Akal Takht jathedar were extremist Sikh organisations like the Dal Khalsa and SAD (Panch Pardhani). Now, the extremist fringe and hardcore panthic forces, appalled at the “lenient” reprimand given to Badal and the others, have begun to mobilise.
At a panthic conference held at Moga on Thursday, the Dal Khalsa approvingly described Chaura as “a true Panthic and staunch protagonist of Khalistan movement”. Others stressed the need to determine the future priorities of the Sikhs in accordance with the philosophy and principles of the Sikh gurus. Some members of the rebel Akali Dal were also seen at the conference. This section wanted Badal to have been given a harsher punishment, preferably with a political cost.
Also read: Sukhbir Singh Badal dodged a gunman—the real threat is the Akal Takht’s verdict
A question of votes
Cutting back to 2015, the Akali Dal leadership headed by then-chief minister Parkash Singh Badal was heady with power and would never have anticipated the downhill route it would take in the subsequent years. The party’s traditional panthic vote bank, which was already uneasy with the Badals’ misuse of Sikh religious institutions for political ends struck back in subsequent elections. The Akali Dal lost all elections from 2017 to 2024, taking its vote share to an all-time low of 13.4 per cent.
Perhaps conscious of the political cost of relegating panthic issues to the sidelines, the weakened SAD in recent months began turning toward Sikh religiosity as opposed to a developmental agenda. This led to two of its prominent Hindu faces, former ministers Anil Joshi and NK Sharma, leaving the party.
The SAD has traversed a long distance from the Moga convention of February 1996, in which it made an ideological shift from being a party of Sikhs to projecting itself as a party of all Punjabis. It began giving Hindus tickets in elections and shifted the party office from Amritsar to Chandigarh. The following years also saw it allying with the BJP in Punjab; the two parties went on to form three successful coalition governments from 1997 onward.
The alliance worked because the Akalis represented the rural Sikh peasantry, while the BJP concentrated on its urban Hindu vote bank. Both parties operated within broad boundaries and refrained from straying into each other’s areas. But by the time the Akalis walked out of the alliance in September 2020 over the now-scrapped farm laws, the partnership was already fraying.
The Akalis had lost the 2017 Assembly elections, while the BJP moved into a slow ascendant. Not only did it begin to aspire to rule Punjab independently of the SAD, it was also trying to blur the rural-urban boundary and reach out to the Sikhs who had abandoned the SAD. This left the Akalis smarting. In the Lok Sabha elections this year, the BJP, which had always played second fiddle to the Akalis, sprung a surprise by registering a vote share higher than the SAD.
The question that hangs over the battered party now is, whether it will revive itself on the platform of a Sikh identity or retain the moderate stance that has spelled trouble for it.
It’s not an easy choice in a secular Indian state where the Election Commission keeps an eye on political parties batting for a particular religion. The Akalis will also find it hard to ward off pressure from resurgent radical elements in the Sikh polity in India and abroad, who will most certainly try to dictate their own agenda. The shooting in the Golden Temple last week is an indication that the road ahead will be hard and bumpy.
Chander Suta Dogra is a senior journalist and author. Views are personal.
(Edited by Prasanna Bachchhav)