Chandigarh: Last month, the Akal Takht, the highest temporal body of the Sikhs, invoked a centuries-old tradition and declared Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president and former deputy chief minister of Punjab Sukhbir Badal a ‘tankhaiya’ — guilty of religious misconduct.
It was acting on a complaint against Sukhbir Badal from a rebel group within the SAD that had accused him of failing to represent the interests of the Sikh community when the party was in government. These decisions, the Akal Takht said, were taken by Sukhbir in his capacity as deputy CM and SAD chief. Sukhbir remained the deputy CM of Punjab from 2007 to 2017 and has been the party’s president since 2008.
The Akal Takht also asked members of the cabinet under former CM Parkash Singh Badal, Sukhbir’s late father, who were party to the acts of religious misconduct, to explain their position within 15 days.
Ahead of the final decision, the Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Raghubir Singh last week also asked the two warring sides of the Akali Dal to refrain from criticising one another in public and maintain silence over their differences while the body was considering the matter.
Almost a dozen former cabinet ministers have submitted their apologies to the Akal Takht till now.
This is not the first time the Akal Takht is dealing with factionalism in the Akali Dal or intervening in political matters.
From preventing the Akali Dal factionalism into non-existence to excommunicating top leaders for defiance, there have been multiple instances over the past fifty years when the Akal Takht has played a vital role in Punjab’s politics, effectively changing the course of the state’s history.
With the body’s presence at the centre of some landmark events in Punjab, it no longer raises eyebrows in Punjab as an arbiter in political issues. ThePrint traces how this came to be.
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‘Politics & religion intertwined in Punjab’
Established by the sixth Sikh Guru Hargobind Singh in the 17th century, the Akal Takht or “the throne of the immortal” symbolised the confluence of the spiritual and the temporal in Sikhism. According to historians, Guru Hargobind felt the need for such an authority in light of the martyrdom of his father Guru Arjun Dev the 5th Guru of the Sikhs at the hands of the Mughal rulers.
“The creation of the Akal Takht was based on the concept of miri-piri, that is along with spirituality there was a need to take up arms and fight for justice,” says Dr Amarjit Singh Narang, author of Region, Religion and Politics: 100 years of the Shiromani Akali Dal.
All major decisions related to the Sikh community are taken during Akal Takht congregations. It receives petitions, sends notices, and issues binding orders called hukamnamas. The body is led by the jathedar, whom historian HS Dilgeer refers to as its “caretaker”.
The Shiromani Akali Dal was the task force of Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) that was set up in 1920 to fight for the independence of the Sikh shrines during the gurdwara reform movement.
After 1925, when the SGPC managed to gain control over the gurdwaras, the SAD continued to act as its political arm. The members of the SGPC are elected by Sikhs every five years and the body is considered to be the mini parliament of Sikhs. The jathedar of the Akal Takht is appointed by the SGPC.
“In Punjab politics and religion are, as a result, inseparable. In the various elections to the SGPC, the Akali Dal has managed to get majority seats and, as a result, played a dominant role in electing the SGPC president and executive body that runs the institution. Leaders too move between SAD and SGPC,” explains Dr Narang.
The Akal Takht has often been accused of being under the control of the SGPC, which is in turn criticised for being in the control of the Akali Dal, leading to allegations that Akali leaders use the two exalted religious institutions to further their political interests.
“Even now what is happening in the Akal Takht where various Akali leaders are making a beeline to seek atonement is nothing more than an attempt to rehabilitate the party in Punjab’s politics,” Dr Narang added.
In 1981 Paul Wallace, a US-based political scientist said that the institutionalised political system of the Sikhs included the Akali Dal, the SGPC, and, to some extent, the Akal Takht, and that, historically, the three have remained intertwined.
A long bid to end factionalism
One of the most important efforts of the Akal Takht has been to end the factionalism in the Akali Dal, oftentimes with the aim of bolstering a cause.
As early as during the Punjabi Suba movement—the demand for an autonomous Punjabi-speaking state post-Independence—the Akal Takht tried to get Master Tara Singh and Sant Fateh Singh, the two prominent but warring Akali leaders of the movement, to work together.
In December 1963, during an all-India Akali conference in Karnal, the Jathedar Achhar Singh called for a “unity of brothers”. However, the two leaders did not join hands till midterm polls were declared in 1969.
Similarly, it attempted to prevent a split in the party after Prakash Singh Badal became the CM of Punjab in June 1977, forming a coalition government with the Janata Party.
In September 1979, ahead of the SAD executive elections, the SGPC president Gurcharan Singh Tohra and the president of the Akali Dal Jagdev Singh Talwandi had written to Jathedar Sadhu Singh Bhaura, claiming that Prakash Badal and SGPC vice-president Harchand Singh Longowal were acting against the interest of the Sikhs.
Bhaura summoned the four senior leaders to try and unite them, but when his efforts failed and a vertical split of the Akali Dal seemed imminent, the jathedar formed a seven-member committee to function as a collegiate executive.
However, Talwandi defied the Akal Takht and was declared a tankhaiya. Though he atoned for his mistake, Talwandi, however, continued to defy the Akal Takht, refusing to abide by the decisions of the committee. The stalemate continued and all attempts of the Akal Takht to bring the Talwandi and Badal group together failed. The next year Bhaura resigned from his position on health grounds and retired.
After Talwandi formally broke away from the Akali Dal, creating his own faction, the leadership of the Akali Dal was handed over to Harchand Singh Longowal who launched the Dharam Yudh Morcha in August 1982 for the implementation of the Anandpur Sahib Resolution—a list of demands made by the SAD in 1973.
In order to strengthen the morcha, the next Akal Takht Jathedar Gurdial Singh Ajnoha stepped in, urging the warring factions of the Akali Dal to unite. For a brief period, the Longowal and Talwandi group came together with two other Akali Dal factions, led by Sukhjinder Singh and Nirlep Kaur, also joining them following the directive from the Akal Takht.
“Longowal was in SGPC and he was launched into politics overnight when he was made the president of the Akali Dal. He was not as clever as Tohra and Talwandi who were hobnobbing with the militants. Finally, he had to pay a price with his life and was assassinated by militants in August 1985,” said Narang, referring to the separatist movement in Punjab.
“The significance of Akal Takht in Punjab’s politics can be gauged from the fact that the building that houses the Akal Takht in the Golden Temple complex in Amritsar became the epicentre of militancy. Militants drew inspiration from the concept of miri piri,” says Dr Kanwalpreet Kaur, a political scientist at the DAV College in Chandigarh
“Also because of its religious significance militants found it the safest place to be. It is the Akal Takht that was reduced to rubble during Operation Blue Star in 1984,” Dr Kaur adds. The operation was meant to flush out militants from the Golden Temple.
In April 1986, chief minister Surjit Singh Barnala launched another security operation against the militants still occupying the temple. At the time, Prakash Singh Badal, a minister in the Barnala government, rebelled with 27 MLAs and formed his own faction of Akali Dal.
The following year, in February, the Akal Takht Jathedar Darshan Singh disbanded all factions of the Akali Dal and announced the creation of a united Akali Dal under Simranjeet Singh Maan. Adhering to the orders of the jathedar, Badal and Baba Joginder Singh resigned as the heads of their factions.
However, Barnala refused to abide by the orders of the Akal Takht and was declared a tankhaiya and summoned to the Akal Takht. When he refused to abide by the summons, he was excommunicated from the Sikh community. Completely isolated from the community in June of that year, Barnala’s government was dismissed and president’s rule was imposed.
Continued role as arbiter in the 1990s
The Akal Takht’s role as arbiter continued in the 1990s when, during the festival of Baisakhi on 13 April 1994 at a congregation in the town of Talwandi Sabo, Jathedar Manjit Singh asked all the Akali factions to unite.
Heads of the various factions of Akali Dal resigned. Prakash Singh Badal, too, resigned as the president of his faction, handing over its leadership to a five-member praesidium. But, historians note, he was not happy with the development.
When the jathedar summoned the leaders of the different factions on 25 April 1994, all leaders, except for Prakash Badal, were in attendance. The leaders in attendance were assigned to seva (service) for five days at the Golden Temple.
On 2 May 1994, a united Akali Dal (Amritsar) was created. It was headed by what was supposed to be a seven-member praesidium that included Simranjeet Singh Maan, Jagdev Singh Talwandi, Captain Amarinder Singh and Surjit Singh Barnala, among others. While Prakash Singh Badal was not named as part of the praesidium, no seventh member was named in the hopes that he would join. The manifesto of the party was also announced by the Akal Takht.
Still, Badal remained defiant and he was summoned to the Akal Takht again in the first week of May 1994. Following a meeting between Badal and Manjit Singh, Badal declared that the Akal Takht jathedar had permitted him to have his own separate organisation.
“He went on to change the constitution of the Akali Dal making it a party that could include non-Sikhs, trying to go on a secular track,” according to Dr Narang.
Rift between Tohra, Prakash Badal
In 1998, Captain Amarinder Singh, then leading his own faction, Akali Dal (Panthic), submitted a complaint against the then-SGPC chief Gurcharan Singh Tohra to the Akal Takht.
Tohra had allegedly campaigned in favour of Prem Singh Chandumajra ahead of the Lok Sabha elections as part of which he had addressed a Nirankari gathering. The Nirankari sect of the Sikhs had been excommunicated by the Akal Takht in 1978. No Sikh was allowed to have any connection with them.
Amarinder was fighting the Lok Sabha elections against Chandumajra from the Patiala constituency. At the time, the Akal Takht jathedar exonerated Tohra. Chandumajra is now part of the group that has revolted against Sukhbir Singh Badal.
In 1999, when Prakash Badal, as chief minister, decided to celebrate the 300 years of the establishment of the Khalsa, Tohra was upset that the SGPC had not been involved in the process. He attacked Badal asking him to step down as chief of the Akali Dal.
The jathedar of the Akal Takht Ranjit Singh joined Tohra in criticising the various decisions being taken by Prakash Badal for the celebrations of the tercentenary. In February of that year, Prakash Badal summoned the SGPC executive and removed Ranjit Singh as jathedar, replacing him with Giani Puran Singh. In March, the Prakash Badal group passed a resolution of no confidence against Tohra and removed him as the SGPC chief, replacing him with Bibi Jagir Kaur, the first female head of the SGPC.
Ahead of the 1999 Lok Sabha elections, Giani Puran Singh openly campaigned for Badal to counter Ranjit Singh who took to campaigning for Tohra—he had formed his own party, the Sarb Hind Shiromani Akali Dal.
After the 2002 elections debacle for the Akali Dal, when Captain Amarinder Singh, who was in Congress at the time, became the chief minister of Punjab, the Akal Takht Jathedar Joginder Singh Vedanti took upon himself to bring Badal and Tohra together. Both leaders were summoned to the Akal Takht in June 2003 and a declaration that they had united was issued on 13 June. In July of the same year, Tohra was renamed the president of the SGPC.
In January 2000, Bibi Jagir Kaur and Jathedar Giani Puran Singh had a major showdown over Kaur’s implementation of the Nanak Shahi calendar. The jathedar, who had been travelling to Madhya Pradesh at the time, faxed a hukumnama to the newspapers excommunicating Kaur from the Sikh community.
Kaur is also part of the rebel group against Sukhbir Badal. Both former cabinet ministers of the Prakash Badal government, Kaur and Parminder Dhindsa, appeared before the Akal Takht Monday to hand over their apology.
Sikh scholars agree that for any Sikh, and more so for any Sikh politician, ignoring an order of the Akal Takht is considered disrespectful towards, not just the authority of the body, but also towards the Sikh community, which looks up to the Akal Takht as the custodian of moral and religious authority.
“Higher than the Akal Takht is the Sikh panth. Decisions taken by the Akal Takht have been rejected by the Sikh community. In 2015, when the Akal Takht accepted the explanation or apology of the Sacha Sauda Dera chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim, the panth rejected it and the decision had to be revoked,” says Sikh expert Prof Sarchand Singh, a spokesperson of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
(Edited by Sanya Mathur)
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