Sukhbir and the SAD leadership have been seen as shifting the goalposts – questioning the Commission report on the one hand and on the other insisting there is nothing in it that indicts the Badals, both in the same breath. (Source: PTI)
Nearly three years after a political crisis over incidents of sacrilege of the Guru Granth Sahib and police firing at anti-sacrilege protesters at Kotkapura and Behbal Kalan in October 2015, the Shiromani Akali Dal is once on the backfoot with its core Panthic constituency. At a time SAD is plotting strategies for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, as well as this month’s Zila Parishad and Panchayat Samiti polls, the Justice Ranjit Singh (retd) Commission report has put the party in the firing line not only from its opponents, but from within, as senior party leaders too are speaking out against SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal’s decision to boycott the debate on the Commission report in the House.
This is first time that Taksali leaders have been so vocal, which is being seen as the first warning shot at Badal for not securing the party’s Panthic credentials enough. SAD patron and former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal and his son and SAD president Sukhbir have been trashing the Justice Ranjit Singh (retd) Commission as a government set-up.
However, Sukhbir and the SAD leadership have been seen as shifting the goalposts – questioning the Commission report on the one hand and on the other insisting there is nothing in it that indicts the Badals, both in the same breath. On his part, Parkash Singh Badal has said that never passed any order for use of force or police firing at protesters in Kotkapura.
However, all this has cut little ice with Sikh organisations and Panthic groups. The Kotkapura police firing had left one injured. A subsequent police firing at protestors in Behbal Kalan had claimed two lives. Another Panthic potboiler in the Justice Ranjit Singh (retd) Commission report is a detailed commentary based on witness accounts on controversial pardon by Akal Takht to Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh – the pardon was later revoked within a month after protests from the Sikh community – in an alleged blasphemy case on September 24, 2015.
The pardon triggered anger in the Sikh community against Akal Takht chief Giani Gurbachan Singh, the SGPC, which appoints him, and against SAD which controls the SGPC. Earlier, in 2007, Akal Takht had issued a “hukamnama” (edict) asking Sikhs to snap all social, political and religious ties with dera chief and his followers after he allegedly imitated tenth Sikh master Guru Gobind Singh in a ceremony.
Though SAD has always tried to distance itself from the controversial pardon, the connection between SAD, SGPC and Akal Takht has been hard to deny. Former SGPC president Avtar Singh Makkar, who was at the helm of affairs at SGPC when the Panthic crisis broke out, has pushed SAD president Sukhbir Badal further deep into the controversy by saying he learnt about likely pardon to dera chief from Sukhbir only on the morning of September 24, 2015, and that he had warned against any such move.
Close on the heels of organising party rally in neighbouring Haryana where SAD has announced to go solo in elections, the SAD president recently declared the party would test political waters in Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan as well in the upcoming polls. For the moment, however, the real political challenge is in the state.