Akali Dal chief Sukhbir Singh Badal and Paramjit Singh Sarna (extreme right) in Delhi on Saturday. Sukhbir appointed Sarna as chief of party’s Delhi unit. @Akali_Dal_Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Badal Sunday appointed former Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee chief Paramjit Singh Sarna — a staunch critic of his family and policies — as the head of party’s Delhi unit. Sarna, who merged his SAD Delhi with the Akali Dal, heaped praise on Badal and hit out at “traitors and black sheep of the Sikh community”. Badal too lashed out at the “traitors of the Panth”.
Speaking with The Indian Express on phone from Delhi, Sarna said he decided to be part of the Akali Dal in the “interests of the Panth” and for its fight to seek the release of Bandi Singhs (Sikh prisoners) “languishing in jails despite completing their terms”. He said the only person fit to run Akali Dal was Badal.
“I believe that Shiromani Akali Dal cannot be run without Sukhbir Badal. Who can replace him as president of Akali Dal, inside or outside the party? We see none,” Sarna said.
Sarna had remained close to former Punjab chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh, serving as his advisor. Amarinder has now merged his Punjab Lok Congress with the BJP. While Sarna declined to make any comment on the issue, sources close to him said the former DSGMC chief was “miffed” at Amarinder “for not taking decisions as per his potential” in the interests of Sikh community. Sources close to Sarna said he believed Amarinder “did wrong.”
Asked what made him had change of heart despite being a strong critic of Badal family, Sarna said, “Central government has been indifferent to the issue of release of Bandi Singhs. I had been critical of SAD led by Badal family during the Punjab elections. It was not expected that they will win only three seats [in 117-member Vidhan Sabha]. I decided to align with SAD for panthic unity. The gathering at my residence today was unprecedented. Over a thousand came on their own…more were on way”.
Sarna said he had recommended that a five-member committee, including two opposition members be constituted to clear the air over “clerical mistake” on 328 missing saroops of Guru Granth Sahib from SGPC. Sarna had also been critical of Badals on the issue of sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib and death of two protestors in the subsequent protest in 2015. “No doubt, it was a mistake [as it happened during erstwhile Akali Dal led government]. We will try to address the issue by roping in intellectuals,” he added.
Meanwhile, an Akali Dal spokesperson termed the merger of the two parties as “a significant religio-political development in Panthic and Punjab politics” and “a turning point in Sikh and Punjab politics and a religio-political game changer”.
The spokesperson said Badal appointed Sarna as president of party’s Delhi unit and asked him to lead the campaign to unite entire Panth under one Panthic flag. He also asked Sarna to build units of the party in other states.
Sarna in his speech on the occasion, lashed out against “the traitors and black sheep of the Sikh quom and said that today’s development had cast a pall of gloom over these stooges and their masters”.
Badal also blasted the “traitors of the Panth who operated in Sikh garb to promote and implement the conspired the enemies of the Sikh quom”. He said “today’s Panthic Ikattarta (Sikh community gathering) signaled Panthic revival to defeat the challenges thrown at the Sikh quom.”
The SAD president while thanking both Sarna and Harvinder Singh Sarna and their entire team and supporters for “extending their unflinching support to this noble cause” added that “devious conspiracies are at work to engineer a civil war in the Sikh community; unity alone will defeat these conspiracies.”
Badal also said that periods of crisis had always united the Khalsa Panth. “Today, Khalsa Panth and its historic institutions are under attack from visible and hidden enemies who want to weaken it by breaking the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) by recognizing a separate gurudwara committee for Haryana. Unity is the historic need of the hour to fight external attack and internal sabotage.”
Speaking on the occasion, Sarna said he had “never left the SAD” and was still a solider of the party. “I have always worked for the welfare of the Panth and will continue to do so by way of the new responsibility bestowed on me today,” he added.
Sarna also said “those who had betrayed the SAD after contesting elections to the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) on the party ticket should seek forgiveness from the Panth as well as Guru Sahab and return back to the party fold.”