damdami-taksal-support-in-maha-opens-bjp-s-closed-channels-in-punjab

Damdami Taksal head Baba Harnam Singh Khalsa Dhuma's support to the Bharatiya Janata Party in Maharashtra seems to have opened the saffron party’s “closed channels” in Punjab. 

 

The BJP is desperately trying to carve out its place in the border state. However, it has been facing strong resistance from a large section of the Sikh community, particularly the politically dominant and powerful Jatt peasantry, for unexplained reasons.

 

The BJP had in the recent past remained happy playing second fiddle to the Shiromani Akali Dal, with which it had an alliance for about 25 years. 

 

The alliance broke in 2020 during the farmers’ agitation against three central farm laws.

 

Since then the BJP and the Akalis have continuously drifted apart. Although the two parties almost finalized an alliance ahead of the 2024 General Elections, it eventually did not work out, after the Akalis reportedly imposed some tough conditions difficult for the BJP to accept.

 

Although the BJP could not win any parliamentary seat from Punjab this time, which was for the first time in the last three decades, it did manage a significant vote share. 

 

The party, contesting on its own got 19 per cent vote share and its candidates finished close in three parliamentary constituencies of Patiala, Ludhiana and Ferozepur, while in Amritsar, Gurdaspur, Hoshiarpur, Jalandhar and Anandpur Sahib it bagged a substantial number of votes. 

 

However, the party realizes that when it comes to the micro level at assembly segments, it will be difficult to get a proportionate share of votes everywhere. 

 

The party’s concentration has mainly been in the Hindu-dominated urban areas. Unless and until it reaches out to the rural segments, the party cannot expect to be an impactful and significant player in Punjab. 

 

The party was not facing any resistance as such anywhere in Punjab. But the three agriculture laws and the subsequent one-year-long protest against these laws led to a strong “anti-BJP” narrative among the peasantry, which was not restricted only to Punjab, but also Haryana and parts of Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. Its impact was felt in the 2024 General Elections as the BJP suffered setbacks in the areas dominated by the Jaat peasantry outside Punjab.

 

Although in Haryana, the BJP has succeeded to a great extent to neutralising the earlier hostility, it is yet to contain it in Punjab. Since the Jatt peasantry dominates the political discourse and decision-making in the state, particularly in rural areas, the party has been finding it difficult to make any headway in the rural belt.

 

With Damdami Taksal, a prominent and well-respected Sikh seminary, founded by the Tenth Guru, Guru Gobind Singh, having come forward in its support in Maharashtra, the BJP can expect to make some gains and much-needed inroads into the countryside, dominated by the Jatt Sikh peasantry. 

 

Given the respect and influence Damdami Taksal enjoys in the Sikh community there has not been any open criticism against its head Baba Dhuma for supporting the BJP. Whatever opposition has been there has been very guarded. Dhuma himself has defended his decision and invited people opposed to it to discuss the matter with him. 

 

Dhuma’s support to the BJP will certainly not deliver any overnight miracles for the BJP, but it will help the party in overcoming the “hostile resistance” that had been created against the party during and in the aftermath of the farmers’ agitation. This is even though the BJP governments at the centre and in Haryana, where the farmers were staying put on the road, did not use any force to evict them.

 

Rather, when the farm laws were withdrawn, Prime Minister Modi apologised for the loss of some precious lives during the agitation. All those who died there died a natural death and not due to any state action. 

 

The BJP government at the centre also exercised utmost restraint when some farm protestors installed ‘Nishan Sahib’, the Sikh flag on the Red Fort. According to senior BJP leader Manpreet Badal, Prime Minister Modi had personally issued instructions against using any force or firing at those who had installed the Nishan Sahib there. 

 

The BJP leadership believes that if the Congress can win elections and form government in Punjab after Operation Bluestar and the 1984 riots, there is nothing as such against the BJP. The party is facing maximum resistance from its former ally, the Shiromani Akali Dal as it is apprehensive that the party may eat up its support base. 

 

Some of the Akali leaders have started accusing the party of “interference” in the Sikh affairs, a charge that the majority of Sikhs do not accept as there is no instance or evidence against the saffron party to that effect. 

 

One thing is certain the party has been consistent and persistent in its mission for Punjab and it could not have found a better supporter than the Damdami Taksal for its cause in the state.