Nothing has and nothing will change politically for Sukhbir Singh Badal, the beleaguered chief of the Shiromani Akali Dal, after the “victory” of his candidate as the president of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC).
Nobody had expected Sukhbir-supported HS Dhami to lose the president’s election. The SGPC president is not elected directly, but indirectly by the “elected” members. Of the 148 existing SGPC members, 142 cast their votes. Dhami secured 107 votes, while his challenger Bibi Jagir Kaur, a former SGPC president, could get only 33 votes. Two votes were declared invalid.
The SGPC has 170 elected members chosen through a “direct” election. While the SGPC Act mandates elections every five years, the last elections were held 13 years ago and the current house was elected in the year 2011, when the Shiromani Akali Dal-Badal was in power with the state in alliance with BJP. The elections have been repeatedly delayed for one or the other reasons, since 2016 when these had become due.
The SGPC president is elected every year. The election of a Badal-supported candidate is a forgone conclusion given the brute majority the Badal-led Akali Dal has been enjoying in the SGPC.
The Akali Dal tried to level allegations against the ruling party in the state, the Aam Aadmi Party, the ruling party at the centre the BJP and the opposition Congress for trying to influence and interfere in the elections. The Akalis claimed that everyone tried to “take control” of the SGPC.
However, the allegations didn’t hold any credibility as none of the three parties have evinced any interest in “taking control of the SGPC”, as alleged by the Badal loyalists. It was long back, about twenty years ago in 2002-03, when Capt Amarinder Singh, who was that time pursuing an aggressively anti-Badal agenda, wanted to help Gurcharan Singh Tohra to wrest control of the SGPC from the Badal.
Badal and Tohra had fallen apart and Tohra, the longest serving SGPC president had been dethroned, two years ago. Badal and Tohra later patched up again.
However, Capt Amarinder could not succeed, as it was the Akali friendly BJP-led government at the centre, of which the Akali Dal was a constituent party. It is an irony that the same Akali Dal was now leveling allegations on the BJP of trying to wrest control of the SGPC.
The victory of the Sukhbir’s nominee as president of the SGPC may be a mere consolation for the beleaguered party president, as it reaffirms his control over the “highest parliament” of Sikhs, but it does not reflect the ground reality, which is completely against the Sukhbir led Akali Dal.
The challenge to the SGPC president had come from the rebel Akalis, who have been calling their group as “Sudhar Lehar” (Reform Movement). The ‘Lehar’ had fielded Bibi Jagir Kaur, a prominent Akali leader and a former SGPC president to challenge the Akali candidate, Dhami. Bibi Jagir Kaur was the first woman SGPC president elected in 1999 with the support of Badal family, against whom she has rebelled now.
In fact the continued control of the Badal family on the SGPC will further add to the public alienation against it (the Badal family). The resentment against the family is mainly because it has held control over the party and various other institutions with an iron fist.
It is a fact that all the regional parties are ‘family-run’ and ‘family-controlled’. But Shiromani Akali Dal has, unlike other family-run parties, been quite different till the Badals took control of it and turned it into a “family run” party. The main reason for the alienation of most of its supporters has been the perception that the Badals have “grabbed” a ‘panthic institution’, as the Akali Dal is thought to be.
Right now, there is a process of churning going on within the ‘panthic politics’. The challenge to the Akali Dal is not from outside, although Badal loyalists are accusing the rebels of being propped up by the BJP. The challenge is from within and by those leaders who hold considerable influence among the public.
Sukhbir’s challenges have not ended with the victory of his candidate as the SGPC president. In fact that was not expected either.
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