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Chawla scandal puts SAD on backfoot
The scandal has come at a critical juncture when the party was looking to reclaim its lost ground in the state, especially among Panthic voters, with the high-decibel Punjab Bachao Campaign
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Ahead of the high-stakes 2027 Punjab assembly elections, the Sukhbir Singh Badal-led Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) finds itself on the backfoot following the registration of a rape case against senior party leader and Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) member Amarjit Singh Chawla.
The scandal has come at a critical juncture when the party was looking to reclaim its lost ground in the state, especially among Panthic voters, with the high-decibel Punjab Bachao Campaign. The case stems from an FIR registered on August 21 by the Anandpur Sahib police based on a complaint lodged by a Bahrain-based woman originally hailing from Sangrur. The complainant alleged that she was wrongfully confined and repeatedly sexually assaulted.
Chawla, who dismissed the charges as baseless and part of a political conspiracy, tendered his resignations from all party posts and the SGPC before going into hiding. Police teams are currently conducting raids to arrest him.
While the Sikh clergy and the SGPC has tried to do a damage control by ex-communicating Chawla and forming a probe panel that has been tasked with submitting its report in 15 days, the matter has provided enough fodder to SAD’s opponents, especially the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), to launch a blistering attack on it. Adding to the party’s woes, pressure is mounting for the constitution of a special investigation team (SIT) to look into the matter. A delegation from the SAD rebel faction, Punar Surjit, met chief minister Bhagwant Mann on Wednesday to demand an independent, high-level SIT probe into how the complainant’s grievances were initially ignored by top authorities.
Party insiders privately acknowledge the gravity of the situation. “It’s definitely a setback for the party,” admitted a senior Akali leader on condition of anonymity, stressing that the issue requires urgent damage control. “In the current political system, controversies emerge, but the key question is how long this lasts. The longer it stretches, the deeper it will hurt the party.”
Unlike their usual aggressive posture on state and Panthic issues, the SAD leadership has maintained a stoic silence on the matter.
The controversy strikes at the heart of SAD’s core revival strategy. Sukhbir had been leading the party’s outreach campaign across the state with renewed urgency even after surviving a knife attack by an assailant at a gurdwara in Maharashtra’s Nanded. While that incident had drawn sympathy and allowed the Akali leadership to consolidate regional sentiments, the Chawla episode has put the party on the defensive, say political analysts.
The controversy now threatens to derail SAD’s campaign. “Any controversy involving an Akali leader who also holds an SGPC seat automatically places the entire parent organisation under moral scrutiny,” says Amanpreet Singh Gill, associate professor at Khalsa College, New Delhi.
What make the episode more damaging for the SAD is not just the allegations against a section of the leaders, but the place of alleged occurrence of the crime: A serai at Anandpur Sahib. The revelation that accommodation rules were breached for months has brought the internal functioning of the SGPC under scrutiny.
Akali Dal leaders, including secretary Daljit Singh Cheema, have sought to distance the party from the SGPC’s administrative affairs. “The matter pertains to the SGPC and it has constituted an inquiry committee to give report, leading to a clear picture,” he said. However, in the public and political perception, the two institutions remain closely connected.
