A week after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) announced to fight all 13 Lok Sabha seats in Punjab on its own, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal on Tuesday cautioned his one-time ally against “aggression to capture the numbers” in the border state, saying that the saffron party should instead win the hearts of people.
“In Punjab, you can’t force your way. Any national party coming here should aim to win the hearts of the people and not numbers,” Sukhbir told Hindustan Times in his first comments since the breakdown of talks for re-stitching a SAD-BJP alliance, which had ruptured in 2021 over the now-repealed three farm laws. Both parties were allies since 1996.
Also read: HT Interview: For SAD, Panth and Punjab matter more than power, says Sukhbir Badal
On the reasons for the failure of behind-the-scene parleys, Sukhbir said his party had sought firm commitment from the BJP-led Centre against interference in Sikh religious affairs, besides implementing the farmers’ demands, releasing all Sikh convicts of past terrorism cases who had completed their sentence, and transferring pro-Khalistan activist Amritpal Singh and his comrades, now lodged in an Assam jail under the National Security Act, to Punjab prisons.
“Our pre-conditions for alliance didn’t find favour with them,” Sukhbir said, adding, “Victory or no victory, for us, prestige of Khalsa Panth and Punjab is more important than power.”
{{/usCountry}}“Our pre-conditions for alliance didn’t find favour with them,” Sukhbir said, adding, “Victory or no victory, for us, prestige of Khalsa Panth and Punjab is more important than power.”
{{/usCountry}}To be sure, the Akali Dal chief acknowledged Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s gestures towards the Sikh community in the last decade, in particular the opening of the Kartarpur Sahib corridor, waiver of GST on the community kitchen at Golden Temple and doing away of the ‘black list’ barring several expatriate Sikhs’ entry to India.
“These were good gestures. But, meddling in Sikh religious affairs is creating resentment in the community. This must stop forthwith,” he said, adding, “Minorities are feeling insecure.”
Asked about the BJP’s efforts to expand its base in Punjab by inducting Sikh faces from other parties, Sukhbir said, “This will not work because they don’t have any base in Punjab.”
On the chance of a re-think on an alliance with the BJP in Punjab, which goes to the polls in the last phase on June 1, Sukhbir offered a cryptic response: “Not possible now. It’s a closed chapter as the BJP has inducted Congress MP Ravneet Bittu whose grandfather (late chief minister Beant Singh) was behind the killing of innocent Sikhs.”