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SAD turning to radical agenda to win back base?
On January 1, Sukhbir Singh Badal, president of the SAD, visited the residence of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s assassin Satwant Singh in Gurdaspur.
On January 1, Sukhbir Singh Badal, president of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) visited the residence of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s assassin Satwant Singh in Gurdaspur.
On November 4, he attended the wedding of militant leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale’s grandson.
His party termed both visits “routine”, but analysts believe that in an effort to retrieve lost political ground following the backlash to the 2015 sacrilege incidents and its initial support to the Centre’s (now rolled back) farm laws that cost it two successive assembly elections , the party is courting extreme elements and embracing a radical agenda to win over its core Sikh constituency, particularly in rural Punjab.
According to Jagrup Singh Sekhon, a former head of the political science department of Amritsar-based Guru Nanak Dev University, “There is a void in the religio-political space in Punjab after the SAD’s defeat in successive elections. Some forces are trying to occupy it but the Akalis are struggling to hold on.”
The SAD is also trying to counter the challenge posed by radical leader Amritpal Singh of Waris Punjab De because it fears that its Panthic constituency is drifting towards him. Amritpal Singh, 29, emerged on the state’s political, religious, and social landscape only last year when he took control of the outfit founded by late actor and farm activist Deep Sidhu to “fight for social justice and preserve the rights and culture of Punjab”. He has since become popular, especially among young people.
SAD senior vice-president Daljit Singh Cheema evaded a direct reply on Amritpal Singh: “The party does not talk about individuals”. He also justified Badal’s meeting with Satwant Singh’s family and attending Bhindranwale’s grandson Gurkanwar Singh’s wedding at Damdami Taksal, the Sikh seminary at Chowk Mehta in Amritsar district. “We have been supporting families of Sikhs who laid down their lives for the Panth and we will continue doing that.” Panth is a term used by Sikhs to describe both the path followed by people of the faith and also the grouping itself; it is a term that roughly translates as faith.
Cheema said the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) has been supporting “dharmi faujis” (religious warriors) who deserted the army to protest Operation Bluestar at Golden Temple in 1984.
“The SAD leadership is left with no option but to make such efforts to strike a chord with a section of the Panth that has a radical bent. They are trying to win back the support of the Sikh population, particularly in the rural areas, who have a soft corner for such elements. Of them, a large section is peasants,” says Sekhon.
The party perhaps sees this as a way to counter the welfare-state approach of the Aam Aadmi Party, which won a landslide victory in last year’s assembly elections.
The SGPC, according to Sekhon, continues to be the SAD’s primary source of strength as a large section of the Sikh community feels the party is a better choice as compared to its political rivals when it comes to religious matters. “As far as the SGPC is concerned, the SAD has a better chance than fringe elements who don’t find favour with the larger Sikh masses. However, when it comes to an elected government in the state, people of the state think differently as was proved in February 2022 elections when the Aam Aadmi Party came to power with an overwhelming majority.”
The SGPC, where the SAD enjoys a majority, is running a signature campaign in gurdwaras, particularly those under its control in Punjab and adjoining Haryana, seeking the release of Sikhs lodged in jails across the country for years despite having completed their sentence.The SAD hopes the move helps it win support in the state.
According to Ashutosh Kumar, the head of the political science department at Panjab University, Chandigarh, the biggest challenge for the SAD is to regain support in Malwa, which voted for the AAP. “In playing the Panthic card, Sukhbir (Badal) risks losing favour with other communities, which his father Parkash Singh Badal managed to take along smartly,” he said, suggesting the SAD chief revive the party’s leadership to gain acceptance among the Taksalis (senior leaders).
“Sukhbir has been pushed by his party and circumstances to take up the Panthic agenda. How much he will gain only time will tell. Radicals are unlikely to support him,” says Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, who was number two as secretary general in the SAD and quit the party in 2018 , in protest against Sukhbir Badal’s leadership, and floated the rival Shiromani Akali Dal (Sanyukt) before the last elections.
The SAD found itself losing grip over its core constituency after the public outcry against incidents of sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib in 2015 when the party was in power in the state along with its ally BJP. The farmers, predominantly Sikhs, punished the Akalis in the 2017 assembly elections and reposed faith in the Congress, hoping for justice. That wasn’t to be and they shifted their support to the AAP in 2022, with SAD’s count falling to 3 in the state’s 117-member assembly.
