Feud in the Dal

It has taken less than two years for the internecine feud to break out within the ruling Akali Dal in Punjab. The solidarity which appear...

It has taken less than two years for the internecine feud to break out within the ruling Akali Dal in Punjab. The solidarity which appeared to hold since the formation of the government in February 1997 gave way last week with Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Co-mmittee SGPC president Gurcharan Singh Tohra demanding that Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal quit the party post and devote his full time to governing the state.

This instantly triggered off a reaction on predictable lines from the two camps, reviving old memories of squabbling in the Akali Dal. This sudden and unforeseen development is bound to impair the functioning of the Akali-BJP combine in Punjab. Besides, it bodes ill for the state for when the combine led by Badal came to power with an unprecedented majority, much hopes were pinned on it. Badal had set the government8217;s agenda by announcing a corruption-free government which would meet the aspirations of not just Sikhs but all Punjabis.

Unfortunately, instead of providing an efficientgovernment, Badal has been both vacuous and ineffective. Of course, his government managed to stave off terrorism, which was no mean achievement. But apparently it was not enough, as was evident from the party8217;s surprise defeat in the Adampur byelection last month. The fact that many ardent supporters of the combine too derived a sadistic pleasure in the humbling of the party8217;s candidate further underlined the fact that the government had alienated a section of its well-wishers.

At the same time, the government finds itself in a financial mess with insolvency staring it in the face. Whatever be his devious designs and ambitions, Tohra8217;s attack on Badal is apparently well timed. Few in the state buy the Chief Minister8217;s argument that his party lost Adampur because of the policies of the Union government. The governance or the lack of it in Punjab is indubitable.

The wedge between the Badal and Tohra camps is expected to widen during the next few days, which could even draw the Sikh clergy into the muddle.This may even affect the party8217;s alliance with the BJP and bring about fresh political alignments in the region. That these developments will jeopardise the already beleaguered tercentenary celebrations of the birth of the Khalsa is clear.

But, what is worse is that the recent crisis is bound to take the party away from its declared agenda, which could in turn give a fillip to the militant elements in the country and abroad. The next few days will indicate if there is any ground for reconciliation between the warring camps, failing which a parting of ways is inevitable. However, neither of the two options will bale out the government for long till Badal departs from the current path of ambivalence.

The Chief Minister will have to adopt a pragmatic approach by shedding populist measures like free power to farmers, which only deprived the farmers of whatever electricity they were getting. Besides, it alienated the traders who were denied the election promise of octroi abolition. The present crisisunderlines the need for a clear agenda and the need to push it with a firm conviction, with or without Tohra.