Nanakshahi calendar: Badal sees rough days for Capt

With Captain Amarinder Singh under pressure to change the red-letter days on the calender after the new almanac released by the Shiromani Gu...

With Captain Amarinder Singh under pressure to change the red-letter days on the calender after the new almanac released by the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) this Baisakhi, Shiromani Akali Dal chief Parkash Singh Badal has another opportunity to have the government in knots.

The new Nanakshahi calender is based on the tropical concept of a year and takes Guru Nanak’s year of birth, 1469 AD, as its origin. It comes nearly 500 years after the Guru founded the Sikh religion.

The calender features holidays and events, marking days important to Sikh gurus, other than those mentioned in the Bikrami calender, which follows the lunar constructs of astronomy.

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Now that the SGPC, backed by the powerful Akal Takht, has asked the state government to implement the new calender, the Chief Minister will be under pressure to either buckle in and change the state government’s list of holidays or be branded anti-Sikh by Badal and company.

Large swathes of political spectrum in the state see the calender more as Badal’s way of doing politics than a commitment to have a Nanakshahi almanac. ‘‘Though the issue was not of Badal’s creation, he proclaimed himself the leader,’’ said a senior Akali leader associated with the almanac.

There are many who doubt Badal’s intentions. ‘‘Though he has agreed to the calender, his commitment to the issue is still suspect,’’ says Prof Jagmohan Singh, general secretary of Akali Dal (Amritsar).

‘‘See the clever move of not changing the date of Guru Nanak’s birth anniversary celebrations or of Diwali. Amarinder could have thrown back the gauntlet by asking the Akalis to get the BJP-led Centre to effect a change in these holidays, but care was taken not to give him that opportunity,’’ says a Sikh scholar.

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Badal was also advised not to have days devoted to Sukha-Jinda or Beant Singh-Satwant Singh terrorist duos on the calender, as that would have given the Congress a handle to beat the Akalis for tilting towards militancy when deprived of power.

Amarinder, by opposing the Nanakshahi calender and saying that it will create chaos, has done exactly what Badal wished. ‘‘Let the Badal and Tohra groups unite, and you will see Nanakshahi as one of the first issues on which Amarinder will be engaged,’’ said senior Akali leaders.

Others consider the issue a hogwash. Major General (retd) Himmat Singh Gill said that the community already had too many issues to deal with and also took offence that the calender was released at Badal’s political rally.

‘‘A calender born at Badal’s rally will obviously be used to fulfil designs of certain individuals,’’ Gill said.