SGPC at stake

The month-long hullaballoo over elections to the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee in Punjab finally ended in a whimper. The group led...

The month-long hullaballoo over elections to the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee in Punjab finally ended in a whimper. The group led by former Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal won hands down with practically no erosion of votes.

The claims of his bete noire Gurcharan Singh Tohra that there would be cross-voting in his favour proved to be just that — mere claims. But more than Tohra, Badal’s win has dealt a blow to Chief Minister Amarinder Singh who over-reached himself by trying to get a hold on the SGPC. The chief minister forgot that any interference by the state machinery remains an anathema to Sikhs in matters religious.

The blatant use of the state machinery to browbeat Badal’s supporters by arresting them, imposing prohibitory orders, registering cases against them, and the efforts to keep them from reaching Amritsar, added to the support for the SAD (B) supremo.

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The former CM made the most of the state onslaught and did not lose any opportunity to show Amarinder Singh in a negative light. His old friendship with Haryana CM Om Prakash Chautala came in handy as he holed up his flock at the latter’s Ekant Farm and his own sprawling farmhouse at Balasar in Haryana.

Then, with an eye on the media, he even ‘released’ some of his supporters from unsolicited police protection before flying his loyalists to Delhi for the ultimate headcount before the national media. But his trump card remained Operation Bluestar and Sonia Gandhi. In a far-fetched comparison, he claimed that the Congress chief was doing what her mother-in-law Indira Gandhi had done.

This provided the opportunity to the dissidents within the state Congress to rush to the party high command. Predictably, Amarinder Singh received a missive from Delhi and found himself cornered. This led to his climbdown a day before the elections when he announced that the government would distance itself from the SGPC poll.

The poll results have once again proved that the Akalis don’t brook any government interference in their religious affairs. This is a lesson that must be kept in mind by all future governments. However, Badal may not remain unscathed there. Perhaps for the first time, he prevailed upon the NDA government at the Centre to send observers. This has not gone down well with a section of the Akalis who feel it may have set a wrong precedent.