Son Spoils Father’s Party

‘‘Whosoever works hard rises in the party,’’ said Badal, refuting the charges against Sukhbir. But many senior leaders in the party say Sukhbir rose because he was inducted from top.

‘‘Passing on the baton to his son won’t be easy if the two rival Akali factions merge,’’ said a senior Akali leader directly involved in these parleys.

Realisation about the need for unity has taken time to dawn. The Congress moved into treasury benches last year, and many Akali stalwarts have been imprisoned on graft charges. Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, with the added bitterness of an ex-Akali, has punctuated his tenure so far with regular threats of sending Badal too behind bars. As the Akali Dal machinery crumbled, many advocated that a united Akali Dal would be better-equipped to deal with a Congress challenge. The BJP Government at the Centre also advised Badal to go for unity, and soon Badal was singing hosannas to Tohra’s contribution as SGPC chief for a quarter-of-a-century.

‘‘Badal turned the party into an individual’s fiefdom, bringing in his son Sukhbir, nephew Manpreet Singh and son-in-law Adesh Pratap Kairon in prime positions. Akali Dal turned into Badal’s parivar party. ‘‘The dynastic rule is majorly responsible for weakening the over 80-year-old party in the last decade. Sukhbir-Adesh-Manpreet are inductions from top rather than from bottom. Men of vision are not necessarily born as the ruling politico’s offspring,’’ said Major General Himmat Singh Gill (retd) who has tracked the state polity with academic interest.

Badal’s style of politics has always been to centralise all powers unto himself. Akali Dal’s supreme policy-making body, the Political Affairs Committee, unfailingly authorised Badal for years twice a month to take all crucial decisions ‘‘as he deemed fit.’’ So Badal deemed fit to marginalise leaders to prop up his kin in politics. Even the behind-the-scenes role of his wife Surinder Badal has made many a headline.

‘‘It is not an aberration but a process. The idea of family is very central to rise of politicians’ offspring and Sukhbir fits into that model with others like Om Prakash Chautala, Chandrababu Naidu or Omar Farooq. Nepotism is a political fact,’’ rationalised Surinder Jodhka a leading authority on Akali politics. ‘‘Unlike Chautala or Naidu, in Sukhbir’s case, it is his sheer incompetence that has led to Badal’s woes,’’ Jodhka said, adding that in the framework of political process, the son’s rise was understandable, but in the parameters of political value system, it must be opposed by democratic forces.

‘‘We need politicians, not the Kaka variety of politician,’’ he said.