Amritpal’s Sarbat Khalsa call queers pitch for CM Mann, pushes Jathedar into troubled waters

While it may be a clever face-saver for Amritpal, who has been on the run since the Punjab police crackdown against him and his associates on March 18, it does not bode well for the institution of the Akal Takht Jathedar. It also ups the ante against the AAP dispensation, which is now facing a significant bypoll in the Jalandhar Lok Sabha seat.

Never before Mann has a CM come out so openly against the Akal Takht Jathedar, once regarded as the supreme leader and spokesman of the Sikh community.

In the past, Maharaja Ranjit Singh had once famously subjected himself to punishment of 50 lashes from the Akal Takht. In recent history, the Takht had excommunicated the then President Gian Zail Singh and Union home minister Buta Singh over the 1984 Operation Blue Star. They had both “repented” and were subsequently pardoned.

In 2014, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader and ex-minister Bikram Singh Majithia was hauled up by the Takht for using a hymn while campaigning for senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley. As directed by the Takht, he atoned by washing utensils and cleaning the shoes of the pilgrims at the Golden Temple.

Even though the institution seems to have lost its moral authority due to the hold of the Badals-led SAD on the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), which appoints its head priests, most former CMs, including Capt Amarinder Singh, have avoided an open confrontation with the Takht, and accorded the Jathedar due respect.

CM Mann appears to be doing the opposite. On Tuesday, Mann responded to the Jathedar’s ultimatum – asking the AAP government to free all innocent Sikh youths and revoke the National Security Act (NSA) slapped on some of them following its clampdown on Amritpal’s outfit – by accusing the latter of “furthering the cause” of Badals (former CM Parkash Singh Badal and his son Sukhbir Badal, the current SAD president).

While a section of the community felt that the CM was merely calling a spade a spade, the general consensus among them was that it was a controversy best avoided in these sensitive times, and that he should have been mindful of the institution the Jathedar represents.

The face-off intensified Wednesday when a tweet by the Jathedar pertaining to a meeting of various Sih organisations was withheld in India. While an outraged SAD said the CM should apologise for this “transgression”, Congress leader Sukhpal Khaira accused Mann of “taunting the Akal Takht Sahib”.

Much before the Amritpal episode, the Mann government had its first run-in with the Jathedar when it downgraded his security in May last year and tweeted about it, prompting an angry Giani Harpreet Singh to return his existing security cover.

A few months later, Mann took on the Jathedar for urging youngsters to undergo “shastra (arms)” training, saying that the latter should rather encourage them to study.

Amritpal’s video asking the Jathedar to call a “Sarbat Khalsa” could test the institution further and expose its frailties. It is ironic that Amritpal, who claimed he thought the police was trying to prevent him from launching a “Khalsa vaheer” (a dharam prachar march) in Malwa, dismissed, in his video, the Jathedar’s recent decision to launch such “vaheers”, saying the people of Punjab were already aware (of the Sikh values) and did not need such initiatives.

A key question is, will Giani Harpreet Singh now accede to the urging of Amritpal, who has been the most unapologetic votary of Khalistan in recent decades. The Jathedar has already come in for a lot of criticism for not hauling up Amritpal for taking the holy Guru Granth Sahib with him while storming the Ajnala police station on February 23. He had set up a committee to study the matter, which is yet to make its report public.

Another question is, if the Akal Takht calls the Sarbat Khalsa, will it get an adequate response? The SGPC, whose members are largely from the SAD, is at daggers drawn with both the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) and the newly-formed Haryana Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (HSGPC).

The proposed Sikh assembly could also pose a challenge for the Mann government, which is bracing for the May 10 Jalandhar bypoll. The AAP cannot afford a negative resolution by the Akal Takht, given that the party lost its first Sangrur bypoll to the radical SAD (Amritsar) leader Simranjit Singh Mann last year, just three months after its landslide victory in the 2022 Assembly elections.

Also, Amritpal has remained at large so far. Any more video messages from him would hurt the AAP government, which appeared to have won the battle of perception by destroying the credibility of the self-styled pro-Khalistan preacher.