Decode Politics: In tussle between SGPC and Jathedars, why Akali Dal is the one with most to lose

The development came almost a month after the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD)-controlled SGPC removed Giani Harpreet Singh from his post as Jathedar of the Takht Sri Damdama Sahib. With this, all the three Sikh Jathedars who had sentenced former SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal for religious misconduct on December 2 last year have been removed from their posts.

* What led to the removals and what happens next?

This set of removals is the culmination of a long-brewing crisis between the Akali Dal and the Jathedars.

In 2015, there was resentment against then Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Gurbachan Singh after he pardoned Dera Sacha Sauda head Gurmeet Ram Rahim for hurting Sikh sentiments. This pertains to an incident in May 2007 when Ram Rahim, during a congregation at Salabtpura in Bathinda, was accused of hurting religious sentiments after he dressed like Guru Gobind Singh, the 10th Sikh Guru, and performed a ceremony.

With the SGPC and jathedars effectively under the SAD’s control, some anti-SAD and anti-Badal Sikh organisations at the time came together and called a Sarbat Khalsa, a meeting to take important decisions for community. The Sarbat Khalsa went on to appoint Dhian Singh Mand as the acting Akal Takht Jathedar.

Jathedar Dhian Singh gained popularity in no time and launched the Bargari Morcha, which was an agitation to demand justice in sacrilege cases of 2015. To counter the organisations that were arrayed against it, the SGPC appointed Giani Harpreet Singh as the acting Akal Takht Jathedar in 2018. Giani Harpreet Singh started engaging with Sikh organisations that had organised against the Badals. He slowly managed to talk to the Sarbat Khalsa-appointed Jathedars and gained popularity and credibility within the Sikh community.

Exactly when Giani Harpreet Singh seemed in control, some Akali Dal leaders accused him of having close relations with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the Congress, and the BJP. These allegations soured the relationship between the SGPC and the Jathedar. In 2023, the SGPC replaced Harpreet Singh and appointed Giani Raghbir Singh as the Akal Takht Jathedar.

Last year, Badal appeared before the Akal Takht and admitted to the allegations of “religious misconduct”. Among others, Badal was accused of violating the Akal Takht Sahib edict issued against Dera Sacha Sauda in Haryana’s Sirsa in 2007. While no Sikh is supposed to have any relationship with Dera Sacha Sauda, under Sukhbir Singh Badal’s presidency, the SAD got political support from the Dera.

On December 2 last year, the Sri Akal Takht Sahib pronounced a religious sentence for Badal and other senior party leaders for the SAD’s alleged misrule when it was in power in Punjab between 2007 and 2017. It also formed a seven-member committee to reorganise the SAD by initiating a membership drive and making arrangements for the election of its top leadership within six months.

* What happened between the SGPC and Jathedars after that?

Soon after the sentence, the SGPC started a probe against Giani Harpreet Singh over allegations levelled against him back in 2008. Giani Harpreet Singh alleged that the probe was meant to divert attention from the December 2 decision.

In the meantime, more differences emerged between the SGPC and the jathedars. Giani Raghbir Singh wanted the SAD to conduct a membership drive through the seven-member panel. The party, however, decided to run the membership drive through its working committee.

* What is the political takeaway?

The SAD has failed to revive since the 2017 Assembly poll debacle. To add to this, the religious sentence on December 2 added to the troubles of the Badals.

The move was aimed at pacifying the core Sikh vote bank of the party that had distanced itself after sacrilege incidents in 2015. The party was accused of using the Akal Takht Sahib leadership for forming political alliances with Ram Rahim ahead of the 2017 Assembly elections. There was also anger that the party had not done much to deal with the scarilege incidents.

The religious sentence was supposed to repair the SAD’s image. But the recent turn of events has again provided an opportunity for opponents to accuse the SAD of misusing Sikh institutions and in essence brings things back to square one for the party. How the Akali Dal and the Badals beat these allegations and regain the Panthic vote is one of the big questions right now.

“These are routine proceedings. It is the realm of the SGPC. The SAD has nothing to do with it. Party leadership had completed the religious sentence as was pronounced by the Akal Takht Sahib. Political opponents are bound to make an issue out of anything. They are making allegations just for the sake of politics,” said SAD spokesman Mahesh Inder Singh Badal.

Giani Harpreet Singh has claimed the Akali leadership was unhappy about the Akal Takht’s decision to impose the punishment on Sukhbir. “Sikh institutions are in the possession of one family. The SAD has not won any elections since 2012. Party is in control of SGPC just because the government didn’t hold the elections for SGPC for the last 14 years. SGPC does not have a president. Sikhs were already not voting for SAD. Now, SAD has made sure that Sikhs must not vote for the current SAD leadership,” he said.

The SGPC’s latest decision has also exposed fissures within the Akali Dal’s first family, senior leader Bikram Singh Majithia, Sukhbir’s brother-in-law, condemning the move. Majithia’s statement on Saturday drew a sharp rebuke from SAD working president Balwinder Singh Bhunder who accused the former minister of “stabbing the Akali Dal and Sukhbir Singh Badal in the back”.