akali-dal-without-badals-but-not-end-of-road-for-sukhbir

An Akali Dal without Badals after 28 years; but certainly not end of road for Sukhbir 

 

It is after about three decades that the Shiromani Akali Dal-Badal, will be without a ‘Badal’ at the helm of affairs. 

 

The core committee of the party accepted the resignation of Sukhbir Badal as the party president following a strict stand taken by the Akal Takhat. 

 

The Akal Takhat, while pronouncing ‘tankha’ (religious punishment) on Badal, had asked the core committee to accept his resignation. The core committee appeared to be averse to accepting his resignation citing legal and constitutional reasons for the same. But eventually it caved in as it felt that public opinion was going against it.

 

For Sukhbir Badal it was not only the Akal Takhat but also the public opinion voiced so aggressively on social media that made his position as the president of the ‘panthic’ party untenable, at least for the time being. It is ironic that the same Sukhbir Badal who is credited with having ushered in massive development in the state, when his father Parkash Singh Badal was the Chief Minister and he was the Deputy Chief Minister and effectively running the show, has been shown an ungraceful exit. This will at least neutralize the criticism he was facing from the general public. 

 

While a strong political party is very important for a leader, the same is true the other way round also. A strong political party needs a strong and influential leader to grow and succeed. 

 

Shiromani Akali Dal-Badal, which, so far, has remained the principal representative party of the ‘panthic’ interests and happens to be the second oldest political party in the country after the Congress, will need a strong, influential and effective leader to carry along the cadres and the leaders at the same time. It will not be an easy task for Sukhbir’s successor to lead the party, particularly after the expectations generated due to his resignation.

 

Sukhbir and for that matter, the Badals, have been more sinned than sinning. Their prolonged control over the party led to natural “anti-incumbency” against them. Family control may be alright fro the regional and family run political parties like the National Conference, Samajwadi Party, Rashtriya Janata Dal or the DMK, but not for a party like Shiromani Akali Dal as it falls in a different league. Unlike the family driven “regional” parties, which derive power and strength from the “patriarchs”, the Shiromani Akali Dal’s source of power and strength remains the ‘panthic’ constituency. 

 

With a towering leader like Parkash Singh Badal at the helm for a long time, the party grew by leaps and bounds. Plus the alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party also contributed to its growth. The Akali Dal and the BJP had different support bases, which complimented each other. The alliance worked very well right from the grassroots level to the top. Interestingly, the Akali Dal’s fortunes started dipping with the change of ‘regime’ within the BJP from the old generation of leaders like Atal Bihari Vajpayee and LK Advani to Narendra Modi and Amit Shah.

 

Although Modi respected the senior Badal a lot, the relationship did not work much on the political front. The senior Badal was one of the few leaders in the country whose feet Modi would touch out of respect. But this deep respect and bonding looked like having remained restricted to the personal relationship only. Or probably, Modi did not take much interest in the party affairs. Apparently Shah and Sukhbir could not pull it off the way the senior Badal did with the earlier generation of the BJP leadership. Interestingly Shah and Sukhbir are almost contemporaries in age. While Shah is 60, Sukhbir is 62 years old.

 

So many things have happened since 2014 in Punjab. While the BJP was on the ascendancy, the Akalis seemed to have become overconfident after their 2012 spectacular performance when the party almost won an absolute majority of its own, although it was in alliance with the BJP.

 

Sukhbir grew so confident that he would often claim that the Akali-BJP government would rule for another 25 years like the Communists did in West Bengal. He was so serious about it that he sent special teams of his close confidantes including MLAs and ministers to study the West Bengal model immediately after 2007. 

It is a different story that the model, Sukhbir had deputed his close leaders to study in West Bengal collapsed in 2011 when Trinamool Congress led by Mamata Bannerjee trounced it. Ms Bannerjee has ruled Bengal since then. And the left parties particularly the Communist Party of India-Marxist, whose model Sukhbir got studied, is almost wiped out of Bengal today the same way the Akali Dal is in Punjab. Whether Sukhbir Badal could apply the Communists’ West Bengal model in Punjab or not, but it did bear the similar consequences for the Akali Dal here as it bore for the Communists there. 

 

The Shiromani Akali Dal, now is faced with an existential threat. Quite a few leaders having respectable support bases in their respective areas like Gurpartap Singh Wadala, Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa and his son Parminder Dhindsa, Prem Singh Chandumajra, Bibi Jagir Kaur, Surjit Singh Rakhra have joined the rebel ranks. That way the Akali Dal has been weakened from within. 

It is faced with an external challenge from the supporters of the detained radical MP Amritpal Singh. His supporters, led by his father, have decided to announce a new party, the Shiromani Akali Dal-Anandpur Sahib on the occasion of Maghi Mela scheduled on January 14 in Muktsar. 

 

Amritpal is supported by another independent MP, Sarbjit Singh, the son of one of Ms Indira Gandhi’s assassins, Beant Singh. Although Sarabjit Singh does not share the same views on multiple issues, including Khalistan with Amritpal, he (Sarbjit) has still opted to go along with him (Amritpal).

 

The challenge for the Shiromani Akali Dal is to reinvent itself. This is not an easy task though. About three decades of control of the Badals over the party did not allow any alternate leadership to grow. The only prominent non-Badal happens to be Bikram Singh Majithia, who is brother in law of Sukhbir, hence ruled out of taking the party mantle. 

 

Otherwise, he has everything in him to take the lead. He is a brilliant and powerful orator with a commanding voice and has complete grasp and understanding of the issues facing Punjab, ‘panth’ and the party. 

 

If Sukhbir opts to contest the party president’s election, scheduled to be held on March 1, he has strong chances of emerging victorious. But that will again lead to a sense of disillusionment and alienation among those who wanted a change in the leadership. In that case, it will depend on the Akali Dal how it presents and projects the “election” of Sukhbir, if he contests and wins, to the people. 

 

Whether Sukhbir is reelected as the president after elections or not, his influence, shadow and control over the party will persist. Moreover, if he gets elected, his critics will lose the argument, as they cannot question the democratic process, although they will have the option of claiming that elections were manipulated. Right now, Sukhbir Badal is as important for the Akali Dal as Akali Dal is important for Sukhbir. 

 

The onus is however on Sukhbir as to how he positions himself to win back the trust of people. And he has all the attributes to become the leader again and when he does, it is just a matter of time. He is definitely down, but he is certainly not out. It is really not the end of the road for Sukhbir Badal.