Chandigarh: Indicating that the Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal) is going back to its Panthic agenda, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal yesterday (Dec. 17) said that the Sikhs had a separate identity that must be preserved.
Parkash Singh Badal
SAD (Badal)’s patron’s re-realization came in wake of BJP’s changed gesture after securing political power in India.
He said the SAD (Badal) would ask the Manohar Lal Khattar-led BJP government in Haryana to repeal the Haryana Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee Act enacted by the earlier Hooda government.
Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, SAD Member of Parliament, has moved a private member’s Bill in the Rajya Sabha, seeking an amendment to Article 25 (b) of the Constitution which clubs the Sikhs with Hindus.
This is the third such attempt, but the timing is significant. With the RSS reportedly making inroads in Punjab villages, amid speculation that the BJP may go it alone in the next Assembly elections, the SAD (Badal) is turning towards the ‘Sikh agenda’ looking at consolidating the Sikh vote bank.
Badal Dal had practically abandoned the ‘Sikh agenda’ for the sake of ‘political power’. After forming alliance with the the Hindutva political Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) against the then ruling Congress Badal Dal used to term the (so-called) Hindu-Sikh unity as a nail and flesh relation.
BJP and other Hindutva forces have unleashed their Hindutva agenda after securing political power in Punjab. BJP’s gesture against Badal Dal has ‘threatened’ it’s political positions.
Threat to the Sikh identity is apparent and real in India as the Hindutva forces are hell-bent to assimilate the Sikhs to Hindu fold, but Badals are known for playing petty politics on this sensitive and serious issue.