Before dealing with the factors for reaching the conclusion, it is necessary to discuss the role of the forces responsible for creating the worrying situation in Punjab.

The sequence of events of the past few weeks shows that the Akali leadership’s “religion and politics are inseparable” policy is primarily responsible for creating the present volatile situation.

It all began in 2007 when the Sirsa-based Dera Sacha Sauda chief Ram Rahim Singh was accused by the Sikh clergy of attiring himself as the tenth Guru Gobind Singh. The clashes that followed between the dera followers and groups of Sikhs in various parts of Punjab prompted the Akal Takht jathedar to declare Ram Rahim as Tankhaiya.

But eager to seek support of thousands of Ram Rahim’s Punjab followers for the 2017 assembly elections, chief minister Badal politically managed to secure Akal Takht’s pardon for the dera chief through the Akali Dal-controlled SGPS which appoints Takht Jathedars. Later, Ram Rahim Singh’s pardoning by the jathedar infuriated Sikhs who were already feeling hurt by Guru Granth Sahib’s desecration reports. The takht Jathedar had to revoke Ram Rahim’s pardoning.

Despite these developments there is no likelihood of the radicals’ resurgence reviving the 1980s-like situation for three reasons. Firstly, the situation in India as also in Punjab is radically different from what it was in the 1980s. During the past nearly three decades, both have undergone radical economic and political changes. This will act as a major roadblock for any plan by Pakistan’s ISI to inflame communal sentiments.

Secondly and most importantly, vast majority of Sikhs and Hindus do not want the state’s communal harmony to get disturbed. In the past, both had enormously suffered socially and economically due to the communal tensions created by local and foreign-backed vested interests.

Thirdly, the ruling Akali Dal leadership is expected to go all out to counter any challenge to its political hegemony and will also protect the vast assets the ruling top brass has amassed by (mis)using power and the new corporate culture the foreign trained deputy chief minister Sukhbir Badal has adopted.

The prevailing scenario needs to be seen in the backdrop of the resurgence of Sikh radicals who exploited the emotional upheaval among the Sikhs over defiling of Guru Granth Sahib at a number of places. Last week they organized Sarbat Khalsa near Amritsar in the wake of the incidents of desecration of Guru Granth Sahib. The religious congregation which evoked massive response from the Sikhs agitated by the incidents of Granth Sahib’s desecration, passed resolutions including the one appointing former chief minister Beant Singh’s convicted assassin Jagtar Singh Hawara as Akal Takht jathedar and the other seeking recognition of a sovereign ‘Sikh Nation’. The resolutions were subsequently rejected by the SGPC.

The radicals organising the Sarbhat Khalsa despite the SGPC opposition shows that, given freedom to act, they can beat the Akali Dal in using religion for political ends. This apparently unnerved the Akali leadership.

Three other factors also contributed to the near panic situation created among the Akali leaders by the radicals actions. One was the attendance of the Sarbat Khalsa by an estimated over a lakh of Sikhs. The other was the agitations by farmers, the Akali Dal’s main support base, for the acceptance of their demands. The cotton growers whose crop had been extensively destroyed by whitefly attack but were paid “poor compensation” by the government have been hugely annoyed.

Panicked by the adverse political consequences the radicals activities can have, the government belatedly decided to take action against them. It arrested the Sarbat Khalsa’s main organizers and the three “parallel” Takhts Jathedars announced at the congregation. It will be keenly watched how the common Sikhs react to these developments, particularly the appointment of ‘parallel’ jathedars and their arrest by the government. The top Akali leadership has so far failed to extensively undertake a mass level campaign to counter the radicals actions.

The foregoing scenario needs to be seen in the background of the fact that most of our political parties (barring the Left) including BJP and Akali Dal and even the “secular” Congress never feel shy of misusing religion for their electoral and political objectives. But India’s post-Independence history has been a witness to the fact that such actions not only often prove counterproductive but also encourage forces which socially and communally divide the country. The BJP’s humiliating defeat in Bihar where the party practised the religion-politics mix policy is the latest example.

Punjab’s ruling Akali Dal leadership is likely to be the next victim of the religion-politics mix doctrine. The party supremo chief minister Parkash Singh Badal recently reiterated that his party was committed to pursue the doctrine. He was obviously convinced that it was due to its pursuing this policy which had helped his party to establish an iron-like grip over all the mainstream religious and political wings of the Sikhs like Akali Dal, SGPC and its nomine Sikh clergy. They have used them for promoting their political and electoral objectives.

But the Akali leadership forgets that in a situation conducive for surcharging emotional sentiments, the radicals can outmaneuver them which often results in serious consequences not only for them but also for the country. It was such a situation which had helped Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale’s armed brigade to capture the Golden Temple Complex in 1984 and carry out killings of thousands of innocent Hindus and Sikhs in the state.

The recent developments indicate that the Bhindranwale brand radicals are again trying to become active as indicated by latest resurgence of the hardliners. How the political parties treat the situation will be keenly watched. (IPA Service)