Top Sikh religious heads declared Sukhbir Singh Badal ‘Tankhiya (guilty of religious misconduct)’ and asked him to do ‘sewa’, which translates to ‘voluntary service’, which is why the former Deputy Chief Minister has been scrubbing toilets and washing dishes for the last 10 ten days. Welcome to India, where theocracy hides in the folds of democracy.

The ‘punishment’ will continue. On November 9, Sukhbir wore a blue robe and armed with a spear stood guard at the gates of the Takht Damdama Sahib in Talwandi Sabo of Bathinda district. Badal’s punishment tour has so far taken him to several Sikh shrines including Darbar Sahib in Amritsar. And because it is punishment, it cannot be penance.

But, of course, the ‘Gianis’ know best. So, Badal is taking the medicine and hoping that the bitter pill will cleanse him of the charge of religious misconduct. That said, a democracy doesn’t have space for religious punishments. Sukhbir Singh Badal will have to go through the electoral process to be forgiven of governance missteps and wrongdoings.

‘Tankhiya’, however, is religious in nature and the penalty to be paid is in the form of ‘sewa’ at Sikh religious shrines. Govt decisions and govt mistakes overshadowed by religious diktats, however, show how closely governance and religion are linked in the Sikh environment. The non-Sikh can only look on with consternation and be forgiven.

Why should scrubbing toilets, cleaning bathrooms and washing dishes be considered punishment? Are menial jobs punishment postings? Can humiliating a man lead to reforming him? There are people who consider such sorts of punishment of little consequence and value.

If scrubbing toilets and washing dishes are regarded as “punishment”, what about the millions of people who undergo such punishment day in and day out, month after month and year after year, the equivalent of an entire lifetime, to eke out a living, feed the children and keep the home ministry in good humour!

No job, menial or otherwise, can be punishment, or retribution. But if somebody is condemned to scrub toilets and wash dishes, launder other people’s underwear, and not be paid for doing them, then it is punishment. Sukhbir Singh Badal is not getting paid for scrubbing toilets, which means he was not hired to do this “job”, but that it’s a “punishment.”

Then again, how can one man’s job be a punishment for another man? Would the ‘Gianis, the high priests of Sikhs’ condemn Sukhbir Singh Badal to another stint as Deputy Chief Minister and call it ‘punishment’? Nope, none of the white-collar jobs, nor any of the blue-collar jobs are punishment postings.

But cleaning bathrooms, scrubbing toilets, picking garbage and sweeping the roads are all “punishment”; even kitchen jobs, like sitting over milk set to boil or rice set to cook, unless somebody is a chef or a ‘cook’ paid to do the cutting, the slicing, the sautéing and the cooking. Then, it wouldn’t be a punishment. Calling punishment ‘religious punishment’ doesn't make a difference.

If Sukhbir Singh Badal is undergoing punishment, standing guard at the gates of a Sikh Gurdwara, there are millions of such sentinels at the entrance gates of millions of buildings, outside office doors and outside homes, all across the world, working as guards and watchmen – the chowkidar!

What sets Sukhbir Singh Badal apart is that he is a leader and leaders don't scrub toilets, unless they're condemned to, which then makes it a punishment. Mahatma Gandhi cleaned toilets at the Tolstoy Farm in South Africa and it was no punishment. But there were also people who wished he had never left South Africa to come to India, hadn't India been punished enough by the White Man?

Five high priests led by Akal Takht Jethedar Raghbir Singh read out the "punishment" to Sukhbir Singh Badal on December 2, who took it without complaint. The alternative could be only more punishment. Sukhbir Singh Badal was ordered to step down from the post of President of the Shiromani Akali Dal by the Akal Takht before he was declared a ‘Tankhaiya (guilty of religious misconduct)’ for acts committed during his party’s years in office ruling Punjab.

This went to show the power of religion and religious diktats in Sikh affairs. Sukhbir Singh Badal performed the “sewadar” duties assigned to him as “religious punishment” without complaint. What sorts of administrative misconducts angered the Sikh high clergy is a matter of speculation. In the Indian setting, it is the people who elect governments and then forget, and forgive!

The Constitution of India doesn’t give recognition to religious or social bodies or give them the power to condemn, and punish. Is the Akal Takht similar to a Khap Panchayat, suffice to say that the Indian subcontinent is a complex collage of the curious and the questionable and that nothing much can be done about it, except hope that change will come, and come of its own.

In fact, change almost came when, despite the Z+ security assigned to him, Sukhbir Singh Badal became the target of a brazen assassination attempt at the Darbar Sahib in Amritsar while taking the religious punishment doled out to him. Badal survived the bullet and continued to do “sewa”.

Apart from being a 'tankhaiya', Badal also took decisions during his tenure as Punjab’s Deputy Chief Minister that harmed “Sikh interests”. Also, with “roop and swaroop” the flavour of the season, some Badal decisions harmed the image of 'Panthak Swaroop', according to Giani Raghbir Singh. Sukhbir Singh Badal did “voluntary service” at the Golden Temple including washing utensils, and cleaning footwear.

Badal did all this while wheelchair-bound because of a fractured leg. "I accept the verdict of the Akal Takht. I will complete my penance as directed," he had said, accepting that his “mistakes” and his “decisions” as Punjab’s Deputy Chief Minister had undermined Sikh values. Other members of his ministry were not spared by the Sikh clergy.

The five high priests, while asking Sukhbir Singh Badal to step down from the Shiromani Akali Dal President’s post, also revoked the “Fakhar-e-Quam” title that had been awarded to Sukhbir Singh’s father, the late Prakash Singh Badal, who was a Chief Minister of Punjab.

Is the Akal Takht a Damocles Sword? Are Punjab governments always under the scrutiny of this body of high priests? Or is it only a government of the Shiromani Akali Dal, which comes under the purview of the Akal Takht? The Akal Takht has asked the ministers who served with Sukhbir Singh Badal from 2007 to 2017 to submit written explanations within 15 days before the Akal Takht. Nobody dare oppose this diktat. An order for 'sewa' from the Akal Takht is an order from the Almighty. (IPA Service)