The latest religion-related controversy confronting the state is over the 2003 notification issued by the NDA government debarring Sehajdhari Sikhs from their right to vote in SGPC elections.

The controversy originated during the last week’s hearing of the petitions by the Punjab and Haryana High Court challenging the 2003 notification when the Centre’s senior Advocate-cum-Punjab’s former Advocate-General Harbhagwan Singh informed the High Court about the withdrawal of the notification by the Government of India. As the issue raised a politico-religious storm in Punjab, the Centre said it had not withdrawn the 2003 notification. Harbhagwan Singh later clarified that a stranger had approached him in the court to whisper that there was an urgent message for him from the Union Law ministry. He stepped out of the court to speak over the stranger’s mobile. The caller identified himself as an officer in the Union Law Ministry and told the counsel that the 2003 notification was being withdrawn.

Though the storm over the Sehajdhari Sikhs voting rights has subsided, the controversy exposes the Centre’s mishandling of the sensitive issues. It also raises questions about the Akali and SGPC leaders hypocritical stand on religious issues.

How the Centre has lately bungled on certain issues is shown by its first trying to appease Baba Ram Dev by rushing its three ministers to meet the Yoga Guru at the airport and then arresting him when he was trying to flee from the Ramlila Ground in a woman’s attire and then airlifting him to his Dehradun business hub.

In the second case, the Centre blundered in first arresting Anna Hazare and then releasing the fasting Gandhian and virtually succumbing to his pressure on his Jan Lokpal Bill demand.

It is said corruption has become the religion of the ruling class. The religion has, however, become an instrument the Akali leaders controlling the SGPC use to advance their political interests as is evident from their stand on the Sehajdharis voting rights issue.

Since the inception of the 1925 Sikh Gurdwara Act, Sehajdhari Sikhs had been voting in the SGPC elections. The NDA of which the Akali Dal is a constituent, submitted to the Akali Dal-controlled SGPC’s demand to debar in 2003 the Sehajdhari Sikhs from voting in SGPC elections presumably because the Akali leaders feared that in an unfavourable political environment, Sehajdharis numbering nearly 50 per cent of the 1.22 crore SGPC voters, might help their political adversaries to capture the SGPC.

Under the 1925 Gurdwara Act, a Sehajdhari is who believes in Sikh tenets, has faith in the Guru Granth Sahib and ten Sikh Gurus, does’t consume kutha (halal meet), intoxicants and liquor and can recite the mool mantra (first stanza of Sikh prayer).

That the Akali and SGPC leaders stand on Sehajdharis is self-contradictory is illustrated by the ground realities. For instance, a large number of Sikhs, particularly in Punjab’s rural areas, violate even the criteria laid down for a Sehajdhari for voting in the SGPC elections but are eligible for voting in SGPC elections.

The number of the Sikhs consuming liquor and using drugs has been mounting in Punjab. Ironically, even a number of Akali leaders themselves consume liquor The Punjab government also encourages liquor consumption in order to earn more excise revenue for containing the state’s deepening financial crisis. The drug menace has also been spreading in Punjab forcing the government and the SGPC leaders to take steps to check it.

It is not only the Sehajdharis voting rights issue, the Akali and the SGPC leaders stand on their demand for an All India Gurdwara Act is also self-contradictory. Since the formation of Punjabi Suba, they had been pressing the Government of India for enacting an All India Gurdwara Act for the management of all historical gurudwaras in the country. After its repeated representations, the Centre appointed Justice Harbans Singh Commission to prepare the draft for an All India Gurdwara Act. Justice Harbans Singh submitted the draft to the Centre which circulated it among the States including the Punjab government and the SGPC. But even after the lapse of many years, the Centre has not been conveyed their viewpoints by the SGPC and the Punjab government and also by other states. Two reasons are apparently behind their unexplainable stand.

The Akali-dominated SGPC perhaps fears that, after the enactment of All India Gurdwara Act, the elected members from other states, though their number in the expanded SGPC may not be large, might, in the event of an anti-Akali political environment, help the adversaries of the Akalis to capture SGPC.

The second reason perhaps is the fear of the other States Sikhs that as Punjab’s Jat Sikhs would be in a dominating majority in the expanded SGPC after the enactment of All India Gurdwara Act, they (other States Sikhs) might lose their control over the gurdwaras of their respective states which will then go under the control of the expanded SGPC.

Coming back to the impending September 18 SGPC elections, the Akali Dal is expected to retain its control over the SGPC by securing an overwhelming majority notwithstanding the above controversies. But the Akali and SGPC leaders’ stand on the Sehajdhari Sikhs voting rights might prove costly for the ruling party in the 2012 Assembly elections.

The Akali leadership must be aware of Newton’s Law that “Every action has an equal and opposite reaction”. (IPA Service)