Behind Dera-Sikh clash, the shadowboxing

Salabatpura is today a fortress. You must go past several barricades manned by Punjab Police and paramilitary forces to get to its boundary walls decorated with the trademark Dera paintings of deer prancing among trees and flowers — designed by the chief himself. Once inside, there is a palpable sense of siege.

The Sant or “Pitaji” has done no wrong, claim the men and women in the 2000 or so-strong crowd, resting under a vast shed in between tending to the abundant vegetables and fruit growing in the fields. He wasn’t trying to imitate the guru — the colour of his garment was pink not blue, and it was roohafza and water, not amrit. So why should Dera supporters feel insecure to step outside the gates while those who flash swords can move about freely?

About 2 km from the Dera, a group of kirpan-wielding nihangs also chafe at the security restrictions that prevent them from going nearer to their target, the Dera. The motley group of about 20 men, clearly past their prime, has homed in from nearby villages into a makeshift tent off the highway.

The heightened state of agitation maintained by this small group of mostly old men camping on the roadside is not menacing, almost poignant. It seems out of place in today’s Punjab, where a more political shadow-boxing has taken centrestage. Talk to Sacha Sauda supporters in scattered prayer halls en route from Chandigarh to Bathinda and they insist that the unprecedented diktat to all Dera followers to vote Congress in the recent Assembly election — which many claim lies at the core of the current confrontation — was not their chief’s call. But a decision taken by the Dera’s “political wing”, acting independently or by the “sangat” collectively.

On the other side, Akali leaders in Chandigarh sidestep questions of the unconstitutionality of the Akal Takht’s edict to get the Deras vacated by May 27, and the government’s strategic silence on the matter, by denying that the edict is addressed to the government in the first place. So who must get the Deras closed? And what will be the consequences of non-compliance? A march has been scheduled by Akal Takht from Fatehgarh Sahib to Chandigarh on May 31 and a decision will be taken then, is all that anyone will say.

The clash is arguably about Akali Dal versus Congress. But it also reflects the inability of organised Sikhism as an increasingly “monolithic” religion to adapt to the aspirations and needs of the people in a changing world, says Sukhdev Singh, who teaches in Panjab University and who has tracked the Sacha Sauda phenomenon in Sirsa for 18 years. “While the world becomes more multi-cultural, Sikhism is narrowing under the SGPC”.

There is a history of tension and conflict between Sikhs and the Deras — for instance, the recurring clash with Baba Ashutosh followers at Noor Mahal and with supporters of Baba Piara Singh Bhaniarawalla near Ropar in 1998.

But the battle may not be wholly either Akali Dal versus Congress or Derawad versus organized Sikhism, warn others. There is a third party to this conflict: the so-called radicals or “fringe elements”, who might seize the initiative.

The ruling party is mindful of this, says Manpreet Badal, finance minister in the Akali government, in Chandigarh. “We have decided that our cadres must lead from the front in the protest march on May 31st, we will not allow the fringe elements to take over again.”

But these “radicals” and “fringe elements” are also a fuzzy and changeable invocation in Punjab today. Akali leaders in Chandigarh use it to underline their own indispensability in the present juncture. In Bathinda, Baljit Singh Dadoowal, who is himself seen as a hardliner, also warns that “anything can happen” by some undefined unorganised others, if “Sikh anger” is not assuaged.