Rule by hukamnama?

By calling for a bandh today and issuing an ultimatum that all ‘Deras’ be shut by May 27, the Akal Takht has thrown down the gauntlet directly to the Punjab government. Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal worked well last week to quietly ensure an all-party consensus on reducing sectarian tensions in the state. Now with the high priests in Amritsar making it clear that they want to manipulate the disturbances of last week to settle older scores with the Deras, he must make a public utterance that the rule of law will prevail uninterruptedly. He has not made his own task any easier by arrogating to himself the moral authority to actually sit in judgment, as he did on Monday, on the Dera Sacha Sauda chief.

The Centre too bears a responsibility to work with the Punjab government to bring down tensions. There is a lingering feeling that the Sikh clergy’s confrontation with the Dera Sacha Sauda last week was a consequence of political alignments of the recent assembly elections. It is unfortunate that the Congress sought to court the Dera for electoral gains in the Malwa region. It must now make clear that the government it leads in New Delhi is in no way reacting to developments on the basis of that recent history. It is in the interests neither of the Centre nor of the state to keep alive sectarian grudges. The ruling and opposition parties have to reiterate the point that there are no sides to be taken on such ultimatums. Only the rule of law will prevail.

But the high priests of Amritsar would be especially emboldened to indulge in hukamnamas because an Akali-led government is in power in Punjab. Badal has long experience as chief minister; it was on his watch in the late 1970s that the extremism set in in the state. He must know that he gained little as a consequence. Now is the time to redeem himself by benefit of hindsight. The burden of telling the priests that they are way out of line is therefore his. The benefits of a consequent return to normalcy too could be his.