Turf for Track II

THE political debate in Punjab these days is generously punctuated with terms like kidnappings, horse-trading, arrests, false cases and cons...

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THE political debate in Punjab these days is generously punctuated with terms like kidnappings, horse-trading, arrests, false cases and conspiracies. You’re right: Elections are around the corner, and the common aim is the control of the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) and Sikh gurdwaras.

Ostensibly a purely religious body, the SGPC has become legitimate turf for the Track II politics of both Akalis and Congressmen ahead of the November 12 organisational elections that pundits dub a do-or-die battle for former CM Parkash Singh Badal.

While the faces in Akali polity haven’t changed — Badal, Gurcharan Singh Tohra and Jagdev Singh Talwandi were the maximum-recall names when many of today’s political analysts were in grammar school — the induction of CM Amarinder Singh in the state’s polity resurrects memories of the pre-Independence efforts of Amarinder’s grandfather Bhupinder Singh, Maharaja of Patiala, to end the stranglehold of Akalis on the SGPC.

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Tohra lorded over the SGPC for 25 years, always with an eye on the CM’s chair, while Badal never stopped dreaming of being the supremo of both political and religious domains. The clash saw Badal evicting Tohra from the party and the SGPC in 1999; now, out of power, he is trying to fend off a vengeful Tohra.

Ironically, the SGPC was formed in 1925 after a long, and at times bloody, struggle to keep the Raj out of gurdwara and Sikh affairs. The opposition Akali Dal is trying to weave a similar idiom into current politics, claiming that the Congress is meddling in Sikh affairs by helping its adversaries Tohra and Ravi Inder Singh — a close confidante of Amarinder — to upstage Badal in the upcoming SGPC polls. Amarinder, though, has stated umpteen times that his government is not interested in the SGPC.

The higher the stakes, the more complex the intrigue. Of the 176 SGPC members, one will be elected the president of the body. Badal’s Akali Dal is widely known to have the backing of over 100 members. To a disinterested analyst, the result would be hardly a mystery, but Badal is known to have spirited ‘his’ SGPC members away from the Tohra-Ravi duo.

But why is control of SGPC so crucial for Punjab politicians? The answer lies partially in the genesis of SGPC. Since the SGPC was formed after a long agitation, it has always symbolised autonomy for Sikhs, the core constituency of Akalis which the Congress is now threatening to erode. ‘‘Once Badal loses control over SGPC, his days could be numbered,’’ said well-known Sikhism scholar Gurtej Singh.

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Then there’s the resources: The Rs 150 crore-plus budget is tempting for any political group. As crucial are general elections to the SGPC, when the Sikh community at large will be able to vote for members to the committee. ‘‘And this could very well happen during Amarin-der’s reign, not a very palatable idea for Badal,’’ says Gurtej Singh.