WHY BADAL GOVT IS WORRIED OVER TODAY’S AMRITSAR CONGREGATION
Tuesday, 10/11/2015
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Faced with an unprecedented crisis, the Badal government is nervously watching the so-called ‘Sarbat Khalsa’ called at Amritsar on Tuesday by a clutch of Sikh radicals out to capitalise on the public anger against the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD). The way the ‘Panthic show’ pans out amidst a tensed-up situation will have repercussions for the Sikh politics and Punjab. CHITLEEN K SETHI dissects the upheaval and lists out the Akali dispensation’s chief worries:
LAW AND ORDER
This is the immediate and most critical concern of the state already convulsed by month-long simmering tension. Fire-spewing radicals may use the Amritsar gathering to ignite confrontation and even try to march to the Golden Temple. Paramilitary forces have been called out.
HARDLINERS COME TOGETHER
An array of hardliners, divided and in disarray so far, have suddenly found a cause célèbre and forged a common front against Akalis. At Tuesday’s gathering, they are likely to stitch up a new entity to challenge SAD. Though SAD has managed to wean away Sant Samaj and a section of Sikh leaders who had spearheaded the recent protests, the radicals are counting on the undercurrent of anti-Akali mood among the Sikhs.
UNDERMINING THE SGPC AND AKAL TAKHT
That radicals have gone ahead with their ‘Sarbat Khalsa’ despite opposition from SGPC and Akal Takht shows that both apex Sikh institutions are no longer unquestioned authorities. Radicals would keep the Punjab pot boiling on the religious front. Already, the SGPC-appointed ‘ Panj Pyaras’ are insistent on their decree against Sikh head priests.
CONFUSION IN THE SIKH COMMUNITY
The Amritsar assembly is expected to announce a parallel set of Sikh head priests that may include former or jailed militants. This would only confound and divide the Sikh community. Pressure would mount for the removal of the SGPC-appointed jathedars.
POLITICAL SETBACK
The ‘Sarbat Khalsa’ is essentially an anti-Badal show. Radicals will use the occasion to further dent the Akalis’ standing among the Sikhs. Depending on the crowd it manages to muster, it would set up another political front against Akalis ahead of the 2017 assembly polls.nt’s diversification push. The basmati variety consumes less water, while parmal variety needs flood irrigation.
