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Editorial
After the change, Akalis & BJP
 For many years,
Prakash Singh Badal has kept up a strong relationship with the BJP,
and a peculiarly intense friendship with L K Advani ensured that
Akalis were able to ride roughshod over the local BJP leaders in
Punjab.
Along the way,
the Badals lost much respect among the panthic circles, and will be
at pains to stress their credentials when they face the SGPC
elections shortly.
But with the RSS
shadow getting longer and darker over the BJP, the alliance will
come under renewed pressure as the Akali rank and file will find it
difficult to swallow RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat's theory that anyone
who lives in India is a Hindu.
Now that Advani
is past his extended prime, and his protege Sushma Swaraj as Leader
of the Opposition in Lok Sabha will have to look more towards
Bhagwat than to new party president Nitin Gadkari will not make
Badal's task any easier. The fact that Gadkari himself is a hardcore
RSS man will put the Akali Dal-BJP alliance under unprecedented
pressure.
The
friend-philosopher-guide Advani will be no more in a position to
steer the Badals through difficult patches of SAD-BJP relationship.
Friendship with
the Rathyatri has done little credit to Badal, and handshakes with
someone who wants to see whole
India
"Sanghmayee" will only besmirch his reputation more.
Also, since
Gadkari is an organizational man, he will accord much more respect
to the views of his own party leaders in
Punjab.
It is a fact that the BJP is not taking it kindly that it is being
run roughshod by Sukhbir Badal and his men.
Any
protestations of the Badals that the BJP and the RSS were two
separate entities now lie in tatters. The Justice Liberhan
Commission has made it clear that the BJP is an appendage of the RSS
and cannot go outside its command. It is something that not only
Advani has conceded but even the RSS has proven by making sure that
Gadkari replaces Rajnath.
At least the BJP
is now completely Sanghmayee.
It is for
Prakash Singh Badal to decide whether he wants to make the Akali Dal
also "Sanghmayee." Many of course will argue that the party is
already way down that path, thanks to the compromises that the
Badals have been making for decades.
But if indeed
that be the case, what are the other leaders in Akali Dal doing?
Will they be able to face their Sikh voters and ask for support in
SGPC polls?
If anything,
Badals should be learning facts about intra-party democracy from the
BJP. If a leader like Advani can be replaced, if someone like AB
Vajpayee can be made dispensable, why are the Badals so
indispensable?
Clearly, the BJP
is not propagating at least family rule in the party. It still
retains a certain norm of democracy in the party, something the
Akali Dal has denied its leaders who are more than happy to leave
all rights to Sukhbir Singh Badal to select names for Rajya Sabha,
president of SGPC, candidates for Assembly, perhaps even vegetables
for langar. So much so that which village or town will get to
perform sewa at the langar is also decided by Bibi Surinder Kaur
Badal.
It is a pity
that the Badals completely refused to learn the minimum from their
alliance partners. Will the alliance partner learn and shun the
Akalis if the Sikhs decide to teach a lesson to those who are
renegades of Sikh philosophy and culture? Wait for SGPC elections’
aftermath.
23
December 2009
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