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Editorial
25 Years: Take Stock Politically
 The company of
long years does have an effect on any political party. For years
now, the Akali Dal's fraternal vice-like embrace with the BJP-RSS
has made it blind to the way the saffron is being seen across civil
society movements in India and abroad. After the humiliating defeat
in the last Lok Sabha elections in India, the BJP-RSS went into a
tizzy like a headless chicken trying to make sense of the world, but
then it became necessary to play out the charade in its longer
version.
Alas, some souls
in the right wing took the charade to be a serious exercise; some
others thought it just the right opportunity to strike at some
rival.
As senior
leaders leaked stories, flung around letters and planted their own
versions of truth, it soon became clear that the BJP will have to
take a call on whether to go with the agenda of hatred, exclusion,
hard-line Hindutva, and Varun Gandhi style of doing sewa of Bharat
Mata by abusing some of the sterling sons of this land simply
because "barre bhayanak naam hote hain in ke Karim Ullah...", or
whether this is the opportune time to wriggle out of the RSS
philosophy of 'Hindustan Mein Rehna Hoga, To Hindu Hit Ko Sehna
Hoga'.
Most of the BJP
allies made clear what they expected of the saffron party. In Bihar,
Nitish Kumar went all out to stress the secular nature of his
politics and even the Bihar BJP face, Deputy CM Sushil Modi minced
no words in telling the party's national executive that the BJP will
have to drop its anti-Muslim stance.
Sudheendra
Kulkarni asked the RSS to buzz off and Brajesh Mishra said the
Nagpur establishment should re-think. This was the time for the
Akali Dal also to make some intervention, but the only statement on
the relationship that came from CM Prakash Singh Badal was that the
SAD-BJP alliance was 'forever.'
 Now that Advani
and company have succeeded in winning this round, after the election
defeat, and made it clear that BJP will remain married to the
Hindutva philosophy, with what face will Akali Dal defend its
continuing fraternal grasp with the BJP?
Which strain of
the BJP's nuanced stance attracts the Akalis? The Cultural
Nationalism? The Right Wing location? The stark version of Hindtva?
Or its low key variety?
For the Badals
who have made it a family trade of sorts to go visiting deras,
performing aartis, bow at Lord Parshuram's temples or participate in
havans and yagnas, these questions carry little meaning. The lack of
scruples frees a man like nothing else.
But in the
defeat of the BJP also lies some lessons for the Akali Dal. The
shock for the BJP lies not in its defeat but in its strong belief in
the run up to the elections that it will not do so badly. The
verdict has forced it to re-think the very fundamentals of its
existence. It is this that should put the fear of God into Akalis.
The tamasha style of politics of sangat darshans will not go a long
way, and history is an unsparing entity. The way the Akali Dal is
corrupting the ethos of the Sikhi spirit and absorbing all the
demerits of a secular polity, the day is not far when circle
jathedars will sit behind closed doors discussing what hit them and
why the sangat has turned its face. Before that happens, it is time
to look inwards, and also judge whom should we be friends with.
Right now, the
party that claims to represent the Sikh panth and that runs the SGPC
is standing on the wrong side of history's forces. The 25th year of
Operation Bluestar is the right occasion for the Akali Dal and the
Sikh quom to take a stock as to who have turned out to be real
friends of the Sikh nation and who have been the eternal traitors.
The Quoms that do not take this call often fail themselves and their
great ideals.
24
June 2009
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