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‘SGPC is Run by Akali Dal, What’s
Your Doubt Exactly?’
Sach Kanwal Singh
AMRITSAR: If it
has happened umpteen times in the past, could it be news? Well, it
is news so long as we keep missing the gravity of it all. In a
complete go by to the last vestiges of democratic norms, Punjab’s
ruling Akali Dal which enjoys brute majority in the SGPC asked its
recently-baptized president Sukhbir Singh Badal to choose a
president for the Mini Parliament of the Sikhs.
 Shamelessly, he
did. Instead of raising the traditions of consultations, debate,
democratic discourse and freedom of choice, Sukhbir simply went
ahead and chose not just the president but each of the office
bearers.
When Avtar Singh
Makkar had become president for the first time, a leading English
daily in
Punjab
had written that Falstaff had become the president. Now, Falstaff
seemed to be entrenched in the tragi-comic drama that the annual
SGPC election has become.
Moments after
his election, Makkar The Falstaff had a gift wrapped for the
community which he was quick to reveal: No memorial for the victims
and martyrs of Operation Bluestar, he has not even heard of the
resolution passed by the SGPC, and said there was no such move.
At a time when
the
Surrey
sangat has demonstrated its resolve to prepare the next generation
for governance of gurdwaras and move ahead beyond the luggage of
history and divisiveness,
Punjab’s
Akalis are moving in the reverse direction.
All power is
being concentrated within one family’s fold, and those within the
system have made their peace with the little slice of power and pelf
that the Family has thrown their way.
 So
there were no discordant voices and no one claimed that the right to
free election has been virtually taken away as Avtar Singh Makkar
was nominated (yes, nominated) as the president of the SGPC for the
fourth straight term.
Within minutes,
he paid his share of the tribute to the way the SGPC functions. “The
SGPC decision making is done by the party, our Akali Dal. Whatever
the Akali Dal leadership decides, the SGPC runs as per that. What is
so new about it?” It was not clear whether Makkar was being candid
or innocent, but one thing was. We sure are doomed to live, as the
Chinese say, in interesting times.
Before the SGPC
poll day, the annual ritual was taken over by the son from papa CM.
Akali Dal members of the SGPC got together in
Chandigarh and
authorized Sukhbir Singh Badal to choose them a president for the
SGPC. Earlier, they used to vest all rights in Badal Sr. The power
transition has become a process instead of a one step decision.
Sukhbir was
entrusted with the onerous task within days of getting himself
baptized last September. He did not flinch for a second.
No wonder,
Makkar’s agenda was clear to the world. The Hindustan Times said it
was to “work as per the wishes of SAD president Sukhbir Badal”.
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Earlier, Pardhan Sahibs used to tumble out of a “lifaafa’, and
were never sure till the last moment what Badal Sahib’s
“lifaafa” may reveal, this time Makkar was smug. He knew he was
sitting inside the “lifaafa” and will jump out for the fourth
time. He did. Good you guessed. Too bad we all did. It tells the
state of the community.
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Thanks to the
clarity that Makkar and Sukhbir display, the relationship is easy to
guess for the media. Raghujit Singh Virk from Haryana was elected
senior vice-president, Gurdev Singh Badal junior vice-president and
Sukhdev Singh Bhaur as general secretary.
The committee
also nominated ten Badal loyalist members and an opposition member
to its Executive.
Makkar thanked
Sukhbir, then Badal Sr, then a few other members of the Family and
then thought it fit to thank Akal Purakh also. It seemed quite an
afterthought, and he walked to the Darbar Sahib to bow his head with
cameras panning all around.
There was some
acrimony over issue of a separate SGPC for Haryana and Makkar
displayed a distance of light years from something called humility
when he snubbed opposition SGPC member Jagdish Singh Jhinda.
On his part,
Jhinda did play his card by proposing Karnail Singh Panjoli’s name
for presidentship but Panjoli clearly knew the rules of the party
that he has joined recently. He said Makkar was more competent.
The only element
different this time was that while earlier Pardhan Sahibs used to
tumble out of a “lifaafa’, and were never sure till the last moment
what Badal Sahib’s “lifaafa” may reveal, this time Makkar was smug.
He knew he was sitting inside the “lifaafa” and will jump out for
the fourth time. Kya Chowka Maara hai, Pardhan Jiyo. Guru Bhala Kare.
26 November
2008
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