Facing flak from within, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Wednesday received a direct hit after its veteran leader Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa raised a banner of revolt while openly demanding Sukhbir Badal’s resignation as the party president to restore democracy in the party.
SAD’s Rajya Sabha MP, Dhindsa made clear his intent to slug it out with the party’s top leadership “while staying in the party”. At the same time, he dared the party leadership to “expel” him.
“I will protest while staying in the party. I will not resign…If the party wants to expel me, they can do it,” he said after a workers’ meeting, which turned into a “mini rally”, on Wednesday at Sangrur.
Dhindsa also claimed that his son and SAD MLA from Lehra Gaga Parminder Singh Dhindsa is also with him in his fight. Parminder Dhindsa is also the leader of the party’s legislative wing. “Parminder is my son and he will go with me,” said Dhindsa while maintaining that he had no personal fight with anyone but against the way the party is functioning at present.
Notably, Dhindsa has been maintaining a distance with the party leadership since more than a year after he resigned from the party posts in September 2018. It was only on December 14 (Saturday) that he openly came out against the parent Akali Dal by joining its splinter faction, SAD Taksali, to commemorate the 99th foundation day of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD).
With the senior Dhindsa joining the SAD Taksali’s celebrations on December 14, organized in parallel to the SAD (Badal) event, his son Parminder stayed away from both the events. Now, all eyes would be on December 21 as the SAD had given a call for protest dharna in Chief Minister’s home city, Patiala, and Sukhbir has all along been claiming that Parminder stands by him.
Dhindsa, addressing the rally, declared that he was and always be Akali. At the same time, he maintained that there was a dire need to do away with the current leadership which was destroying the party.
“The working style and functioning of the Akali Dal has gone under a major change because of which the reputation of panthic organisations have been affected,” said Dhindsa without naming anyone.
Declaring the recently-held SAD’s presidential election as “undemocratic” and “unconstitutional”, Dhindsa said the “internal democracy has completely finished in SAD”.
Dhindsa maintained that it was just the beginning of the workers’ meeting. “The like-minded parties and organisations would come together and decide on how to celebrate the SAD’s centenary founders’ day and how to further strengthen the Akali Dal,” he added.
After resigning from party posts in September 2018, Dhindsa had also resigned as the Leader of the party in the Rajya Sabha in October, this year.
SAD Taksali came into being just ahead the 2017 state assembly elections with a call to liberate Akali Dal from the control of the Badals and has all along been claiming to be a “real Akali Dal”. Now, Dhindsa has joined hands with the taksali faction which already has the Akali stalwarts former MP Ranjit Singh Brahmpura, former MP Ratan Singh Ajnala, former state Minister Sewa Singh Sekhwan, among others.
Notably, the five-time Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal is maintaining a distance from the party functioning owing to his bad health, and Sukhbir Badal is running the show.
Ahead the 2017 election, SAD passed through its worst ever political crisis with the party’s old guard raising its voice against the functioning of the party’s current “young” leadership, and questioning the party’s role in the Akal Takht pardon to Sirsa-based Dera sect head Ram Rahim Singh, and series of sacrilege incidents. One by one, the traditional Akali leaders left the SAD’s sinking ship.
The Badal father-son duo had ruled Punjab for a decade, until they were ousted by the Congress in 2017. When on a winning spree, everyone appreciated Sukhbir’s election management skill, accrediting a shift from SAD’s style of traditional panthic politics to the one based on development agenda.
But the series of sacrilege incidents and the related firing incidents, coupled with SAD-administered apology to Dera Sacha Sauda chief, had hurt SAD’s image to a large extent, with its own leaders going against the party. Party’s resounding defeat in 2017 polls was also attributed to the same reasons.
At its lowest ebb, the Akali Dal has been trying hard to make its way back among the Sikh masses. Various panthic leaders and organisations, besides the rebel taksali Akalis, have been raising their voice to free SAD from the “clutches of the Badals”.