When BJP national president Amit Shah planned a visit to Chandigarh for meeting its oldest ally — Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), little did he realise the possibility of a sharp reaction from them.
Blaming the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) for literally turning a blind eye for four years, senior SAD leaders on Thursday clearly indicated to Shah that the link between his visit and the ensuing lok Sabha polls was not lost on them.
The leaders, including two Akali veterans and Rajya Sabha MPs Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa and Balwinder Singh Bhunder, minced no words to remind the ruling saffron party of the secondary treatment meted out to them in these four years while describing the move to meet the allies a “late step”.
They went on to accuse the saffron party of ignoring the SAD leaders, and also the issues pertaining to the Sikh community and Punjab, including that of exempting the goods and services tax (GST) on the purchases made for langar (community kitchen) at the Golden Temple.
SAD is BJP’s one of the oldest allies and constituent of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). SAD had been associated with the Bharatiya Jana Sangh. Senior Akali leader Balwinder Singh Bhunder said: “In the past four years, BJP has ignored several Sikh issues and Punjab issues…Suddenly, now the BJP think of meeting us…Talk about the issue of justice for the Sikh community after 1984 riots or state’s farmers, or employment to Punjab’s youth, the BJP has not been fair to the SAD leadership.”
Sharing the same view, SAD’s core committee member Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa said that we are amongst the oldest allies of BJP and it has “ignored” Punjab’s issues all this while. “We have apprised the BJP chief of all these issues concerning the Sikh community and Punjab something that have been ignored in the past four years,” he said.
Another senior leader and former state minister Sikander Singh Maluka said that the BJP is “late” in coming for talks with its alliance partners. “It is good that they have decided to listen to the SAD leadership. We welcome Shah and hope that the alliance will do better in the 2019 lok Sabha polls,” said Maluka, who is also the party’s core group member.
Another senior leader, who did not wish to be named, said, “the recent defeats in by-elections across the country and the mounting criticism of the party among all sections have shaken the BJP from its self-importance.
The party, which at one point of time was considering itself of all-powerful, has realized the significance of its alliance partners seeing its dwindling popularity graph and seat share”.
However, SAD president Sukhbir Badal, after the meeting, said that SAD is a permanent member of the NDA and there are no differences between the BJP and SAD and both parties would contest the 2019 lok Sabha elections jointly.
Sukhbir said that no discussion on seat sharing has been held during the meeting.
At the same time, Sukhbir stated that in case there were some conflicts between the two alliance partners, same would be resolved shortly.
BJP senior leader and national vice-president Avinash Rai Khanna made an attempt to term BJP chief Shah’s meeting with SAD as “nothing exceptional”. He said: “BJP is already holding meeting with its allies at Delhi and Amit Shah’s present visit to Chandigarh is not an exception or a late meeting.”
He argued that the NDA, during its rule, had provided more financial aid to the states including Punjab.
In the past, the two alliance partners have shared a bitter-sweet relationship, both in the state and at the national level. Despite that, the decade-old alliance has remained intact.
While the state BJP leaders had earlier accused the SAD for not giving them their due share in the Punjab Cabinet, the Akalis are now sulking for being ignored while also criticizing the BJP for giving them just one seat in the Union Cabinet and that too not a significant one.
Even during their government, SAD leaders usually returned empty handed from the Centre, with many of its leaders openly admitting that the UPA government, under Manmohan Singh gave Punjab much more than the current NDA government.
In the latest, SAD’s Bathinda MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal had threatened to quit if the demand for waiving off GST on purchases for langar at gurdwaras was not met. The government eventually accepted this demand — resulting in a new controversy of sorts.