The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Thursday, June 22, 2000,
Chandigarh, India

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Bid to unite Tohra, Badal
By Gobind Thukral
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, June 21 — The expulsion of Akali MLAs belonging to the Tohra camp and the threat to throw them out of the Assembly notwithstanding, serious efforts are on to unite the two warring factions. Both are now formal parties lead by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and former SGPC President Gurcharan Singh Tohra. But ideology and politics remain the same.

These efforts with some kind of tacit understanding from the two top leaders have been started by some “well-wishers of the Panth”. two months ago some kind of contact was established between the two top leaders but it did not lead to any tangible result. Nevertheless, those who wish to see the Akali leadership united while still in power, have not abandoned their efforts. The expulsion of 11 MLAs on June 12 by Mr Badal has only made them a little more active.

Right now the assessment in both camps is that their infighting would only help the Congress return to power whenever elections are held. The results of the Lok Sabha elections and more recently the Badal camp’s dismal performance during the nagar panchayat and panchayat council elections have made some leaders realise the futility of infighting. Some ministers described as fence-sitters have also been urging the two leaders to forgive and forget and unite. “The message we deliver is unite or perish,” one minister pointed out.

Basically there are two strong opinions available on the issue of unity. Some leaders think that Mr Badal is going on with his predetermined moves. First, he expelled 14 MLAs from the party and now he is threatening to throw them out from the assembly. He has an obliging Speaker to help him. So, how unity efforts could achieve anything worthwhile? Once the Tohra loyalists are pushed to the wall, they would not like to shake hands with Mr Badal. But then there is another view that Mr Badal is threatening this action in order to press for unity at his terms. Losing membership would be a big loss to these MLAs and they may plead with Mr Tohra that unity efforts should be encouraged.

There is another view available in the Tohra camp. The fight has to be outside the legislature. Legislative politics does not provide any answer. “Once we organise conferences, marches and gheraoes and give voice to the people, particularly Sikh peasants, who are thoroughly disenchanted by the poor performance of the Badal government, we could upset Mr Badal’s applecart. Then he would be asking for unity”, a senior former minister of the Tohra camp argued. But this he admitted could be part of the pressure-tactics and meant to unite the two factions. Some beginning, in fact, has been made and conferences have been organised. This strategy was discussed by the Tohra loyalists and Mr Ravi Inder Singh and Mr Mahesh Inder Singh Grewal were of the opinion that they should go to the masses and lead the campaign. This way they could challenge the Congress also.

Thankfully the Akali rank and file are yet not completely divided. The expelled MLAs who Mr Badal earlier tried to win by all means are in touch with some ministers. At the social level also, the meetings continue to take place. In fact, whenever a Tohra loyalist MLA calls for a favour from any minister including the Chief Minister, he rarely gets a no.

“Dispute is within the family”, some ministers maintained. It is also confined to top close circles of the two leaders and has not divided the Akalis down the line. Once the Assembly elections come, the lines would be more clearly marked out. And this scares the leaders. Even if the Tohra loyalists are able to garner 5 to 7 per cent of the total vote, they could end Mr Badal’s dream of returning to power after the next Assembly elections. Also, there are many fence-sitters in the Badal camp. Take the Majha area of Amritsar and Gurdaspur if the Kairons support Mr Badal, the Ranjit Singh Brahmpura camp would side with the Tohra camp and this may happen in doaba and Malwa on a larger scale. Even, Mr Badal’s ambitious son, Mr Sukhbir Singh Badal, is worried about his political prospects ever since he lost the prestigious family Lok Sabha seat of Faridkot.