Tread lightly

SGPC chief Kirpal Singh Badungar’s participation in a Shiromani Akali Dal-led protest against the Congress government in Punjab has raised more than one eyebrow, even inviting criticism from the Akal Takht jathedar, Giani Gurbachan Singh. Various issues that the SGPC president raised were quickly rebutted by Congress leaders, who in turn brought up the question of propriety and attributed political motives to the act. Much is also being read into the rare public disapproval of the SGPC president’s action by the jathedar.

The SGPC and the SAD are intertwined, just as religion and politics are. How they are woven together can have widely varying effects. It led to many political victories against the British in Punjab during the Independence movement; it was also a major factor in the rise of militancy in the 1980s. The SAD, in keeping with the constitutionally mandated requirements, is officially a “secular” political party, while the SGPC is an elected religious body of the Sikhs. The distinction between the two is — and, should always be — clear. 

The president of the SGPC crossed this line by joining the SAD protest. The resultant furore, and the attribution of political motives to the move, has been on expected grounds. The SGPC president is required to maintain a dignified distance from partisan politics. He should not have joined the protest. Even as they keep out of political partisanship, there is much that the SGPC and its chief can do to help the people of Punjab through not only gurdwaras, but also other institutions that they run — schools, colleges, hospitals, et al. As has been amply demonstrated in the past two decades of SAD and Congress rule, the government alone cannot lift the youth of Punjab from the morass of unemployability, unemployment and drug abuse that has bedevilled the state. As a premier Sikh body, the SGPC should increase its focus on providing good education and health services, too, even as it caters to its original mandate of managing gurdwaras, rather than getting dragged into the politicians’ dubious exertions.