Opportunity for SAD

UNDER fire from the Akal Takht as well as Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) rebels, Sukhbir Singh Badal has finally stepped down as the party president. His resignation has ostensibly paved the way for the election of the new SAD chief, but it remains to be seen whether that exercise would be democratic or not. Sukhbir’s position became untenable after the Akal Takht, the supreme temporal seat of the Sikhs, declared him ‘tankhaiya’ in August for ‘mistakes’ committed by the party and its government from 2007 to 2017. He had already been on a weak wicket over the SAD’s dismal show in successive Assembly and parliamentary elections.

The Badals have maintained a vice-like grip on the SAD for almost three decades. Five-time Punjab CM Parkash Singh Badal admirably strengthened the party, taking everyone along, but he could not prevent things from spinning out of control in his final years. The sacrilege incidents and the Behbal Kalan police firing in 2015 were a blot on his illustrious career. After the senior Badal’s death in April 2023, his son Sukhbir has been struggling to control rebellion and establish himself as a leader in his own right. The present situation begs a few obvious questions: Will the party elect a non-Badal chief? Will he/she be a Badal loyalist or someone from the rebel camp? And will the new president be able to give the party a new lease of life?

The SAD, one of India’s oldest political parties, finds itself at a crossroads today. It will have to take tough decisions to regain the trust of the people, particularly Sikhs and farmers. The upcoming party election will be reduced to a sham if the Badal family manages to remain in the saddle directly or indirectly. The party must decide whether it wants to go the Congress way — the Gandhis continue to call the shots even though Mallikarjun Kharge is the party chief — or chart an entirely new course.