Sukhbir Badal, other ‘guilty’ Akali leaders reach Akal Takht after completion of ‘tankhah’

After successfully undergoing religious atonement for 10 days, the former Deputy CM and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) chief Sukhbir Singh Badal and other ‘guilty’ Akali leaders paid obeisance at the Akal Takht on Friday.

Heavy police force and SGPC task force have been deployed for security in and around the Golden Temple complex. In another update on the security aspect, the security was being supervised by the police personnel from other districts.

On December 2, five-high priests headed by Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Raghbir Singh pronounced the ‘tankhah’ from the faseel (podium) of the Akal Takht, as the centuries old precedent goes.

The ‘guilty’ Akalis were made to wear a plaque with Gurbani’s inscription pertaining to ‘admittance of guilt’ on their neck.

Sukhbir, other leaders, including SAD working president Balwinder Singh Bhunder and former ministers Gulzar Singh Ranike and Daljit Singh Cheema, performed ‘ardas’ of penance and offered ‘bheta’, ‘degh’ of karah parshad as per the directions of the Akal Takht. Sukhbir was in a wheelchair as he suffered a hairline fracture on his foot.

They were held responsible for the ‘gunah’ (sins), the term used by the five Sikh high priests while punishing him, for taking ‘controversial decisions’ during the SAD’s tenure in alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) between 2007-2017.

Alongwith Sukhbir, the 17 former Sikh Akali ministers during the party’s erstwhile decade- long span, the core committee members or those having the Cabinet rank then, too were equally indicted and admitted the guilt for the ‘mistakes’ as they remained mute spectators and did not initiate to oppose it. This included a group of ‘rebels’ too who also underwent ‘tankhah’.

In compliance of two-day ‘sewa’ at the Golden Temple, on December 3, Sukhbir and Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, adorning blue chola (dress of sewadar) with the same plaque around their neck and holding Barsha (a kind of spear), sat on a wheelchair at the entrance of the Golden Temple. Owing to their health concerns -Sukhbir, with fractured foot and Dhindsa due to old age ailment, were later exempted from cleaning the toilets, unlike the other Akali leaders who undertook the ‘sewa’ as ordered by the Akal Takht.

On December 4, when Sukhbir was undergoing ‘sewa’ for the second consecutive day, an assassination bid was attempted on him by a pro-Khalistan activist Narain Singh Chaura, but the timely intervention of an ASI rank officer Jasbir Singh and his colleagues deputed on his security foiled it. The accused is in police custody. He is to be produced in the court today as the extended three-day remand is to be lapsed today.

Meanwhile, alongwith Sukhbir and Dhindsa, Sucha Singh Langah, Hira Singh Gabhria, Bhunder, Ranike and Cheema underwent the same ‘tankhah’ on the following days, for two days each, at other significant religious, including Takht Sri Keshgarh Sahib in Anandpur Sahib, Takht Sri Damdama Sahib in Bathinda, Darbar Sahib, Sri Muktsar Sahib, and Gurdwara Sri Fatehgarh Sahib.