Chandigarh (The Hawk): The fractured Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), which will celebrate its centennial in 2021, is currently experiencing its worst crisis "structurally, organizationally, and even in terms of ideological leadership" as a result of the mass exodus of leaders, even veterans with grey flowing beards, and the sudden rise of its formerly two-decade-old coalition partner, the BJP, in Punjab.
For the second time in a row, people have rejected it in the most recent surveys. Its parliamentary representation in the 117-member current Assembly was cut from 15 seats in 2017–22 to only three, the smallest amount ever.
The BJP won two seats this time around, down from three in 2017, when it ran in coalition with the Akali Dal.
Under the direction of two-term chief minister Capt. Amarinder Singh, who is seen as a patriot and a highly esteemed Sikh politician, and well-known Hindu figure Sunil Jakhar, the saffron party is deepening its roots in the Sikh-dominated state.
Jakhar and the previous chief minister are both well-known Congressmen who left the grand old party.
Parkash Singh Badal, 94, the patriarch of the Akali Dal and a five-time chief minister, as well as his only son Sukhbir Singh Badal, lost their respective seats in this year's Assembly elections in a humiliating manner. The Akali Dal is now a "one-man governed" organisation.
The results of the state Assembly elections, which took place on March 10, saw the party's worst-ever performance. In actuality, the AAP's rookies defeated all of the Badals and their relatives.
The elderly Badal, despite his defeat, expressed "immense satisfaction and pride" at the party's strong and moral stance taken in an effort to "rescue the besieged peasantry." He is adamant that the farmers' issue is connected to the greater good of the country.
He is frequently cited as saying, "Parties occasionally experience ups and downs. Politics is where it occurs. The Akalis have a long tradition of sticking up for ideals and eschewing the allure of power."
The Akali Dal severed its more than two-decade-long links with the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in September 2020 as a result of stark disagreements over the three contentious farm policies.
In the 2017 Assembly elections, the Congress, which had been out of power in Punjab for ten years (from 2007 to 2017), defeated the Akali Dal-BJP coalition and won 77 seats.
At that time, the elderly Badal had defeated Capt. Amarinder Singh of the Congress by 22,770 votes to win the Assembly elections from Lambi.
Senior Badal, a founding member of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) who calls for the punishment of those responsible for the anti-Sikh riots in Gujarat as well, stated to IANS in a recent interview that he is confident the outstanding and proud legacy of the Akali Dal will be carried forward with aplomb.
One of the BJP's first allies was the Akali Dal. It was one of the first to back the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government in 1996, which served for just 13 days and was the shortest in India's history.
The younger Badal, who was referred to as the "super chief minister" while the party was in power and had economic and agricultural interests, is on his toes to restore the struggling party Akali Dal and stop further flight of leaders.
Known as Kaka-ji, a word used in political circles to describe the sons of Punjab's political elite who are typically spoiled, Sukhbir, 60, served as the industries minister of state in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee administration in 1998–1999. In 2001, he won a seat in the Rajya Sabha.
Harsimrat Kaur Badal, his wife, is bringing up state-specific problems in Parliament. She previously served as the minister of the food processing industry in both Modi-led Central governments. The couple won the parliamentary elections in 2019.
Sukhbir Badal, the party's president, reconstituted a nine-member advisory board this month to help him despite suffering consecutive electoral defeats under his leadership in the 2019 parliamentary elections and the 2022 Assembly polls, both by significant margins, and the recent exodus of veterans like the first woman president of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), Bibi Jagir Kaur.
Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, a Rajya Sabha member, and his legislator son Parminder Singh Dhindsa were expelled earlier in 2020 for openly criticising the SAD's senior leadership.
"The majority of senior leaders favour changing the party's leadership. The party will be updated, they said. Rebel voices are becoming more audible. It is imperative that the party reflect, "a senior party official noted.
It's interesting to note that Manpreet Singh Ayali, a legislator for the Akali Dal, questioned the party for opposing Bibi Jagir Kaur over her alleged connections to the BJP while endorsing Droupadi Murmu for President despite the fact that she was the choice of the NDA government, which has no interest in Sikh issues.
According to Sukhbir Badal's recent pronouncements, the Akali Dal will never stray from its basic pro-Punjab, pro-minority, pro-farmers, and pro-poor platform.
He stated that the party is determined to doing everything possible to ensure that many issues concerning the Sikh community and Punjab come to a logical conclusion.
On the occasion of the 550th Parkash Purb of Guru Nanak Dev, the problem was securing the release of all Sikh detainees whose sentences had been commuted by the Central government, turning Chandigarh over to Punjab, as well as other concerns like maintaining the status of Panjab University.
Harsimrat Kaur Badal raised the alarm in the Lok Sabha this week, warning that the drug mafia-politician connection and the emergence of narco-terrorism under the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) administration in Punjab have the potential to harm not only Punjab but also the entire nation.
She claimed that due to a combination of drug trafficking, the collapse of law and order, the disintegration of peace and communal harmony, and other factors, Punjab is comparable to a flaming volcano and on the verge of civil war, adding that "never has such a situation existed in the state before."
In accordance with Rule 193, she was speaking about the growing danger of illicit narcotics in Parliament.
She claimed that although AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal had pledged to eradicate drugs within 10 days of the 2022 Assembly election, the drug problem had worsened over the previous nine months and was endangering national security as well as destabilising Punjab.
She said that guns and drugs were being transported into Punjab, which resulted in an increase in narco-terrorism and the first RPG strikes in Punjab.
The alliance between the Akali Dal and the BJP (formerly the Jana Sangh) has been dubbed the oldest and most powerful in modern politics.
Since March 27, 1970, when Parkash Singh Badal first became the nation's youngest chief minister, no other alliance has endured as many political conflicts.
The years 1952, 1957, 1962, 1972, 1992, 2002, and 2017 saw seven full terms for the Congress of the state.
In 1997, the Akali Dal created history by being the first non-Congress party to serve a full term in office since Independence. It has since replicated this accomplishment in 2007 and 2012.
(Inputs from Agencies)