With the defeat of the Akali Dal in the 2022 Punjab Assembly elections, new challenges have arisen in front of Sikh politics. Akali Dal is a party derived from the Gurdwara Reform Movement. The Akali Dal was set up in December 1920 to safeguard the functioning of the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC). Till now the Sikh community has been doing its politics mainly through the Akali Dal. In the last 100 years, one Akali faction has been replacing another, but there has never been such an existential crisis of Sikh politics.
The Akali Dal took part in many movements in the early years, which also made international headlines, Guru Ka Bagh and Jaito’s movement were prominent in this, after which a large number of Sikhs joined the Akali Dal. But if we look at the current situation, then it is known that Shiromani Akali Dal is ending in Punjab politics, due to which challenges are also arising in front of Sikh politics. In the 2022 elections, the Akali Dal got only 18% of the votes while the party won only 12 seats. The Akali Dal may have been out of power in 2017, but the party’s alliance got more than 30 per cent votes. Whereas Akali Dal alone got more than 25 per cent votes.
The continuous decline in the vote share of the Akali Dal has also affected the Sikh politics of Punjab because till now the Sikh politics of Punjab has been supported by the Akali Dal. Shri Akal Takht Jathedar Harpreet Singh also expressed concern over the defeat of Akali Dal and said that it is a big challenge for the Sikh community. At the same time, he said that the Sikh community is worried about the defeat of the Akali Dal and all the groups of the Akali Dal should unite and come to the Akal Takht Sahib.
Several fragments of Akali Dal
There were many fragments of Akali Dal in the last 100 years but the politics of Sikhs took place under the banner of Akali Dal. However, the Jathedars of Akal Takht Sahib always played an important role in uniting the Akali Dal so that the political center of the Sikh community remained the same. In the 1960s, there was a dispute over the headship between Master Tara Singh and Sant Fateh Singh, which led to a split in the Akali Dal. In 1985, Punjab Chief Minister Surjit Barnala also formed a new Akali Dal. In 1994, the then Jathedar of Akal Takht Manjit Singh announced the new Akali Dal, which was named Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar). But Parkash Singh Badal refused to accept this and established a new Akali Dal, which was named Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal).
In 1998, when Parkash Singh Badal was the Chief Minister of the state, the controversy arose due to some actions of the then SGPC chief Gurcharan Singh. During his address at Fatehgarh Sahib in December 1998, Parkash Singh Badal said that SGPC is a wing of Shiromani Akali Dal. In 1999 Gurcharan Singh Tohra founded the Sarv Hind Akali Dal. The Sarva Hind Akali Dal did not get success in the 2002 elections and the Akali Dal Badal also had to face defeat in the elections. Then in 2003 Gurcharan Singh merged Sarv Hind Akali Dal with Akali Dal Badal.
The main challenge before Sikh politics in Punjab
As long as Parkash Singh Badal was fully active in politics in Punjab, there was no challenge in front of Sikh politics and he was the biggest leader of Sikhs. But since his son Sukhbir Badal took over the reins of the party, the Akali Dal weakened and Sikh politics also weakened. In order to reduce the dependence on BJP in urban areas in Punjab, Akali Dal tried to weaken the BJP but this bet backfired and caused more damage to the Akali Dal and also broke the alliance with BJP.
In order to monopolize power, the Akali Dal has systematically undermined the Akal Takht and the SGPC, the other two important institutions of Sikh political life, over the past two decades. This resulted in the loss of Sikh votes for the party and weakened Sikh politics.