“In Punjab, you can’t force your way. Any national party coming here should aim to win the hearts of the people and not the numbers,” Sukhbir Singh Badal told Hindustan Times in his first comments since the breakdown of talks for re-stitching a Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD)-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alliance which had ruptured in 2021 over the now-repealed three farm laws. Both parties have been allies since 1996.

PREMIUM

The move left the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) red-faced. The Kanshi Ram-run party was SAD’s ally at that time and he was furious that SAD did not take them into confidence before stitching ties with BJP. Badal Senior accompanied by Gurcharan Singh Tohra, the then head of the gurdwara body Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), addressed the press and called the alliance with BJP a symbol of Hindu-Sikh unity in Punjab, much needed as the state was emerging from dark days of terrorism at the time. A few months later that year, the SAD-BJP alliance managed a thumping victory in the 1997 state assembly polls winning 93 seats (75 to SAD and 18 to BJP).

The two parties are ideologically different, but both parties derive political strength from their respective dominant religious identities: the BJP from Hinduism and SAD as the protector of Sikh ethos. Both parties complemented each other — the BJP in urban areas and the Akalis in rural Punjab.

Today, the differences seem too vast to bridge.

SAD is seeking the release of Bandhi Singhs (Sikhs detenues) who have been in jail for about 28 years. Then there is the matter of Balwant Singh Rajoana who is on death row for assassinating Punjab’s former CM Beant Singh in 1995. But the saffron party has a very clear stand against terrorism. Rajoana’s execution was stayed in 2012 and his mercy petition has been pending for 12 years.

The matter by raised in Parliament by Bathinda MP Harsimrat Kaur last December. The Union home minister Amit Shah said: “Anyone who is not ready to repent his past actions has no right for mercy”.

SAD is also seeking that radical leader Amritpal Singh who is currently lodged in Assam jail be shifted to a jail near Punjab.

When they were good, they were good

For well over two decades, SAD and BJP enjoyed power in Punjab winning the assembly polls of 1997, 2007 and 2012. BJP MLAs became ministers in the coalition government in Punjab and Akali Dal got a share of the pie when the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government was formed at the Centre in 1998, 1999, 2014 and 2019, with cabinet berths going to SAD leaders like Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, Sukhbir Singh Badal (Badal Junior) and Harsimrat Kaur (Badal Senior’s daughter-in-law) got the cabinet berths (the last quit after the farmers’ protests over the three laws introduced by the government in 2020).

“The two parties are driven by religion but there is a stark contrast between them. The Akalis talk of state’s autonomy, but BJP advocates for a stronger Centre,” said analyst Jagrup Singh Sekhon who headed the political science department of Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar.

Badal Senior called the alliance “inseparable as nails from the flesh,” and the Akalis and BJP leadership would often share the dais at events to showcase the power of the coalition — such as the inauguration of Ranjit Sagar Dam in 2000 when Vajpayee was PM, and in 2019 opening of Kartarpur corridor, where PM Narendra Modi was present.

The exit

SAD’s exit from the NDA was abrupt but necessary. The Sikh party took the side of the farmers protesting against the farm laws that the government had passed, and which they repealed a full year later. What annoyed the BJP was that SAD had a chance to view the draft bills and analyse the possibilities of a backlash in Punjab, which has a predominantly agrarian population. However, SAD failed to sound the alert about the sharp reaction. They hold that the BJP government in the Centre had sprung a surprise by passing the bills without their knowledge.

Later, much to the dismay of SAD, the BJP government in Haryana formed a separate gurdwara body, the Haryana Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee. The Act governing the historic gurdwara in Nanded was amended to make provisions for the nomination of members by the Maharashtra government. Previously, the SGPC had control over all historic gurdwaras in Haryana and had members in the Nanded gurdwara management committee.

With the change in law, the state government will nominate 12 members to the governing body. Earlier, the composition was a mix of elected and nominated members and four Sikh MPs.

The speculation

A few months ago, leaders of the two parties began talking at each other (but never sat on the discussion table to resolve issues) giving rise to speculation that there may be a reconciliation in the works.

SAD demanded the release of Sikh detainees, particularly Balwant Singh Rajoana facing a death sentence for his role in the assassination of former CM Beant Singh and also sought the shifting of Sikh preacher Amritpal Singh to Punjab (he is currently lodged in Assam jail). They also demanded the withdrawal of cases against farmers who protested at the borders of the Capital in 2020-21 against the three farm laws.

Most significantly, they asked that the SGPC be consulted before any decision in matters pertaining to Sikhs such as bifurcation of the SGPC.

SAD is keen to stitch up the alliance, but after the polls were declared and the model code of conduct imposed, the Akalis sensed that no announcement was forthcoming over their demands.

Last week the SAD’s core committee, which is their top decision-making body, passed a resolution hinting that the party might go alone in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. The resolution stated that the party wanted to resolve the issues concerning Punjab and the Sikhs as a prerequisite for an alliance with the saffron party, hinting that “no alliance was possible at this stage.” Two days ago on Monday, BJP president JP Nadda spoke to SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal, and made a last-ditch effort for an alliance but SAD repeated their demands which Nadda didn’t agree to.

On Tuesday, BJP announced it will contest solo in all the 13 parliament seats in Punjab and SAD, on the same day, announced that it would form a manifesto committee to write the party’s agenda for the polls.

“Our pre-conditions for alliance didn’t find favour with them,” Sukhbir said, adding, “Victory or no victory, for us, the prestige of Khalsa Panth and Punjab is more important than power.”

To be sure, the Akali Dal chief acknowledged Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s gestures towards the Sikh community in the last decade, in particular the opening of the Kartarpur Sahib corridor, waiver of GST on the community kitchen in Golden Temple and doing away with the so-called ‘black list’ barring several expatriate Sikhs’ entry to India

“These were good gestures. But, meddling in the Sikh religious affairs is creating resentment in the community. This must stop forthwith,” he said. “Minorities are feeling insecure”.

“It is a missed opportunity for Punjab, Akalis and also the BJP. The people of Punjab felt secure in the alliance,” Amanpreet Singh, professor of the political science department at Khalsa College, Delhi, said.