Punjab: SAD and BJP -- Fighting Alone Under the Same Sky

Punjab is going to vote on June 1 in the seventh and last phase of the polling. After the sixth phase on May 25, key political parties are concentrating all their efforts on Punjab, though there are other states where the polling will occur in the last phase, too.

Punjab offers an altogether different challenge for any analyst attempting to make sense of it. The most important thing about the state is its paradoxical location with regard to elections. If seen from the view of the arithmetic of seats in the Lok Sabha, its outcome is not going to seriously affect any political party. But, at the same time, it is part of the mainstream politics in terms of its frequent presence in the politics of the country. The recent farmers’ struggle could be cited as the latest example where the Prime Minister had to withdraw the three controversial Acts related to agriculture.

To understand the political dynamics of the state at the moment, it is important to examine the two political parties that had been contesting elections in the state together since 1997, and parted ways during the recent farmers’ movement. Let us begin with the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD).

SAD: Going it Alone This Time

The Akalis have a long history of struggle for the Sikh cause and they draw their legitimacy as a panthic party, espousing the cause of the Sikhs at the national level. During the 1990s, the Akalis began to take up the issue of development by sidelining Sikh issues. They have been in power time and again since 1966 through alliances with one or the other party, except Congress.

The Congress has remained SAD’s major opponent in the electoral politics, though the latter have continued to dominate Sikh affairs through their control over the SGPC (Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee). However, they began to lose control over Punjab politics 2017 onward, when the Congress emerged victorious in the state Assembly elections.

Even in the previous Lok Sabha elections in 2019, SAD could secure only two seats. After their loss in the 2022 Assembly elections, with only three MLAs, the Akalis are believed to be a spent force.

This year, the Akalis are contesting their first elections after the death of their charismatic leader, Parkash Singh Badal. They are also contesting alone and in Opposition to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) --  their former alliance partner -- in the face of a major challenge from Congress as well as Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).

The SAD may not be able to perform well during the elections, but they should never be assumed to be a spent force. There is no denying the fact that the Akalis cannot win the Assembly elections and form the government in the state without an alliance, but SAD is a cadre-based party with a strong base in Punjab.

During the present elections, the Akalis’ major slogan is “Punjab Bachao” (Save Punjab) and they have avoided taking up Sikh religious issues forcefully, though one of the major issues in their agenda is the imprisoned Sikhs (Bandi Singhs). Critics also point out that a lot of infighting is going on and many Akali leaders have joined BJP. The Akalis are important as a case study for scholars to understand how SAD performs in the present elections without any alliance.

BJP: Banking on Defectors?

Owing to its national character as well as its being the ruling party at the Centre, BJP draws both academic and political interest for a detailed analysis. It is important to look forward to its future in Punjab which has started with the present Lok Sabha elections. Its candidates in Jalandhar, Ludhiana, and Patiala constituencies have been MPs from other parties. Hans Raj Hans, contesting from Faridkot, was earlier elected from a Delhi constituency.

For the first time, BJP is contesting alone from all the 13 constituencies. Most of the BJP leaders, including its present president, have defected from other parties, particularly Congress and SAD. In a way, the party has made all out efforts to recruit Sikhs to its fold, but despite all this effort. The party is facing serious opposition from farmers who have started protesting against the BJP candidates.

Many leaders are visiting Punjab to participate in election rallies, though most of their efforts are confined to the urban areas. Among others, star campaigners like Narendra Modi and Amit Shah have already made their presence felt. But, it seems Modi forgets what he had said in other states regarding various issues. One of the issues he has been raising is that if the INDIA bloc comes to power, it would abolish caste-based reservation and would introduce religion-based reservation. 

Though the primary focus of Modi is on Muslims, he forgets that Sikhs, who constitute almost 58% of the population of Punjab, are a minority in India. It seems that the PM assumes that the Sikhs in Punjab do not bother about his earlier speeches and also share his anti-Muslim stance. This is not the case. The Sikhs in Punjab have a history as well as mythology of struggles against Muslim rulers, but there is no instance of their being against Muslims as such. The reason is the teaching of their Gurus, who always practised non-discrimination on the basis of religion and caste.

Like his speeches in other states, Modi tends to connect with the people of India as an individual. In West Bengal, he told the crowd that he was either a Bengali in his previous birth or would be born as Bengali in his next birth. In his earlier two visits in 2014 and 2019, he did not make a strong connect with the Sikhs of Punjab, but this time he did try. He said in a speech that he had blood relations with Sikhs. He told the audience that one of the Panj Piaras (Five Cherished of the tenth Guru) was related to him. The event he alluded to occurred on April 13, 1699.

There was a strong reaction among Sikhs and many denounced him for making such an attempt. However, it seems that his speech writers did some digging of the event, as available in the books. According to the Encyclopaedia of Sikhism, edited by Harbans Singh, one of the Panj Piaras was Muhkam Chand from Dwarka, who was a cloth printer. However, any kinship relation with Modi is least probable because of the caste difference.

Much has been written and talked about the accusation of “Urban Naxals” by Modi in his other speech without any effect. Amit Shah targeted the AAP government and the Punjab chief minister, but it does not seem to have any desirable impact among people.

It is difficult for the people of Punjab to forget the farmers’ movement. Both Modi and Shah cannot afford to create any tension between Hindus and Sikhs. In addition, it is important to remember that Punjab does not have a sizeable population of Muslims. In a way, the two leaders seem more like fish out water in the absence of a communal rhetoric in Punjab.   

The author was a professor of sociology at the Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, and former president of the Indian Sociological Society. The views are personal.