Efforts from different directions are being made to reorganize Sikh politics in Punjab. The emerging political balance was disturbed by a serious setback received by the Sikh underground struggle for Khalistan, This new balance was nurtured by Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and other group leaders during the past one decade. As result, the traditional pro-India Sikh politics represented by Akali groups had been sidelined. But the past one year saw the reversal of the trend and the result of the Jalandhar Lok Sabha election signified the reemergence of the traditional pro-India Akali Dal (Badal). The Badal group could not win the election although it put in its everything, but the group emerged second and polled an overwhelming majority of Sikh votes. The Mann group’s Justice (retd) Ajit Singh Bains polled barely 16000 votes and lost his security deposit, the fact is that the Mann faction on its own had no sizeable mass following. The Sikh mass opinion was broadly polarized between those who supported or sympathized with the underground movement and those who leaned towards Delhi and were eager to return to traditional parliamentary politics. The latter trend was represented by the Badal group after the Longowal faction was thoroughly discredited. The Badal group remained dormant all these years. Its strength was perhaps minimized by militants. The Mann group was just a shadow of the militant underground movement. It lacked a coherent organizational structure which could be different in content than what the Badal group represents. Thus the group was neither here nor there. No wonder, most of the underground leaders never saw eye to eye with Simranjit Singh Mann and his style of politics. Probably the Mann group could never have emerged as a viable force had the Damdami Taksal remained true to the political and religious course adopted by late Sant Jamail Singh Bhindranwale. The group’s withdrawal into “pure religion” paved the way for others to fill the gap, the fact is that the Taksal has lost its moorings and has perhaps been infiltrated by Indian Intelligence agencies more than any other Sikh group. Symbolic of the degeneration was the offer of milk to K.P.S.Gill by the Taksal when he ceremonially inspected the headquarters as a show of victory. He was accompanied by a court journalist (Khushwant Singh) to record the event. But the present leadership of the Taksal is not at all ashamed of the episode. It is perhaps proud of its contact men who made K.P.S.Gill’s visit to the Taksal headquarters possible. It was the role of one of these contact men that had created a public controversy between the Taksal and Simranjit Singh Mann. Baba Thakur Singh’s recent appeal to Mann not to lose heart in the wake of political setback is unlikely to change the situation so long as the Taksal itself remains withdrawn into a shell of inactivity and does not purge the undesirable elements. A powerful militant underground movement alone is capable of rejuvenating the Sikh politics. This however is likely to take some time. Not much was heard after a reported meeting of senior underground leaders held somewhere in Doaba early this month. There is also no proper confirmation of whether such a meeting was held. Whatever the situation, it is hard to imagine the reemergence of a notable over ground movement whether headed by Mann or someone else so long as the militant movement itself remains paralyzed.
Article extracted from this publication >> July 30, 1993
