CHANDIGARH: As a trained physician Dr Sohan Singh is aware of the efficacy of shock treatment of patients under certain conditions. If the physician turned militant thinks he could fruitfully apply the formula to politics he is perhaps in for a shock.
The aim of the Panthic Committee in issuing a strongly worded statement of August 20 evidently was to administer shock to the Akali Dal-(M) rather than to condemn and disown the organisation and its leader Simranjit Singh Mann. Under the impact of the statement Mann resigned but, as was to be expected, he was persuaded by his party colleagues to withdraw the resignation. There were moments of drama. But the political situation remains practically unchanged. Mann has staged a comeback as President of Akali Dal (M) and everybody else is as entrenched in the party as ever.
A crucial issue thrown up by the militants through their famous statement is whether an over ground movement in sympathy with the underground movement could subsist or not. The militants appear to be getting increasingly convinced of the need for an over ground movement hand in hand with the underground movement. That is the lesson they evidently learnt from the experience of certain militant leaders of Gurdaspur and Amnitsar districts who became popular with the masses while carrying on their sovereignty movement. The underlying idea of the statement was to make Akali Dal (M) sit up and think and to give up what was incompatible with the requirements of the revolutionary Sikh movement.
The militants did not criticise Mann personally either in their statement of August 20 or in their subsequent explanatory statement of August 23. They, however, did not take kindly to most of Mann’s colleagues in the party. All in all, the militants appear to be impatient with the political culture of the Akali Dal (M) and its leadership in totality. Their apprehension is that the Mann Dal is working only for political power. Once it is in power the party will train its guns at the militants in the same way as the Akali Dal (L) did in 1985-86.
Instead of heading the militant’s advice, the Mann Akali Dal became restive and used language typical of old Akalis, describing the militant’s statement as “baseless, mischievous and politically motivated. In fact, senior Vice President Tarlok Singh went to the extent of dubbing Dr Sohan Singh as an agent of the Centre. The President of the Akali Dal (M)‘s Patiala district unit also described the “attack on Mann” by the Panthic Committee as from “agents of the Centre”.
The reaction of the Akali Dal (M) working committee reminds one of the days of the tussle between Sant Jamail Singh Bhindranwale and Sant Harchand Singh Longowal. The latter would invariably call Sant Bhindranwale as “Centre’s agent”. It is altogether another matter that Sant Longowal played the kind of role that Delhi is proud of him even today. And it was left to the other Sant to bear the Government of India’s ire.
Thus the political culture as revealed by the Dal (M) working committee is bound to be viewed by the militants as is no way better than the political culture of the traditional Akalis. No wonder, all militants, irrespective of their differences, are not delighted at the political stance of the Dal (M) and its leadership. Thus the Panthic Committee (Wassan Singh Zafarwal) has also hit out at the Dal (M) when it says that Akali Dal factions have no constructive contribution to their credit to carry forward the struggle launched by Sant Bhindranwale. The Panthic Committee further says that Mann’s resignation as chief of his Dal will neither harm nor benefit the struggle. As for his sacrifices, the committee says, there are numerous other Sikhs who have been more humble and have made more sacrifices than Mann.
While the Panthic Committee (Zaffarwal) statement may be correct, the point to be noted and answered is: does an over ground movement in sympathy with the underground movement have a role to play? If so, what are its parameters? Have the militants ever bothered to fix such parameters and have conveyed their views to Mann? In short, what should be the programs, policies and agenda for the overgournd movement in the given Punjab situation?
Of course, Dal (M) is without any Constitution, programs, policy or agenda. The only document the Dal (M) prepared has been a memorandum to the Prime Minister. But the memorandum cannot be regarded as the party’s for it is the long letter Mann has written to Lok Sabha Speaker Rabi Ray on the sword issue. The difficulty is that while Dal (M) claims itself to be a party and considering the amount of the public support no one can controvert the claim, it is without a sense of direction, the so called working committee consists of men with old, hopeless Akali culture. The reaction of the working committee to Mann’s resignation fully bears out the culture of the Dal (M). The bigger question, however, is that the Panthic Committees have not bothered to give any serious, coherent guidelines except on the SYL canal issue to the Dal (M) or any other over ground movement.
Article extracted from this publication >> August 31, 1990
