SGPC purge: What Gobind Longowal's appointment as president says about SAD, Badals and Punjab politics
Longowal, who lost this February's assembly polls from Sunam (Sangrur), was among a group of SAD, AAP and Congress leaders 'excommunicated' for seeking the support of the now convicted Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh.
On November 29, the historic Teja Singh Samundari Hall, at the far end of Amritsar's Golden Temple complex, saw more than the usual intrigue that accompanies annual elections to the executive of the Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC)-the apex committee that controls most Sikh shrines and institutions.
In a move that surprised everyone, the 170-member SGPC general house effected a purge, dropping all but two of the 15-person executive panel, including incumbent president Kirpal Singh Badungar, a long-time loyalist of the Badal clan. Gobind Singh Longowal, foster son of the early 1980s Shiromani Akali Dal president Harchand Singh Longowal, was anointed the new president.
But the 60-year-old Longowal's appointment to head Sikhism's most powerful body could turn out to be problematic. Although he entered politics as an SAD nominee in the post-Punjab Accord assembly polls in 1985 and had served as a minister in the 1997-2002 SAD-BJP government, the new president has virtually no experience of gurudwara affairs. Furthermore, it's the first time in the SGPC's history that a man who was declared 'tankhaiya' (excommunicated) by the Akal Takht (the community's supreme religious seat) jathedar (head priest) has been picked to head the body.
Longowal, who lost this February's assembly polls from Sunam (Sangrur), was among a group of SAD, AAP and Congress leaders 'excommunicated' for seeking the support of the now convicted Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh. This, notably, was despite a prevailing Akal Takht hukumnama (religious edict), forbidding all Sikhs from any contact with the Sacha Sauda.
Interestingly, while jathedar Giani Gurbachan Singh defends Longowal's elevation, claiming he had "apologised and been pardoned", the new SGPC chief now insists he had "never solicited the dera's assistance".
Given the predictable storm, the appointment has fuelled speculation over why the SAD leadership-former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal and son Sukhbir Badal are widely seen as driving the SGPC-picked Longowal. Political analyst Jagtar Singh believes it's a tactical move by the Badals to retain their supremacy in the wake of the assembly poll debacle earlier this year. SAD insiders point to a party core committee meeting in Badal village shortly after the defeat where Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, ex-Union minister and the SAD's face in Sangrur district, reportedly demanded that Sukhbir accept responsibility for the defeat. "Longowal is also from Sangrur and this could be Sukhbir's bid to cut Dhindsa to size," Jagtar Singh says.
But perhaps more than showing potential rebels their place, analysts say that out of power, it was critical for the SAD leadership to have someone "pliable" at the helm of the SGPC. Although the outgoing president, the 75-year-old Kirpal Singh Badungar, is a longstanding Badal loyalist, apparently he had of late begun to grow a spine.