SUKHBIR STARES AT AN ABYSS

SUKHBIR CAN'T DO ANY POLITICAL ACTIVITY TILL HE DOES TANKHA (PUNISHMENT), WHICH AKAL TAKHT IS YET TO ANNOUNCE. THE DELAY IS NOT HELPING AT ALL

- Anilesh S. Mahajan

In the end, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) chief Sukhbir Badal had to quit. Amid mounting pressure from factions within the party and the Sikh clergy, the former deputy chief minister of Punjab ended his 16-year-old reign as party president on November 16. He still faces tankha, or punishment for religious misconduct within Sikhism—the outcome of a complex interplay between politics and the spiritual realm, in which a crisis of credibility bleeds both ways. It all started on August 30 when Akal Takht jathedar Raghubir Singh presided over a meeting of the high priests of all five takhts (seats) of Sikhism in India to declare Sukhbir tankhaiya, or marked for punishment, for alleged misdemeanours during the party's 2007-17 run in power. They stopped short of declaring the tankha—but with even outright excommunication within the realm of possibility, it damaged Sukhbir's credibility. He met the Akal Takht high priest on November 15, but that could not stave off his political defrocking.

The resignation now paves the way for the election of a new party chief (no one other than the Badals have headed the party in the past three decades or so). In 2008, Sukhbir's father and six-time CM, the late Parkash Singh Badal, had passed on the baton after 13 years to him. The SAD is now likely to get a new chief at the annual convention in December. The anti-Badal camp has already issued a warning that any bid to reinstate Sukhbir at the helm will not be tolerated. On November 10, the latter had taken to task new Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) chief Harjinder Singh Dhami for arranging a meeting between SAD working president Balwinder Singh Bhunder and Raghubir Singh to resolve the tankhaiya issue.