Chandigarh: More than a month after the Akal Takht, the highest temporal body of the Sikhs, “ordered” the removal of Sukhbir Singh Badal as president of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), the working committee of the party Friday accepted his resignation.
Badal has been the party’s president since 2008, taking over the reins from his father Parkash Singh Badal who was chief minister of Punjab multiple times.
The SAD was created in 1920 during the gurdwara reform movement, a protest movement undertaken by the Sikhs to take over gurdwaras from the private control of mahants. The elder Badal had become the SAD president in 1995 and the party’s presidency has since remained with the Badal family.
“A new president will be elected by the party on 1 March,” said senior SAD leader Daljit Singh Cheema, addressing a press conference Friday following a two-hour meeting of the party’s working committee in Chandigarh under the chairmanship of Balwinder Singh Bhunder.
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Badal, who was also present at the meeting, told mediapersons that he had requested the working committee with folded hands to accept his resignation.
“When I had presented myself before the Akal Takht, I had done so as a humble Sikh and had already given my resignation to the party. Five years ago, the party had handed me this responsibility which I fulfilled to the best of my abilities. The workers of the party and leaders have given me complete support during the period. It is for the party to admit new members and choose a new president,” he said after the meeting.
ਸ਼੍ਰੋਮਣੀ ਅਕਾਲੀ ਦਲ ਦਾ ਹਰ ਇੱਕ ਮੈਂਬਰ ਸ੍ਰੀ ਅਕਾਲ ਤਖ਼ਤ ਸਾਹਿਬ ਦਾ ਤਹਿ ਦਿਲੋਂ ਸਤਿਕਾਰ ਕਰਦਾ ਹੈ।
ਮੈਂ 16 ਨਵੰਬਰ 2024 ਨੂੰ ਪ੍ਰਧਾਨਗੀ ਦੇ ਅਹੁਦੇ ਤੋਂ ਅਸਤੀਫ਼ਾ ਪਾਰਟੀ ਨੂੰ ਸੌਂਪ ਕੇ ਇੱਕ ਨਿਮਾਣੇ ਸਿੱਖ ਵਜੋਂ ਸ੍ਰੀ ਅਕਾਲ ਤਖ਼ਤ ਸਾਹਿਬ ਵਿਖੇ ਪੇਸ਼ ਹੋਇਆ ਸੀ। ਮੇਰੇ ਵੱਲੋਂ ਅਨੇਕਾਂ ਵਾਰ ਬੇਨਤੀ ਕਰਨ ਦੇ ਬਾਵਜੂਦ ਵੀ ਪਾਰਟੀ ਵੱਲੋਂ ਅਸਤੀਫ਼ਾ… pic.twitter.com/0EmlKIsTFC— Sukhbir Singh Badal (@officeofssbadal) January 10, 2025
After months of being under attack from within the SAD, Badal had offered to resign as party chief on 16 November last year but his resignation was not accepted by the working committee then. However, the day-to-day working of the party was being overseen by Bhunder.
Cheema said Bhunder would continue as SAD working president till a new party chief was elected. He said the parliamentary board of the SAD, which is also headed by Bhunder, will oversee the process of fresh membership (part of the process to elect the SAD president), and he himself would help as secretary.
According to Cheema, a fresh membership drive of the party will begin on 28 January and continue till 20 February. He also announced a list of almost two dozen senior leaders who would supervise the membership drive in their assigned areas.
The possibility of Badal being chosen again as president cannot be ruled out in case the delegates chosen from among the entire membership of the party pick him as their leader.
Reacting to Friday’s development, leaders of the rebel group of the SAD led by Gurpartap Singh Wadala issued a statement alleging that the working committee of the party had taken the Sikh community for a ride and acted in a manner that would ensure that Badal was chosen again as president.
Prem Singh Chandumajra, one of the leaders of the rebel faction of the SAD, told mediapersons that the fact that the working committee had accepted the resignation of Badal was in accordance with the orders of the Akal Takht.
“However, there were certain other leaders who had also given their resignations and which also had to be accepted. Working committee has not done that so far,” he said.
The troubles of SAD
Acting on a complaint given by a group of dissenters in the SAD, the Akal Takht had on 30 August last year declared Badal a “tankhaiya” (a sinner, guilty of religious misconduct). The takht had found Badal guilty of taking decisions that led to “severe depletion of the image of the Sikh community, deterioration of the condition of the Shiromani Akali Dal and damaging Sikh interests”.
According to the Akal Takht, these decisions were taken by Badal in his capacity as deputy chief minister of Punjab and SAD president.
On 2 December, the Akal Takht announced a religious punishment for Badal and other Akali leaders, including those in the breakaway camp. The Akal Takht also asked the working committee of the SAD to accept the resignations submitted by various Akali leaders (which included Badal). This virtually meant the Akal Takht ordered Badal’s removal as SAD chief.
The Akal Takht also virtually handed over the reins of the SAD to a six-member committee led by Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) president Harjinder Singh Dhami. The committee, yet to be constituted, has been tasked with starting a fresh membership drive and overseeing the election of a new party president and executive committee.
Badal survived an assassination attempt during the course of his “religious” punishment at the Golden Temple premises in Amritsar, after which the party sought additional time to abide by the other “political” orders.
On 6 January, while talking to mediapersons, Akal Takht jathedar (high priest) Giani Raghbir Singh asserted that the SAD should comply with all the punishments awarded on 2 December. On Wednesday, the SAD leadership met the jathedar and made him aware of the legal hurdles being faced by the party in implementing the directive to form a committee to hold organisational elections.
Cheema told mediapersons after Friday’s meeting that when the SAD was registered as a party, it was mandated that there would not be any religious or caste overtones in the working of the party and that its objectives would be in line with the Constitution of India.
“It is also mandated that all decisions of the party would reflect the democratic spirit and that socialism and secularism would serve as tenets of the party. Any decision taken by the Akal Takht on behalf of the party can lead to cancellation of the SAD’s registration,” he said.
The SAD has been declining electorally since 2017 when it lost power to the Congress in Punjab over the issue of desecration of the Guru Granth Sahib, the holy book of the Sikhs.
Following the party’s poor performance in the parliamentary elections last year, a breakaway section of the SAD called “Akali Dal Sudhar Lehar” demanded Badal’s removal as president, taking the matter to the Akal Takht.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
Also Read: What Sukhbir Singh Badal’s ‘submission’ before Akal Takht means for future of Akali Dal & his family
