VIEWPOINT
AMITABH SHUKLA
Worried at its slipping political
base in Haryana ahead of the Assembly polls, a decimated and weakened Congress,
licking its wounds after the humiliation in the Lok Sabha polls, has played one
of the worst kinds of divisive politics in recent memory. Bringing a law for
carving out a separate panel for gurdwaras in the State on the eve of Assembly
polls is hardly a pressing issue of public importance and smacks of a divisive
communal agenda.
Unmindful of the fact that Punjab
is a border State and had to fight a long and bitter battle against Pakistan
sponsored terrorism not long ago, the Congress Government in Haryana did not
even bat an eyelid when it brought a Bill to carve out a separate panel to
manage the gurdwaras in Haryana. No one for sure knows what business Haryana
has to venture into the religious domain, realising well that there would be a
fierce opposition from neighbouring Punjab and a
communal frenzy could be generated due to its folly.
This is exactly what has happened
and more is expected to follow. Intelligence inputs say that the issue has the
potential to create trouble in Punjab as well as Haryana
and a serious law and order situation could be staring the Government in the
face.
Just imagine, for 10 long years,
the Bhupinder Singh Hooda Government was in deep slumber and when Assembly
elections are weeks away, it brought out its election manifesto from the
dustbin and did the unthinkable. In a tearing hurry, a political conclave was
called at Kaithal and a decision taken to pass the Bill. Assembly session is
convened, all Opposition is bulldozed and the Bill having wide ranging regional
ramifications and communal overtones is passed by the Congress Government
unmindful of the fact that it had lost political legitimacy after the defeat in
Lok Sabha polls in the State where it could win only one of the 10 seats.
As it was a well thought out
political move, the Hooda Government did not think twice before sending it to
the Governor Jagannath Pahadia who immediately put his signatures on the
Haryana Sikh Gurdwaras (Management) Bill, 2014. Ironically, the Congress
appointed Governor is to demit his office in just 10 days but as a loyal foot
soldier of the party he hails from, he merely used his pen to sign on the
dotted lines. Where was his discretion when he knew for sure that a storm was
brewing in Punjab and the Sikh community against the
bifurcation of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee? Also, didn’t the
Haryana Chief Minister and Governor know that it was an issue on which wide
ranging consultation from all stakeholders, including the Centre and the Punjab
Government, was required?
But then, why would the
Government bother about such niceties when the entire motive was to get the
Sikh votes in Haryana by all means — fair or foul. Having lost its base in all
sections of society in the run up to the polls, the Congress perhaps thought
that as a last ditch attempt; there was no harm in wooing the Sikhs. It knew
well that that there would be fierce protest all round but vote bank politics
was preferred over wisdom and sagacity.
The move seems to have the
support of the party high command as even the Congress leaders in Punjab
are parroting the lines of their Haryana counterparts, not realising that this
is further polarising the ground situation in the state. The party which claims
to be of left-secular credential has been caught playing the communal card —
the Sikh card.
The entire premise of Central
leadership and Haryana Congress that the Sikhs of Haryana wanted separate
management of gurdwaras is based on a false premise. In the SGPC elections held
almost two years ago, the SAD won a majority of seats in Haryana defeating the
faction which wanted separation of the gurdwaras.
Hooda might have thought that the
issue would help him reap rich political dividends in Haryana and help him make
a dent in the sizeable 7-8 per cent Sikh votes. But it boomeranged. Akal Takht,
the highest temporal seat of the Sikhs ex-communicated three Sikh leaders of
Haryana, considered the brain behind the move. This included State Finance
Minister Harmohinder Singh Chattha. Now the common Sikhs in Haryana perceive
the Bill as “anti-Sikh” as their highest temporal seat excommunicated the three
leaders involved in the exercise. So, Hooda wanted to win over the Sikhs but
now will lose whatever little votes he would have got from the community
otherwise. On the issue, he was too clever by half. You simply cannot have your
cake and eat it too.
Contrarily, the political
situation in Punjab is entirely different from that of
Haryana. There are no elections in Punjab , Assembly
elections are almost three years away so the reaction was not political but
guided by emotional and religious considerations. It touched the raw nerve of
the religio-political outfit which the Shiromani Akali Dal is. Not
surprisingly, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal apparently wept in a
party meeting as he did not want to be seen as a leader presiding over the
bifurcation of a religious body at the fag end of his long political career.
Badal met almost everyone whom he
thought could help him overcome this crisis, including Prime Minister Narendra
Modi. The Home Ministry shot off a letter to the Haryana Chief Secretary and
the Governor’s office seeking withdrawal of the Governor’s assent. Using
specious arguments, Haryana has tried to ward off the issue as of now. “The
court would see whether it is legal or not and deliver its verdict or the
assembly can amend it. As the Governor has already given his assent to the
Bill, he cannot withdraw it after it has become a law,” Haryana Chief Secretary
SC Chaudhary said, ridiculing the
letter received from the union Home Ministry, which he termed as “amusing and
funny”. Badal said Haryana’s decision had created a constitutional crisis and
was “brazen interference in Sikh religious affairs… I am shocked by the
brazenness shown by Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda in confronting
not only the Constitution of India but the entire Khalsa Panth,” he said.
Shiromani Akali Dal in Punjab
has now decided to hold what it called a “massive” Panthic conference of Sikhs
from all over the world at Amritsar
on July 27 to chalk out a strategy following the carving out of a separate body
to manage the gurdwaras in Haryana. The Core Committee of SAD called it “the
assault on Sikh religion, religious institutions and the Sikh Gurdwara Act 1925
by the Congress Government in Haryana headed by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh
Hooda at the behest of the Congress president Sonia Gandhi.”
In what could be the indication
of tough times ahead due to a deliberately created crisis, the Akali Dal said,
“The Khalsa Panth will never tolerate interference in its religious affairs.
Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda is on a disastrous course of
confrontation with the Khalsa Panth. He thinks he can repeat the blunder of the
British Government and hand over the management of sacred shrines to his
favourite Mahants and Masands.”
Here, I may also point out that
Haryana may be well within its right to enact a law it wants for its State and
even in this case, it was entitled to make a law. But the issue is not the
competence of Haryana Vidhan Sabha to make a law or an assault on the federal
structure of the Constitution as Parliamentary Affairs Minister of the State
Randeep Singh Surjewala would like to believe, but the timing of the law and
motive. Also when two States are involved, it was a deliberate act of
provocation as not even a single meeting between the two Chief Ministers of
Haryana and Punjab took place on the issue though they
live a kilometre apart in the joint capital of the two States, Chandigarh .
It was time wisdom prevailed on
both sides and the courts intervened. Let the tempers cool down, let there be a
rethink, let some time pass for the people to judge the issue at hand.
Democracy is all about consultations, evolving a consensus, sitting across the
table and discussion. If both the states cannot do it, leave it for the courts
or the Parliament. But make sure not to surcharge the atmosphere and inflame
communal passions. (July 21, 2014)
http://www.dailypioneer.com/state-editions/chandigarh/2014-07-20-59048.html
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