Amid talk of SAD, BJP renewing alliance, new disputes emerge

Jalandhar: Political observers still might be seeing the possibility of the Shiromani Akali Dal and BJP coming together again before the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, but new developments are adding to differences between the two parties, with the latest being the appointment of a non-Sikh bureaucrat as the administrator of Takht Hazur Sahib Management Board.
The Maharashtra government, of which BJP is the majority partner, made the appointment.
The pressure of the two parties allying together has grown against the backdrop of opposition parties forming an alliance, INDIA, at the national level.,
The SAD and Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, the largest representative body of Sikhs, have already registered their protest the appointment in the board. The move has also not gone down well with other Sikh circles. Sikh leaders, who are part of BJP, have preferred to stay silent, at least in the public domain.
When SAD MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal spoke in the Lok Sabha on the Delhi Ordinance Bill on August 3, she called the legislation a “farce” and took a dig at the BJP for increasing centralisation and going against the spirit of federalism, even as she went hammer and tongs after the Aam Aadmi Party and Congress. She reminded the BJP of the statement issued on federalism when SAD-BJP came together in 1996. She announced to oppose the bill.
Another recent development which has increased differences between the two are statements by the National Commission for Minorities chairman Iqbal Singh Lalpura, who has referred to corruption in SGPC. He has claimed that he received a complaint about the SGPC purchasing an overpriced house in Anandpur Sahib.
In a statement issued on Monday, Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee former president Paramjit Singh Sarna, who heads Delhi unit of SAD, said there were talks of SAD and BJP possibly joining hands again, but statements by Lalpura would adversely impact such a possibility. He also dared Lalpura to speak about the bankruptcy of DSGMC, which was under a debt of Rs 350 crore and whose educational institutions were collapsing. The present DSGMC management is close to BJP.
At the same time, a couple of other recent incidents have added to apprehensions about the BJP in Sikh circles. Suspension of the OCI card of the first turbaned Sikh UK MP, Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi, and the NIA raid on a Khalsa Aid functionary have come under strong criticism from Sikh circles, including the SAD and the SGPC.
In both SAD and BJP, enquiries have revealed, leaders are concerned about the community going away from the SAD and having strong apprehensions about the BJP.