It is reasonably clear that the Sikhs have by and large welcomed the Rajiv-Longowal accord on Punjab. Or else the Akali Dal’s rival organisation, Baba Joginder Singh’s so-called United Akali Dal, would not have found its fortunes at such a low ebb.
It is equally clear that while the Akali leaders would have preferred postponement of the poll in the state, partly in order to be able to sort out their internal differences, they have quickly reconciled themselves to it and are making the necessary preparations.
There can also be little doubt that if the Akalis win, their principal rival, the Congress, would accept the new reality without reservation. Indeed, its leaders in New Delhi might even heave a sigh of relief in the belief, based on the experience of West Bengal where the CPM government has successfully smashed the Naxalites, that the Akalis in power would deal effectively with the extremists and terrorists.
Broadly speaking, the Hindus in Punjab have welcomed the Rajiv-Longowal accord. Since their business has suffered greatly in the past four years, they have been desperate. The character of the government in Chandigarh matters to them but not all that much. For one thing, the administration under Congress ministries has been only marginally less communal than under the Akalis. For another, they have managed to do reasonably well under Akali rule in the past and can hope to do so under another Akali regime so long as it maintains law and order. Thus like the Congress, they too will accept an Akali victory, even if with quiet reservations.
But what if the Akalis lose which they well could if the old electoral arithmetic works, that is, if the Mazhabi Sikhs vote Congress as they have done in the past? Or if on the attainment of their goal of office the Akalis once again fall out among themselves?
There is, of course, a way out. The Akalis have formed coalitions with the Congress, the Jana Sangh and the Janata party and they can once again join hands with some other party or parties to form the government. The Congress may even be prepared to back an Akali ministry from outside as it is doing in the case of the GM Shah government in Jammu and Kashmir.
Issue Confused
But to cite this example is to expose the weakness of the Akali Dal in such an eventuality and to acknowledge that the stability such an arrangement can produce will be precarious.
To avoid misunderstanding, let it be admitted that a comparison between the Akali Dal and Mr. Shah’s breakaway faction would be wholly wrong. The Dal bears comparison between the Akali Dal and Mr. Shah’s breakaway faction would be wholly wrong. The Dal bears comparison with the National Conference itself. The former represents a significant majority of the Sikh population just as the latter represents a significant majority of the Kashmiri Muslims. But this comparison is no help to the Dal because the Sikhs, especially without the Mazhabis, do not enjoy in Punjab the kind of majority which the Muslims enjoy in Jammu and Kashmir and which can assure them a comfortable majority in the state legislature.
This has been the crux of the problem in Punjab since it came into existence in its present unilingual shape in 1966 and there is just no way the Akalis can get around it except the one Bhindranwale tried with such disastrous results for all concerned.
The Akalis have successfully confused this issue. They have been asking for a redefinition of the Centre-state relationship in a manner that would emasculate the Centre and make the states virtually independent entities. But this has not been the issue of contention in Punjab. The issue there has been the inability of the Akalis to get into power on their own through the constitutional-democratic process and retain that power. It defies understanding how this capacity will increase with an increase in the powers of the state government
In our characteristically Indian style, we have consigned the Anandpur Sahib Resolution to the Orwellian memory hole. It is not our intention to take it out of that hole. But we would refer to one aspect relating to the Akali demand that the Sikhs must enjoy pre-eminence in Punjab. For we wish to make the point that this too confuses the real issue. The pre-eminence of the Sikhs in Punjab has been a fact regardless of the label of the party in office. The percentage of senior Sikh officers in every branch of the administration is evidence enough. The problem has been the inability of the Akali Dal to monopolize political power.
Serving A Purpose
The Hindus, including those who have wielded power in New Delhi, incidentally not excluding Mrs. Indira Gandhi, have sought to cope with this problem in the manner they have dealt with similar problems in the past. They have for all practical purposes accepted the Sikhs, without perhaps knowing it, as the new ruling class (Kshatriyas) in the state, since Sardar Pratap Singh Kairon took over as chief minister. But this approach has frequently run into difficulty because the Akalis have not been able to match it in terms of the electoral arithmetic.
In plain terms, the Sikh community’s interests and the Akali Dal’s interests have not converged. Instead the Congress party has served the community’s interests – gladly and without much violence to itself. Its essentially Hindu character and its secular professions have given it the necessary capacity for adjustment. But in the nature of things it could not have served the Akali party’s interests.
In fundamental terms these two contradictions – between the Sikh ‘community’s and the Akali Dal’s interests and between the Congress and the Dal – can at best be papered over temporarily; they cannot be resolved to whatever extent Mr. Rajiv Gandhi may be willing to go in his search for peace in Punjab.
This point is so obvious that it is difficult to believe that it has hardly figured in the discussions on Punjab. But that is a fact. This is a tribute to the Akalis, a number of Sikh intellectuals and their Hindu adversary partners. They have all managed to obscure the truth by raising an irrelevant issue.
The irrelevant issue has been whether or not the Sikhs are Hindus. For they have been accepted as a separate community since the beginning of political life in the country which is what is material in the context in which the question has been raised and pursued. Anyone old enough will recall that “Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and Christians, we are all brothers” was the battlecry of the freedom movement in the twenties, thirties and forties.
It is understandable that the Akalis and their supporters among the Sikh intellectuals should have raised this phoney question in order to be able to raise the slogan of “panth in danger”. They had a purpose to serve. The Hindus who have sought to prove that the Sikhs were Hindus had no similar purpose of their role to serve. They have only been working out their fear psychosis.
Fundamental Conflict
Two points should, however, be made in this connection. First, it is so much nonsense to say either that Sikhism is closer to Islam than to Hinduism or that it represents an attempt at synthesis between the two faiths. Sikhism as Guru Nanak propounded it had nothing to do with Islam. The Guru skirted the challenge Islam is supposed to have posed. It is an open question whether he sought to reform Hinduism as it was then practiced in rural Punjab or to redefine it. But that need not detain us right now.
Secondly and more importantly, in psychological terms the Hindus have needed to convince themselves that if anything the Sikhs were superior Hindus in order to be able to accept them as the new ruling class in Punjab and as favoured people all over the country. The Akalis have denied this self-contrived device to the Hindus in Punjab and the rest of the country. So a new equation has to be worked out. Clearly it cannot be worked out except on the basis of the Constitution which alone provides and can provide a framework for a secular republic in which people of different religious persuasions can hope to live in peace.
As is well known, the Constitution is based on the concept of the individual being the basic constituent of the political order. It does provide for an exception in the case of scheduled castes and tribes. This was an expression of a sense of guilt on the part of the Hindu intelligentsia towards these communities. This sense of guilt has by now worn pretty thin and most Hindus would love to see the special preferences for the scheduled castes and tribes to be abolished.
Such a constitutional scheme cannot in the nature of things be palatable to those who think in terms of religion-based solidarities as the basis of the country’s political order. The Akalis think in those terms just as the Muslim League did in the pre-partition period. The Rajiv-Longowal accord cannot resolve and has not resolved this fundamental conflict between the Constitution and the Akali way of thinking. That is why the question: what if the Akalis lose the forthcoming elections in Punjab?
The Times of India, 31 August 1985