The Akali chief’s statement on the murderous plans of Sant Bhindranwale and his fanatical supporters is an important development. It shows that the cleavage in the Akali Dal has widened to the point where Sant Longowal has found it necessary to join the issue openly with his principal challenger. But essentially he has not “disclosed” anything which has not been common knowledge. For Sant Bhindranwale himself has not kept his plans to organize mass murders of Hindus secret. He has advertised them. In fact, his followers have been implementing his plans, though so far on a kind of a pilot-project basis. Thus, Sant Longowal’s statement raises one question, which is: What are he, other moderate Akali leaders, their supporters and indeed the Sikh community as a whole prepared to do to help the authorities deal with the murderous band headed by Sant Bhindranwale? To put it bluntly, are they at least now prepared to push them out of the Golden Temple? They know that the government has refrained from ordering the police into the temple in order to avoid hurt to the community’s sentiments. They also know that this has enabled Sant Bhindranwale and his assassins to hatch their nefarious plans in safety and that so long as that continues there can be no peace in Punjab and no meaningful discussions between the government and the Akali leadership.
It is not for us to say whether the saner elements in the Dal led by Sant Longowal have been losing out to the fanatics in recent months. But they seem to be behaving as if they are on the defensive. The demand for a separate Sikh personal law and amendment of Article 25 in the Constitution (which does no more than entitle the Sikhs to go to Hindu temples if they so desire) are clearly products of a competition in militancy. But whether on the defensive or not, the saner Akali leaders are under pressure from the extremists and this pressure can ease only if they do not shirk the challenge. There cannot be the slightest doubt that they will be destroyed if they continue to refuse to pick up the gauntlet. Their interests have come to converge with those of the government trying to uphold law and order in the state in the face of heavy odds. They can close their eyes to this reality only at their own and the country’s peril. It is, of course, necessary that the talks between the government and the Akali Dal are resumed and a viable agreement is reached. But the first priority must now be to prevent bands of murderers being unleashed in the state. The government has an obligation to act which it cannot go on evading, however good its reasons. But its task can be greatly facilitated and the risks greatly reduced if the moderate Akali leaders were to cooperate with it by putting the murderers and would be murderers outside the pale of the holiest of the Sikhs’ gurdwaras.