The leadership of the regional party Shiromani Akali Dal, representing the Sikh community, has been playing a leading role for Punjab and the Panth in voicing national-level concerns, especially those related to federal politics. The tragedy is that like many other regional parties, the dominance of one family, namely the Badals, had been established within the Shiromani Akali Dal for the past few years and it has succumbed to internal conflicts and factionalism, suffering and proving guilty of going against the interests of the Panth.
The biggest flaw in the Badal Akali leadership was that it made the Akali Dal president and the candidate for the Chief Minister of Punjab one, meaning that the Akali Dal president would be the Chief Minister. It removed the crux of the matter from politics. And turned the Akali Dal from a Panth into a Punjabi party. Although the Khalsa Panth is associated with the narrative of Punjab, Punjabi and Punjabiyat, and with the welfare of all, and not with communalism and tribalism like other religions. But the liberal and biased scholars of the Badal Akali Dal gave the Badal leadership wrong advice and made it separate from the Sikh Panth.
Now the Badal Akali leadership has no future. But to limit their crimes to religious punishment, they are resorting to the method of intimidation and coercion and are entangling themselves with the Akal Takht Sahib so that a decision is made in our favor. Sukhbir Singh Badal should only be given a religious punishment. The Badal Akali leadership wants to run the Akal Takht Sahib as per their orders as before. The question here is whether the Akal Takht Sahib is answerable to the Badal family or to the Sikh Panth. On one hand, they say that the Akal Takht is supreme, we will obey every order. They carry their accusations in their pockets. On the other hand, the Badal Akali leadership has waged a war against the Akal Takht Sahib so that decisions are made according to our wishes.
