Akal Takht strips Parkash Singh Badal of Fakhr-e-Qaum title, orders SAD leadership change

Wheelchair-bound Sukhbir, who had recently fractured his foot, sat with folded hands as Sikh leaders who served as ministers in the Akali government from 2007-17, including those now in the rebel SAD camp, appeared before the clergy.

Thirteen years after it bestowed the title of Panth Rattan Fakhr-e-Qaum (pride of the Sikh community) on then Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal, Akal Takht, the supreme temporal seat of the Sikhs, on Monday revoked its decision and asked the Shiromani Akali Dal working committee to accept his son Sukhbir Singh Badal’s resignation as the SAD chief.

The Sikh clergy pronouncing the punishment on Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leaders, including Sukhbir Singh Badal, from the Akal Takht in the Golden Temple complex, Amritsar, on Monday. (Sameer Sehgal/HT)

Coming down heavily on the Badals, the five high Sikh priests, led by Akal Takht jathedar Giani Raghbir Singh, not only announced the quantum of ‘tankhah (religious punishment for misconduct)’ but also passed political strictures against Sukhbir. The jathedar asked the SAD working committee to accept Sukhbir’s resignation as party chief and constitute a panel to reorganise the party in six months.

The five Sikh high priests, led by Akal Takht jathedar Giani Raghbir Singh reading out the punishment in the Golden Temple complex on Monday. (Sameer Sehgal/HT)

Akal Takht had recently expelled former MLA Virsa Singh Valtoha from the SAD for 10 years, holding him guilty of ‘character assassination’ of Takht jathedars.

SAD patron and patriarch Parkash Singh Badal was posthumously stripped of the title that the Akal Takht had bestowed on him in December 2011 in the Golden Temple complex in recognition of services rendered by him during his long political career. Several Sikh organisations had opposed the move to honour him at that time but then jathedar Giani Gurbachan Singh had stood his ground.

Sukhbir was declared a ‘tankhaiya’ in August by Akal Takht after he was held guilty of religious misconduct “for mistakes committed by the party when it was in power in Punjab from 2007 to 2017”, including pardoning Sirsa-based Dera Sacha Sauda head Gurmeet Ram Rahim in 2015 that triggered clashes between Dera followers and Sikhs in parts of Punjab.

The SAD’s political fortunes have plummeted since 2017.

Former deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal listens with hands folded, while other Akali Dal leaders listen to the punishments being pronounced by the Akal Takht jathedar, Giani Raghbir Singh, on Monday. (Sameer Sehgal/HT)

On November 16, Sukhbir had resigned as the SAD president, but the party’s working committee had not accepted it and instead kept the decision pending.

During Monday’s meeting, Sukhbir, who had recently fractured his foot in the Golden Temple complex, arrived on a wheelchair and sat with folded hands as Sikh leaders who served as ministers in the Akali government from 2007-17, including those now in the rebel camp, appeared before the clergy.

Meanwhile, on Giani Raghbir Singh’s directions, former Akal Takht jathedar Giani Gurbachan Singh, former Takht Damdama Sahib jathedar Giani Gurmukh Singh and former Takht Patna Sahib jathedar Giani Iqbal Singh have sent their clarifications over granting pardon to dera chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim in the case of imitating Guru Gobind Singh. These ex-jathedars were part of the Sikh clergy that pardoned Ram Rahim in 2015, inviting a huge backlash. Besides, members of the then executive committee of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) were also summoned. The gurdwara body got advertisements worth ₹90 lakh published in newspapers to justify the pardon.