PARLIAMENTARY Affairs minister Madan Lal Khurana was in a self-congratulatory mood last week, having rescued the tottering BJP-SAD alliance by buying time on the Udham Singh Nagar issue. The back-slapping is premature as the truce, dependent on the internal dynamics of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), is likely to prove temporary.
Punjab chief minister Prakash Singh Badal, architect of the alliance, may want the BJP-SAD alliance maintained at all cost—but his colleague and rival, SGPC chief G.S. Tohra, has no such compulsion. Rather the reverse. In the entente over Udham Singh Nagar, the moderate Badal line has prevailed over Tohra's—for now.
At the SAD's working committee meeting, which discussed the question of withdrawing support to the BJP on the Udham Singh Nagar issue, Badal had his way. He reminded the Akalis of the "Punjab, Punjabi, Punjabiat" slogan on which the combine had won the assembly polls and underlined its importance. If the alliance were to break, the message of Hindu-Sikh unity for which it stood would be lost. He convinced the committee that persuasion would serve Akali interests better than confrontation.
Badal's advisors, Rajya Sabha MP Brajinder Singh Hamdard chief among them, had told him that he would play into Tohra's hands if he withdrew support. As a senior BJP leader put it, "without our legislators in Punjab, he would become critically dependent on Tohra", who commands the loyalty of some 16 MLAs. Besides, any move which weakened the BJP government at the Centre would boomerang on the Akalis in Punjab.
A Congress government is the last thing the SAD wants to see at the Centre, particularly in the crucial 300th year of the Khalsa, which is to be celebrated on a gigantic scale in Punjab. Any chief minister would want to take the credit for having overseen the historical event. All the more reason for Badal not to rock the BJP boat. As long as the alliance endures, Badal, as its lynchpin, remains the undisputed leader of the Akalis. Tohra's chief ministerial ambitions are unlikely to be realised in the current set-up. Hence the yawning gulf in the agendas of the two leaders.
The chief minister wants to strengthen the BJP-SAD alliance and extend it to Rajasthan, Delhi and MP where the Akalis have pockets of influence. Negotiations are under way, with the SAD asking for (but unlikely to get) as many as 18 assembly seats in Delhi. He also wants to broaden the SAD's base by projecting it as a party which stands for Hindu-Sikh unity. Left to Badal, the Akalis would put Operation Bluestar, the '84 anti-Sikh riots and the decades of terrorism behind them.
TOHRA has no stake in the alliance, as he has yet to build independent bridges with the BJP central leadership. He would also prefer to position the SAD as a party of Sikhs. As a hardliner, he is insistent on an apology for Operation Bluestar and the '84 riots. Tohra would also like to see the SGPC strengthened—to which end he demands a Rs 1,000 crore compensation for the damages during Bluestar and enactment of an All India Gurudwara Act. The former demand, pending in court, is unlikely to be met.
Badal had little choice but to oppose the inclusion of Udham Singh Nagar in the proposed state of Uttaranchal. Though the wealthy Sikh farmers of the district were assured that the land ceiling act will not be applied to trim their holdings to size, they are insecure at the prospect of being at the mercy of an assembly dominated by the hill people.
As MP and Tohra loyalist Prem Singh Chandumajra pointed out, "all the parties in Punjab are united on the issue". With intense pressure from Tohra and the Congress, Badal had to take up cudgels with the Centre on behalf of Udham Singh Nagar. Besides, the wealthy Sikh farmers of the Terai have always been a source of political and financial support for the Akali Dal. The Udham Singh Nagar lobby was highly visible during the SAD campaign for the assembly polls last year.
Not taking up the issue would've meant sending the message that Badal was incapable of standing up for Sikh rights. Badal's detractors have been pointing out that he sold off his land in Udham Singh Nagar seven months ago and having bailed out, wasn't bothered about those who hadn't.
One of the solutions being considered is for the entire Terai to become part of Uttaranchal. This would mean that its economic integrity would be preserved, as both the agricultural hinterland and the processing mills would be part of the same state. The Terai's economic clout would be maintained and the farmers would have a greater sense of security arising from a louder political voice. The exclusion of Haridwar from Uttaranchal has given the SAD some leverage. Chandumajra observes: "If they can exclude one portion, why not another?"
As the SAD sorted out its internal differences in Chandigarh, Khurana laid the groundwork for the agreement in Delhi. He'd already discussed his scheme for a three-member deliberative panel with Badal and on the morning of the crucial SAD-BJP talks, he roped in Samata Party chief George Fernan-des to head it. Between Badal and Khurana, Tohra was persuaded to come to the capital for the meeting. Khurana sprang his proposal on the SGPC chief just an hour before it was to start, then whisked him off to 7, Race Course Road, before he had time to argue.
At the meeting which featured prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, home minister L.K. Advani, Fernandes, Khurana and Uttar Pradesh chief minister Kalyan Singh besides SAD leaders Badal, Tohra and Surjeet Singh Barnala, it was pointed out that the very fact that the BJP was willing to reconsider its stand showed it was keen to accommodate the Akalis. The decision of the three-member panel comprising Fernandes, Badal and Kalyan Singh would be a political one. "It gives everybody breathing space and room for negotiation," commented Khurana. The decision to limit the panel to three members was deliberate, as more members would have created scope for dissension and confused the issue. Tohra willy-nilly became party to the decision—without any of his demands having been met.
That his nominee, Chandumajra, would become a Union minister had already been conceded. Last week, the MP was accepting congratulations and distributing sweets. "It's a question of a few hours more," he said, only to find that Vajpayee had delayed the expansion of the Cabinet to the winter session of Parliament—by which time the three-man committee would have submitted its report. Badal, who wants his nominee appointed as governor of Rajasthan, did not take up the issue at the meeting.
One section of the SAD has it that the Uttaranchal Bill will never see light of day. And as Punjab finance minister Captain Kanwaljit Singh points out, the question of withdrawing support only arises when the Bill is placed in the House.
On Udham Singh Nagar and other issues, Badal is engaged in a tough balancing act. The Tohra lobby has been harping on the fact that the leverage afforded by the SAD-BJP alliance hasn't yielded any substantial dividends for Punjab. The thorny problems of the SYL and the transfer of Chandigarh show no signs of being resolved.
Badal is also being accused of presiding over a regime no less corrupt than the preceding Congress one. The recent resignation of Punjab advocate general G.S. Grewal, a close associate of Badal, on the grounds that the state government was shielding corrupt officials, has come as a major blow for the chief minister.
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