Dera politics has reared its ugly head in Punjab during this Lok Sabha election, adevelopment fraught with dangerous consequences for this border state with a violent past. RadicalSikh organizations in the state have given a call to send suicide squads to eliminate Baba Gurmeet Ram Rahim, the controversial head of the formidable Dera Sacha Sauda, based in Sirsa in Haryana, even as the state police has cracked down on leaders of these organizations and arrested their leaders and cadres in large numbers. Though radicalSikhs led by the Khalsa Action Committee (KAC) and ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) have been at loggerheads with theDera followers since the Dera conflagration in 2007 (when the Dera head enraged conservativeSikhs by allegedly aping the 10th Sikh Guru), the provocation for the current situation is pure politics.
From his ‘Dera’ in Sirsa, Gurmeet Ram Rahim with his 2 crore followers, spread across Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan, has emerged as a powerful political force, and is openly playing politics through its Political Affairs Wing (PAW). TheDera’s PAW has spent the last one month organizing meetings of Dera followers in all 122 blocks of Punjab. The aim is to unite the followers to vote en masse for one party and not allow their votes to be distributed. As Aditya Insaan, theDera’s secretary puts it, "Our only direction to the followers through the PAW, is that their vote should be collective and in the larger interest of theDera. The PAW was formed to address the legitimate social needs of our followers since we were facing persecution fromSikhs in Punjab. All political parties exploit religion for their ends, and we need to use our strength to protect our larger interests."
So, in February 2007, Punjab assembly election the Dera supported the Congress which led to the stunning defeat of SAD in its traditional stronghold of Malwa in Punjab, losing 2/3rd of the seats. Though the Congress lost the assembly election, it decimated the Akalis in Malwa which also holds the crucial Bhatinda parliamentary constituency. The Akalis led by Sukhbir Badal hit back by launching violent action againstDera followers, disrupting their prayer sessions, booking them in false police cases and beating them up whenever possible.