This is the last chapter of his political life. Parkash Singh Badal brought corruption into even gurdwara affairs and he will be punished by the people and Wahe Guru."
—Former SGPC chief Gurcharan Singh Tohra after his candidate for the post of SGPC president was defeated by Badal's candidate in the elections held in Amritsar on November 12.

Factionalism in Akali politics is as old as the hills but the run-up to last week's elections to the SGPC or the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee saw internal Akali politics enter a new phase. Following the dictum that "my enemy's enemy is my friend", the faction led by Tohra thought nothing about seeking the tacit help of old foe, the Congress, to loosen Badal's stranglehold over the SGPC. No one would have suspected that Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh and Tohra, who once occupied opposite ends of the political spectrum, would actually join hands to oust Badal from the control of the SGPC which manages the affairs of the cash-rich and historical gurdwaras in Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh.

PROVING A POINT: For Badal (left) Badungar's re-election as SGPC chief was a personal victory

In the month before the elections, Amarinder resorted to all possible tricks to keep at bay Badal's supporters in the 176-member SGPC. All of them, elected to the committee during Badal's tenure, still stand solidly behind him. When Amarinder found he could not convince them to shift loyalties, he is said to have resorted to force. There are charges that the chief minister and Tohra used the state police to scare the Badal loyalists into joining the Tohra camp. Manpreet Singh Badal, the former chief minister's nephew, listed 18 SGPC members and their families who were "targeted" by the Government on this issue.

Under the circumstances, the media hype that preceded the poll was no exaggeration. There were fears of violence and Kirpal Singh Badungar, the re-elected SGPC chief, said earlier that he even expected bloodshed. Badal himself threatened to enter Amritsar with 30,000 followers if the Government tried to intimidate his loyalists during voting.

In the end, nothing of the sort happened. The elections were as peaceful as they could be and Badungar defeated Tohra nominee Sant Bir Singh Madhoke by 23 votes. Badal ascribes the peaceful voting to the intervention of Congress President Sonia Gandhi. "She realised that Amarinder's actions were offending the Sikhs and she did not want to lose their votes in the Lok Sabha elections," he says. "Clear instructions were sent to the chief minister to stay out."

LESSER FOE: Tohra thought nothing of turning to the Congress for help

Amarinder, however, outrightly denies any pressure from the party headquarters. "I had myself briefed the Congress president two days before polling day and all she said was that the Government must do nothing to hurt religious sentiments even as it takes all steps to maintain law and order," he says.

Yet another version, which seems more credible, has it that once the Congress leadership realised that neither Tohra nor Amarinder was able to make any dent in the Badal camp, it was felt that the effort to woo defectors was best abandoned.

While the results have once again established Badal's supremacy in Akali and Sikh affairs, the former chief minister himself is not too pleased. Victory has come with the bitter message that his share of votes in the SGPC has gone down from the last elections. Also there are indications that after years of intra-Akali politics, he finally may take steps to bring Tohra back into his fold. That perhaps explains why a day after the results were out, he categorically refused to hurl charges against Tohra despite much prodding by the media. Observers say in the light of the Tohra-Amarinder nexus which could prove ruinous for him in a future election, Badal wants to convince Tohra that aligning with the Congress won't help him; simultaneously, he could also be sending the message to the Sikh masses that Tohra was taking help from a traditional enemy.

AMARINDER SINGH

"Badal has ruined Punjab"

A day after the SGPC elections, Chief Minister Amarinder Singh spoke to special correspondent Rohit Parihar:

Q. There is a view that you joined hands with Gurcharan Singh Tohra to defeat Badal. A. I have never met Tohra after becoming chief minister.

Q. There are charges that you used the police to intimidate Badal loyalists in the SGPC... A. My concern was to maintain peace. The Akalis were likely to clash among themselves. I instructed SSPs to ensure protection to any SGPC member who complained of a threat.

Q. People say you are gunning for Badal. A. I will pursue him on corruption. He and his family have ruined Punjab's economy.

Q. But you have not been able to nail him yet. A. Investigations have reached a conclusive phase. We will be filing cases within a week.

Q. Did Sonia Gandhi pull you up for terrorising SGPC members? A. No. All she told me was that people's religious feelings should not be hurt and that law and order is maintained.

Q. In the end, it is Badal who has emerged victorious... A. It is only the media callling it a massive victory.

The Akalis have for years thrived on an anti-Congress and anti-Centre plank. The Akali Dal (Badal) is a constituent of the National Democratic Alliance at the Centre and as such is in no position to criticise the A.B. Vajpayee regime. But there are indications that Badal plans to revive the anti-Congress platform in a big way. When Singh sent the police in civilian clothes to the Golden Temple complex before the elections, Badal equated the action with Operation Blue Star. Says Pramod Kumar, director of the Chandigarh-based Institute of Developmental Communications: "After putting Badal on the defensive over corruption, Amarinder was on a good wicket. But now he has handed Badal a chance to revive anti-Congressism amongst Sikhs.''

The chief minister remains unnerved. "I prefer overkill to underkill," he says. "Our deployment of forces may have looked excessive but it was needed to prevent a repetition of the 1978 clash in Amritsar between the Akalis and the Nirankaris. That set the state on the course of terrorism for the next 15 years." While Amarinder may be patting himself on the back for the peaceful conduct of the elections, it will be some time before he can sit back and relax. A resolution adopted by the SGPC has decided to summon the chief minister before the Akal Takht for sending the police into the Darbar Sahib. Badal, however, says it is for Amarinder to come forward and tender an apology.

Amarinder, who is sharpening a counter-strategy, is going the whole hog to revive the corruption campaign against Badal. While preliminary investigations into the charges are complete, cases will be filed against the former chief minister within a week. In a state where political tables are turned at a brisk pace, winners and losers tend to exchange places all too frequently.