If there was one clear message from the Punjab Assembly election verdict just three months ago, it was the marginalisation of the extremist fringe in Sikh politics. The state, which witnessed its last major violent incident over a decade ago after several years of bloodbath and misery, did not elect even a single radical candidate.

The Akali Dal faction, led by Simranjit Singh Mann, was wiped out — Mann and his son trounced by huge margins. The Dal Khalsa, which had put up several candidates, got a drubbing. Similar was the case with former militants and ideologues who contested as Independents.

Mann, already under arrest for trying to garland the statue of former chief minister Beant Singh with photographs of his assassin at Jalandhar on Monday, has been trying to stage a comeback. So are others from his party, from the Dal Khalsa and the Damdami Taksal.

It’s no coincidence, therefore, that most of these leaders are in the forefront of the current protests. At Talwandi Sabo today, many of them were able to hijack the agenda from moderate Sikh leaders in their response to the provocative ad depicting the chief of Dera Sacha Sauda, Sant Gurmit Ram Rahim Singh.

The moderates had suggested a 10-day deadline for action against the Dera chief which was later revised to a demand for his arrest within three days. The suggestion to call for a “boycott” of Dera activities was converted to a demand for sealing of all Dera branches across the state. The moderates succeeded only in preventing the more aggressive ones from marching straight to the Dera and attacking it.

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