The Congress is believed to have included the demand for a separate gurdwara management body to win over the Sikh vote. According to the 2001 census, Sikhs account for about 5.54 per cent of the Haryana’s population.

What is also well known is that Haryana’s Sikh vote has traditionally been mobilised by the SAD(B) for Devi Lal and then his son Om Prakash Chautala’s party. After 1984, the anti-Congress vote headed in that direction even more. By all accounts, the 2005 Assembly elections — also the one in which the Congress manifesto included the demand for a separate gurdwara management body for Haryana — constituted a break in the story. According to a CSDS survey, 50 per cent of the Sikh vote in Haryana went to the Congress in 2004, and only 35 per cent to Chautala’s INLD.

Now, Hooda is keeping mum about the Ad Hoc Haryana Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee’s (HSGPC) demand, while, officially, the Punjab Congress is also keeping quiet.

But the Akalis are not holding their fire. They locked horns with the HSGPC (ad hoc) on the facts: in the SAD(B) version, from 2003-2008, the SGPC got Rs 14,63,29,449 from all the Haryana gurdwaras and spent Rs 27,88,79,000 in the state — nearly double the amount collected. They also emphasise the body’s ‘national’ character. “The SGPC represents the entire Sikh community,” says SGPC chief Avtar Singh Makkar.

They also blame the controversy on the Congress: “The Congress has a history of trying to weaken the  Akalis” says Parkash Singh Badal, Punjab Chief Minister. “Today it is a separate body for Haryana, tomorrow it could be separate bodies for the Majha, Doab, Malwa.” says Sukhbir Singh Badal, president of SAD(B).

They invoke a proud history — of the gurdwara reform movement that led to the SGPC’s, “the only body of its kind in India and the world”.   

This is a story of the growing centrality of the gurdwara in the community — the simple dharamsaal of the 16th and 17th centuries, which apart from being a religious centre, was a community hub and panchayatghar.

It is a saga of sacrifice by the panth to reclaim the gurdwara. From 1920 to 1925, the Akalis struggled against the mahants and the British government over control of their shrines. Among those arrested at the famous ‘Jaito ka Morcha’ was Jawaharlal Nehru.

The Akalis cite the Nehru-Master Tara Singh Pact of 1959 which decreed that the government would not interfere in the community’s religious affairs and that any amendment of the 1925 Act would only be made with a two-third majority of the SGPC. 

Finally, they invoke Punjab’s past in ways that suggest that the current calm is fragile: “Remember the tensions that flared up over the Dera Sacha Sauda issue,” says Parkash Singh Badal. “Can we take a chance with peace?” asks Harcharan Bains, media adviser to the Punjab CM.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s intervention last month is being seen as the moment when the crisis was defused. In all probability, the Hooda Government will continue not to accept the Chatha Report, the 30-day ultimatum by the HSGPC (Ad Hoc) will pass without event next month. And things will be as they were in both Haryana and Punjab.

The HSGPC (Ad Hoc) issue confirms a wider pattern of the politicisation and regionalisation of religion, says Pramod Kumar, director of the Institute of Development and Communication, Chandigarh. It also plays into a new tension coming to the fore in Punjab. “Ever since the Moga declaration of 1996, there has been a shift in Akali politics — from Sikh to Punjabi identity, from anti-Centrism to cooperative federalism. This is on account of political compulsions and lessons learnt from the terrorism years”. The HSGPC (Ad Hoc) demand could disturb the balancing act in mainstream Akali politics — the recent bill making the Punjabi language compulsory in schools, and the CM’s withdrawal of consent to Central status for Punjab University a few days ago, are markers of this tightrope walk.

This issue could accentuate another slideback, says Rajeev Lochan, who teaches history in Punjab University. “Claiming ‘discrimination’ has become a big strategy for moving forward. Even powerful communities claim they are a minority.” The Akalis have often tried to portray Punjab Sikhs as a community under siege. The HSGPC demand could play into the politics of “minorityisation”.       

In the end, the problem is power, says J S, Grewal, former V-C of GNDU, Amritsar, and director, IIAS, Shimla. “The SGPC has become more and more centralised. It will have to grapple with the challenge of a pan-India framework in which local autonomies are accommodated.”

(The concluding part of a report on the SGPC-HSGPC stand-off.)

Parkash Singh Badal

The Punjab CM has accused Congress of trying to “weaken” the Akalis, and has said that the calm over ‘government interference’ in religious matters is fragile at best.

Bhupinder Singh Hooda

The Haryana CM is now silent about the issue, but it is known that he and the Congress support the movement to give Haryana Sikhs autonomy to manage religious affairs.

Avtar Singh Makkar

The SGPC chief emphasises the “national” character of the apex Sikh body and has said it represents the entire Sikh community beyond Punjab and Haryana.