Breathing fire and brimstone in Punjab

With elections around the corner, the bir burning phenomenon is as much about the pushes and pulls of Akali factional politics as it’s about religious identity, says VANDITA MISHRA

THEY say it all began on September 16 when some agitated Sikh Students Federation activists burnt the Bhavsagar Granth in Ludhiana, Punjab. The Bhavsagar Granth has been authored by the twice excommunicated, thrice married Baba Piara Singh Bhaniara, who calls himself an avtar of satguru and parades his granth as parallel to the holy Sikh scriptures.

That, it is said, triggered the subsequent events: the burning of a copy of the Guru Granth Sahib, respectfully referred to as bir, allegedly by the Baba’s followers in Rasoolpur village near Morinda, about 30 km from Chandigarh; Bhaniara’s arrest and the banning of his granth; the burning of more birs in Fategarh Sahib and Gharuan village. The Akali-Congress blame game and conspiracy theories. Protest rallies and bandh calls. The declaring of five Akali leaders as tankhaiah by the Akal Takht. The swearing in of ‘Marjeevras’ — sacrificial squads — by the Akal Takht, for the first time since 1983, to avenge the desecration. An SGPC probe panel and the SAD-BJP Government’s judicial inquiry. The clamour for ‘‘exemplary punishment’’ for the Baba, his straggly band and all those who ever associated with him and the resignation of Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal.

As the rhetoric gets shriller, harder, Punjab is rife with questions. And tremulous with fears. While sacrilege of scriptures is undoubtedly a heinous crime, can it account for the entire spate of reactions? Did one event lead artlessly into another or is this high voltage drama carefully choreographed for assembly elections next year?

Is Piara Singh the problem, or merely its symptom? Is this really a rewind to 1978, when another baba and his followers had confronted Sikhism, eventually leading to the bloody Sikh-Nirankari clashes? Will the hardliners occupy centrestage once again? Will they hijack, once more, the terms of political debate?

Bhaniara is no isolated phenomenon in Punjab. Motley babas and their deras dot the countryside, many have even achieved minor cult status. The Sikh mainstream has assimilated some of these sects that have come up over the years; others have negotiated independence without violence.

But there are reasons why this particular Baba has stirred up such a storm. ‘‘It’s because of the elections’’, says Gobind Thukral, columnist, who has written extensively on Punjab. ‘‘The Congress and the Akali Dal want to shirk development issues once again. There are photographs to show that senior leaders of both parties have patronised the baba, visited his dera. Even after the birs were burnt, why didn’t the Congress simply condemn the sacrilege and calm tempers? Why has the issue been stoked? It’s all about political one-upmanship’’.

Others point out there is more to what is happening today than just Akali Dal vs Congress on election eve: It is also Akali Dal vs Akali Dal. It is about a faction-ridden Akali Dal and a competitive religiosity, with each faction jostling to emerge as the real protector of Sikhs. In the process, there’s a constant redrawing of religious identity, says Pramod Kumar, Director, Institute of Development and Communication, Chandigarh.

Kumar says it began two years ago with the much-hyped celebrations of the 300 years of the Khalsa. At that time ‘‘a vast reservoir of Sikh identity was activised. This is now feeding the current controversy. Remember the spate of hukumnamas, and the bitter row over the Nanakshahi calendar’’.

In the process, Kumar points out, one of the main tenets of the Moga Declaration that the Shiromani Akali Dal government pledged itself to when it came to power on an avowedly moderate plank four years ago, is being compromised. When the declaration spoke of ‘communal amity’, it meant not just Sikh-Hindu relations, but intra Akali equations as well.

The tercentenary celebrations did mark an ironic turning point. It was at that time that Badal, the moderate face of the Akali conglomerate, openly took on long-time bete noir Gurcharan Singh Tohra, irrevocably identified with the hardline religious leadership, and emerged triumphant. But it was obvious Badal was fighting Tohra on Tohra’s turf. He was not contesting Tohra’s patented gurudwara politicking, but merely trying to wean the formula from him to appropriate it for himself. Already party president and CM, Badal now ousted Tohra to take control of the SGPC and the Akal Takht as well.

It is not just those who saw Badal as the upholder of the secular cause who are feeling cheated. The bir burning controversy is also being fuelled by rancour that Badal has failed to uphold the ‘Panthic interests’.

‘‘He has burned his boats with his community’’, says Gurtej Singh, SGPC Professor of Sikh Studies at Chandigarh. ‘‘He promised he would appoint a judicial inquiry into the 1984 violence but he backed out because of his alliance with the BJP. The RSS-sponsored Dasam Granth controversy also escalated in his tenure. Badal is only playing for the Hindu vote.’’

Singh also points accusing fingers at the party’s overt control over the Akal Takht. The Takht derives authority only from the sarbat khalsa, he says. Why should the SGPC, which is only an administering body, control the Takht?

Even as many of these arguments are being thrown up, some despair that the spotlight will never veer to issues of another kind. It is not incidental, it is pointed out, that Baba Bhaniara’s followers are drawn from the Scheduled Castes and OBCs. ‘‘Even though it is generally believed that Sikhism is not riven by caste, the ground reality is very different’’, says Harish Puri, political scientist at the Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar. ‘‘In a large number of villages, lower castes have been forced to build their own gurudwaras. This goes against the tenets of Sikhism. It’s time the SGPC asked some questions: why are there 10 gurudwaras in one small village? Why does caste discrimination persist 400 years after the religion was founded? Why do lower castes stay poor? Why are government funds meant for SCs appropriated by upper castes...?’’

The controversy that Baba Bhaniara has stirred has far overtaken the Baba himself. As it snowballs into an election issue, though, many are keeping their fingers crossed. They hope it will lead to a deeper questioning. And that the search for the answers will continue even after elections are done with.