A Window To Perceptive Journalism

Badal gives benign face to hegemony,
but Amarinder may not wince

S P Singh

Amritsar:  

If hegemony has a benign face, it was on display at the Akali Dal’s unity conclave today where party president Parkash Singh Badal, currently reeling under Chief Minister Amarinder Singh's Badal-specific anti-graft drive, won kudos for covering his religious flanks and equipped the party to engage the enemy with forces united.  

More than power-sharing, the strategy and its implementation only underlined Badal's continuing hegemony over Akali polity’s political and religious domains, but this time he did it with the finesse of a glib-talker rather than the crudity of I-conquer-what-I-see. 

After spending four years embattled against Badal, Tohra's terms for unity could not have been more humble. He got the SGPC top office and adjustment of his loyalists in nearly similar levels of hierarchy where they were before being summarily bundled out for standing by their mentor in 1999. 

"Mera rom-rom dhanvadi hai (Every pore of my body is thankful)," Badal told Badungar on the stage, displaying the great art of soothing the victim during the sacrifice. Badungar, if he winced, kept mum and did not even acknowledge the compliments about his graciousness and magnanimity being showered by Badal. 

Political experts said Badal remained a clear winner in the game. 

"The Akali Dal chief was always seen as the man with compromise tag since he refined the art of making compromises to advance his cause in polity, while Tohra was always the radical in the pack. Today, the post-unity scenario leaves Tohra in a position where he has returned to the Akali Dal with his status virtually what it was before 1999. And Badal is deciding when and how much to radicalise the polity," said a senior Akali leader. 

Even Tohra had to praise Badal for "great magnanimity which he displayed in achieving unity." Most of the senior Akali politicians that the The Indian Express spoke to today conceded that Badal holds almost all the cards, and Tohra is back in Akali Dal on terms that were custom-made for Badal to agree to and for Tohra to save face with. 

But those observing the political scenario for decades said the Akali strategy of joining hands to counter the Congress offensive may not really yield the desired results. "Remember that Badal is not up against a traditional politico. Amarinder’s style of politicking is something the state has not witnessed ever earlier, and the added bitterness of old friendship gone sour may not be lessened by adding up crowds and power. Vengeance as a component of power-politics has its own momentum," said a senior Congressman.■ 

July 16, 2003

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