Sample the new panthic diction: Volga river, Ural mountains, holocaust, jews, Leningrad. Secularisation of Akalis has many faces.
In February 2002, Gurdial Singh had lost an election against
Gurchet Singh Bhullar by a thin margin. In May, he and six
of his Akali supporters lost their lives. Shot from close
range. AK 47’s 200 bullets for 6 people. Family and Akalis
accused then Irrigation Minister Bhullar. A month later,
Akalis gathered at Matka Chowk to press for justice. Adesh
Pratap Singh Kairon and, Manpreet Singh Badal were among
those who addressed the people from Gurdial’s hometown but
the idiom these educated young turks among Akalis employed
provided deep insights about where their muse lands from.
For Akalis, Bhikhiwind is Leningrad
S P Singh
“WE will turn Bhikhiwind into Leningrad!”
Whenever Akalis desperately needed a slogan to charge up their cadres, they used to fall back on the panthic idiom, stirring up the ‘panth in danger’ line or invoking the spirit of the Khalsa, but things have changed, and the new crop of Akalis has apparently soaked in more about World War II than Akali morchas.
So senior Akali leaders today told their workers from a purely rural belt in Majha the tales of the German army incision into the deeper recesses of Russia, the battle for Leningrad, the resistance by the citizens’ militia and a call to learn a lesson that the workers were finding it difficult to identify with: Turn Bhikhiwind into Leningrad to avenge Gurdial Singh’s murder. “We will not concede an inch without getting justice,” Manpreet Singh Badal said, his fist clenched, face sweating and determination writ large.
Blank eyed Akali workers were just left blinking. Kithe hai bhai eh sheher? (Where’s this city?)” asked Niranjan Singh from Valtoha as he sat besides Gurdial’s wife Gian Kaur who herself had not heard of Lenin or Leningrad.
If most of his audience could not connect with the references to the Volga river, the Ural mountains or the Russian’s love for Comrade Lenin, there was Adesh Partap Kairon at hand to help.
“You must have all heard of that poem. When the tyrant came for the Jews, this man kept silent because he was not a Jew. When the tyrant came for Christians, he kept silent because he was not a Christian. Gradually there was no one left. So when they came for that man, there was no one there to raise his voice,” Adesh Partap Kairon said in his long and ‘eloquent’ speech peppered with references to World War II and more stories connected with it.
If skills to enthuse their workers were found slightly wanting, it could be the distance in time that the Akalis have traversed since they were last in agitational mode. After five years of power, SAD supremo Parkash Singh Badal was once again in his beloved role of a morcha leader crying for justice and slamming the government, though some of his younger colleagues had shown a proclivity for some abstruse lectures.
As some 100 off Akali workers from Valtoha and nearby Majha areas, who had descended upon the city surreptitiously after dodging police nakas enroute, sat in the searing heat to protest Gurdial’s murder and demand the arrest of minister Gurchet Singh Bhullar, Badal joined them minutes after singing hosannas to democracy at its temple, the Punjab Vidhan Sabha, only to declare that ‘democracy has been murdered in Punjab.’
He described how Gurdial Singh, days before his murder, was knocking at several doors – the DC, the SSP, and the ADGP – claiming threat to his life and demanding security. “They did not listen, and the murder happened. This is a political murder,” he thundered.
Suave and London-educated Manpreeet Badal, after pedantic talk about turning Bhikhiwind into Leningrad, touched more chords with his vow, “not to let the Assembly function till justice is delivered and Gurdial Singh’s murderers are arrested.”
And found solid support from party president and uncle Badal, “Why discuss things like budget etc when murderers are carrying on democracy’s debate? We have moved an adjournment motion, and we will let the Assembly function only after our voice is heard,” Manpreet said evoking loud slogans of support.
“Don’t let the state fall back into the dark era. Political murders never took place during our government, but now an atmosphere has been created where no one can touch a Congressman even he commits murder,” Badal Sr said.
For good measure, and perhaps to pack the message with some punch, Adesh Partap Singh also left aside his stories about World War for a moment to declare: “Hun agg lagg chukki hai Punjab vich. Hun eh bijhani payegee, nahi tan eh poore Punjab nu jala devegi (Now, a fire has been ignited in Punjab, it has to be extinguished, otherwise it will reduce the entire state to cinders).”
But as the dharna ended and Badal left in his Blue Merc, he left behind a number of Akali workers curiously asking scribes a question which had little to do with Gurdial Singh’s murderers: “Eh yahoodi kaun hunde ne, bhai sahib?” (Who are these Jews?)
June 11, 2002