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Tohra faction decides to split Akali Dal

The Akali Dal faction led by former Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee president Gurcharan Singh Tohra, which will form a new party on May 30, is likely to align with "regional and secular forces" in the forthcoming general election, including the Bahujan Samaj Party.

At the same time, it will remain equidistant from its current ally, the Bharatiya Janata Party, as well as the Congress.

A political draft prepared by the Tohra faction, envisaging a vertical split in the Shiromani Akali Dal led by Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, seeks to "re-define the role and place of the Sikhs in a pluralistic society that has emerged as a single political entity in the form of the Indian State over a span of time."

The new party will be guided in the formulation of its future policies and programmes by its political understanding that "only a due recognition of regional aspirations and allowing their fullest expression at the central government level can bring about political stability in the country".

Based on this perception, the draft says, the new party will endeavour to form a conclave of regional parties, which is being opposed by the BJP as also the Congress. Both parties attempt to project themselves as an alternative to the other to grab power at the Centre, it adds.

"The big brother attitude of these two parties has led to the emergence of opportunistic coalitions purely aimed at grabbing power, thereby causing political instability and pushing the country towards a series of avoidable mid-term polls," the draft observes.

The draft lashes out at Badal, alleging that he represented and strengthened an "oligarchy of feudal lords in Punjab that destroyed the Akali Dal which emerged out of the historic Gurdwara Movement of the 1920s and stood for the peasantry, small traders and downtrodden while rejecting the brahminical hierarchy."

In fact, during Badal's three tenures as Punjab chief minister over the past three decades, Akali workers, who had made sacrifices to secure power for the party, always "received beatings" for propping up his clan's rule.

Thus, the draft says, battering of party workers coupled with predominance of some chosen corrupt bureaucrats during the Badal regime each time prepared the ground for the return of Congress rule in Punjab, and earned for the Akalis a derogatory label -- "they do not know how to rule".

UNI

EARLIER REPORT:
Akalis appear to be heading for a split

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