With party Sr VP Bhai Man­jit Singh urg­ing all party lead­ers linked to sac­ri­lege to seek par­don at Akal Takht Sahib, it is clear that the Badal Dal is cer­tainly in the dock. As the Bar­gari Mor­cha gains mo­men­tum,  a cross-sec­tion of the party lead­er­ship has been rais­ing muted voices of dis­sent. Nev­er­the­less, they are coun­ter­ing the threat­en­ing boast of Sukhbir Singh Badal that, “who­ever speaks against me is a trai­tor of the party.”

With the Badal Dal in the dock due to its fol­lies re­lat­ing to in­ci­dents of sac­ri­lege at the hands of the the Dera Sauda Premis, yet an­other se­nior leader of the party, Se­nior Vice Pres­i­dent Bhai Am­rik Singh has ques­tioned the pol­icy of the party and with­out tak­ing names has sought that, “all those whose names are as­so­ci­ated with the sac­ri­lege in­ci­dents, di­rectly or in­di­rectly, in any way, must ap­pear be­fore the Akal Takht to seek par­don as it was a gross mis­take to do so.”

He fur­ther said that his fam­ily has al­ways re­spected the Guru Granth Sahib and has sac­ri­ficed a lot on this front and that there can be no com­pro­mise on this score.

“The par­don to Dera Sacha Sauda chief was a sui­ci­dal step. It has dam­aged the rep­u­ta­tion of Sri Akal Takht Sahib, the SGPC and the Shi­ro­mani Akali Dal.”

Bhai Man­jit Singh, Sr VP, Shi­ro­mani Akali Dal Badal

In his signed state­ment re­leased to the me­dia, he has said that “the par­don to Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim was a sui­ci­dal step and has vastly harmed the in­ter­ests of the party and has dam­aged the name and rep­u­ta­tion of Sri Akal Takht Sahib, the SGPC and the Shi­ro­mani Akali Dal.” He clearly re­it­er­ated that, “this alone was the rea­son for the de­feat of the party in the As­sem­bly elec­tions.

Bhai Man­jit Singh is a rather silent voice of the party and for him to come on record clearly demon­strates the guilt-con­scious­ness within the Badal Dal. Bhai Man­jit Singh is the brother of Bhai Am­rik Singh who died fight­ing with Sant Jar­nail Singh Bhin­dran­wale for the pro­tec­tion and ho­n­our of Akal Takht Sahib dur­ing the Saka Akal Takht in June 1984.

The first salvo was fired by Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa he re­signed from all party posts. Though he re­signed from party posts on health grounds, yes­ter­day, he shared the dias with the Chief Min­is­ter of Pun­jab at the func­tion to ho­n­our In­dian sportsper­sons, in his ca­pac­ity as the pres­i­dent of the Cy­cling Fed­er­a­tion of In­dia.

“Za­meer taan mar gahi hai, honn chit­tran tohn darde hann.”

Sukhdev Singh Bhaur, Co-con­venor, Pan­thic As­sem­bly

In the sec­ond round, we heard the dis­sent­ing voices of  Khadoor Sahib Mem­ber Par­lia­ment Ran­jit Singh Brahm­pura and his as­so­ci­ates for­mer min­is­ter Sewa Singh Sekhwan and for­mer Mem­ber Par­lia­ment Rat­tan Singh Aj­nala, who stopped short of res­ig­na­tion only at the ve­he­ment in­sis­tence of Parkash Singh Badal.

The next round­about step was an­nounced by DS­GMC pres­i­dent Man­jit Singh GK, who “passed on the reigns” to his Sr VP Pres­i­dent a few days ago.

Well, it can be clearly ob­served that all is not well within the Badal Dal ranks. The next gath­er­ing at Bar­gari on 14 Oc­to­ber will fur­ther be­stir the rank and file of the lead­er­ship.

Sukhdev Singh Bhaur, a for­mer SGPC gen­eral sec­re­tary, and one of the pro­po­nents of the pro­posed Pan­thic As­sem­bly, who re­signed from the Badal Dal post-Bar­gari sac­ri­lege and Be­hbal Kalan po­lice fir­ing in Oc­to­ber 2015,, while speak­ing to the me­dia has re­marked, “They are rais­ing their voices of dis­sent not be­cause their con­science is prick­ing them, but be­cause they are afraid of the con­se­quences of con­fronting the peo­ple.” In chaste Pun­jabi, he said, “Za­meer taan mar gahi hai, honn chit­tran tohn darde hann.”

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Neme­sis is catch­ing up. It will be in­ter­est­ing to watch where and when it will end.