States: Punjab; Lady Luck

India Today, March 29, 1999
March 29, 1999

PUNJAB
Lady Luck

The new SGPC chief is a political greenhorn and a Badal loyalist. Which is why she was chosen for the job.

By Ramesh Vinayak

Jagir Kaur with Badal For over a quarter of a century, the high-roofed Teja Singh Samundari hall facing the Golden Temple in Amritsar has been the venue of an annual ritual: a motley crowd of blue-turbaned members of the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) electing Gurcharan Singh Tohra as the president for a record 25 times. But on March 16, it took less than an hour for the general house of the committee to break that ritual by ousting the person whose name had become synonymous with the SGPC.

In an expected denouement of the religio-political feud between Tohra and his friend-turned-foe Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, 130-odd pro-Badal SGPC members -- a majority in the 185-member house -- passed a no-confidence motion against him even though he had quit the previous day. Also replaced along with Tohra was the 15-member executive -- evidently to obviate his influence in the apex religious body that controls over 300 Sikh shrines which together have an annual budget of over Rs 100 crore.

The only surprise in the well-choreographed exercise was the appointment of state social welfare minister Bibi Jagir Kaur as Tohra's successor. It was a clever choice. Jagir Kaur is a politicial greenhorn and a loyalist with little mass base. She cannot pose a challenge to the chief minister or become the parallel power centre that Tohra was. Indeed, 45-year-old Jagir Kaur is the antithesis of what Tohra personified. By appointing her, Badal would be able to have complete sway over the powerful and influential SGPC. Also, she is the first woman -- and that too a Dalit -- to head the SGPC since its inception in 1925. By choosing her over several other aspirants, Badal has sent the right signals to the women and Dalit lobbies.

The head of a religious dera in Kapurthala district, Jagir Kaur was inducted into politics in 1995 by Badal to counter senior Akali leader Sukhjinder Singh. She was elected to the SGPC in 1996. The following year, she was elected to the Punjab Assembly from the Bholath constituency.

Jagir Kaur's appointment is likely to help Badal in wooing the leaders of the different sects. That would go a long way in making the state-sponsored Khalsa tercentenary celebrations look like a Panthic do instead of the sarkari show as Tohra alleges. No wonder Jagir Kaur has jumped headlong into the Khalsa celebrations as part of Badal's plan to put the SGPC in the vanguard of the show to outmanoeuvre his detractors.

"Her appointment is a sort of watershed in the SGPC history," says Sikh scholar Jasbir Singh Ahluwalia of the Chandigarh-based Guru Gobind Singh Foundation, a think tank on Sikh religio-political affairs. "She represents a young, energetic and pro-reforms face of the SGPC." However, not everyone thinks that way. "Jagir Kaur would be nothing more than a puppet with strings in Badal's hands," says Tohra loyalist and former SGPC secretary Manjit Singh Calcutta.

He could be right. Jagir Kaur may have acquired administrative acumen as the head of a religious sect but, as she will learn, managing the SGPC is a different ballgame. Set up to manage Sikh shrines and propagate the Sikh philosophy, the SGPC has over the years assumed the status of a state within the state because of the immense influence it has over Akali politics. "An Akali Dal without the SGPC is a khaali (empty) Dal," says H.S. Bhanwer, an SGPC veteran.

With religion and politics overlapping in Akali power games, the SGPC is a source of political clout because it provides Akali leaders access to readymade audiences, platforms and resources at religious meetings. The misuse of gurdwara funds got institutionalised during Tohra's long innings when the SGPC was religiously used for political purposes.

The depoliticisation of the SGPC -- which Jagir Kaur lists as a priority -- is one area where she can make a break from the past. Not being politically ambitious like her illustrious predecessor, she is definitely in a better position to clean the Augean stable that the SGPC has become due to administrative and financial mismanagement of the shrines. "Jagir Kaur can make her mark through the long pending gurdwara reforms," says Ahluwalia. "That will require a strong-headed approach to purge the shrines of corruption and inefficiency."

The bigger challenge lies in breaking Tohra's stranglehold over the religious body. Badal may have kayoed Tohra in the religious ring, but the political battle has just begun. As Shiromani Akali Dal General Secretary Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa admits, "Tohra's removal is only a half victory." Tohra's ouster has caused a sharp polarisation in the ruling party with the threat of a split looming large.

"Tohra will ensure a bloody fight by going to the masses," asserts Calcutta. Indeed, with nothing to lose Tohra may resort to his rabble rousing skills to reclaim lost ground. But wary of joining hands with the Akali hardliners lest he be seen as pro-militant, he is working out a limited understanding with them to take on Badal. At another level, the ousted SGPC chief is cosying up to the third front in national politics. Clearly, Tohra is down but not out.

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