Punjab Outlook

Jalandhar(IP.Singh ): Although the reasons for the prevailing crisis in Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and the upheaval within the Sikh polity are usually projected as religious, they fundamentally stem from issues of justice and equitable law enforcement. Law was not allowed to take its own course in multiple cases and at multiple levels. Rather, the govt and law enforcement agencies helped those who were on the wrong side of the law.
In the four points outlined by the SAD Sudhar Lehar leaders in their complaint to Akal Takht, which were read out by the Akal Takht Jathedar to SAD former president Sukhbir Singh Badal as charges against him, only one — pardon to Sirsa dera chief by the Akal Takht — pertained to the religious domain. That too was a case of using state and political influence over religious affairs.
The other three points — withdrawing the 2007 blasphemy case against the Sirsa dera chief, failure to find and punish the accused in sacrilege cases of 2015, police firing at peacefully protesting Sikhs and killing two of them at Behbal Kalan, appointment of Sumedh Saini as DGP and rewarding former DGP Izhar Alam despite serious allegations of fake encounters against them — pertained to the justice delivery system.
In the blasphemy case of May 2007, in which Sirsa dera chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim was accused of imitating Guru Gobind Singh and there was huge turmoil in the state, even the state home department gave sanction for his prosecution.