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Khalsa Panth's Rs 8 billion budget may have led to Akali discord

George Iype in Chandigarh

It is billed as the mother of all religious celebrations. With a whopping budget of nearly Rs 8.5 billion, the tercentenary celebrations of the establishment of Sikhism could well be the biggest religious event ever in the world.

But the year-long celebrations of the establishment of the Khalsa Panth will begin on April 13 at Anandpur Sahib, in the shadow of a bitter religious and political battle between Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabhandak Committee president Gurcharan Singh Tohra.

With the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government and the Punjab government generously pumping in funds to commemorate 300 years of Khalsa Panth, many believers feel the Badal-Tohra fight is not about egos and personality clashes, but about money.

To pamper the Sikh community, the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government at the Centre has allocated Rs 1 billion for the celebrations. The Punjab state government headed by Badal has set apart Rs 2.5 billion, while the organisers of the event expect nearly Rs 5 billion to flow in from non-resident Indian Sikhs and the various community organisations based abroad, especially the United States, Canada and the European countries.

"The fight between Badal and Tohra is about money. Both want to dominate the Khalsa Panth celebrations because there is big bucks there," Kapur Singh Walia, a hotelier in Chandigarh, told Rediff On The NeT. "It is sad that Sikhism, which was led by great spiritual gurus and which has followed noble traditions, is now led by religious and political leaders who crave for money," he said.

According to Walia, the sharp clash of arguments between Badal and Tohra and the suspended Jathedar Bhai Ranjit Singh's active indulgence in politics, began when it came to the discussion on the Khalsa Panth programmes.

It was Badal's idea that the central government also actively donate funds to celebrate the tercentenary of the Khalsa Panth.

The chief minister, who has been keeping excellent rapport with the Vajpayee government, succeeded in his efforts last year when Human Resources Development Minister Dr Murli Manohar Joshi agreed to his demand for central funding.

Dr Joshi also set up a high-powered all-party central committee for the celebrations. They include Union Home Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani, Akali Dal leader and Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilisers Surjeet Singh Barnala, former finance minister Dr Manmohan Singh, former parliamentary affairs minister and BJP leader Madan Lal Khurana and actress-MP Shabana Azmi.

While the central committee has not yet met once, the Punjab government will charter a flight next week for the committee members to visit the celebrations site: Anandpur Sahib. "The Punjab government is flush with funds for the celebrations. Badal wants to seize the opportunity to proclaim himself as the icon of Sikhism. Therefore, he has skilfully thrown out both Tohra and Ranjit Singh out of the celebrations," says Kewal Singh Kartal, a bookshop owner in Chandigarh. "I think neither Badal nor Tohra and Ranjit Singh cares for the Panth, the state's development and the spiritual needs of millions of Sikhs."

Badal and his Akali Dal supporters have ensured that the Khalsa Panth celebrations do not include people of other religious faiths or representatives of political parties.

According to Joginder Dayal, the Communist Party of India general secretary for Punjab, Badal wants to conduct the Khalsa Panth celebrations alone because he feels that will make him the undisputed leader of the Sikh community. "The chief minister is attempting to take over the functions of the SGPC and is slowly but surely becoming a religious bigot," he told Rediff On The Net.

Dayal sees just one reason for Badal's blatant interference in the religious affairs of the Sikhs. "The chief minister is old. Therefore, he wants to promote his son Sukhbir Singh Badal as the heir-apparent," the CPI leader said.

Badal Jr, now Union minister of state for industry, spends most of his time in Chandigarh, not in New Delhi. Dayal warns that if Badal goes ahead with the Khalsa Panth celebrations as a government entertainment, by April "we can expect slogans hailing the secessionist Anandpur Sahib resolution and a separate Khalistan state from Sikh religious fundamentalists."

While Badal, Tohra and Ranjit Singh fight for their rights to conduct the tercentenary celebrations of Sikhism and the chief minister having won over the battle, it is likely that there will not be just one, but three separate religious celebrations hailing the founding of the Khalsa Panth.

The first and main event will be led by the chief minister and his supporters who have succeeded to control the affairs of the Akal Takht, the highest spiritual and temporal seat of the Sikhs in Amritsar.

Badal has chalked out elaborate programmes for the celebrations. Thus a multi-million Khalsa Heritage Memorial Complex designed by Israeli architect Safide Moshe is under construction in Anandpur Sahib.

While the state government is building a three-star hotel there, the Kiratpur Sahib-Anandpur Sahib road is being converted into a double-lane. Moreover, five massive ornamental gates are being constructed to symbolise the Panj Pyaras at Anandpur Sahib.

The state government is also giving funds to all the gurdwaras across the country for their renovation. Funds from the central government will mainly be utilised to set up an Academy of Martial Arts in Anandpur Sahib where a Sikh museum, memorials, seminar halls and dormitories are being built.

The second celebrations will be jointly organised by Tohra and ousted jathedar Ranjit Singh. Tohra has been claiming that being the SGPC president he enjoys an exalted position in the Sikh religion and therefore it is his duty to lead the celebrations of this magnitude.

Thirdly, the Congress, the main Opposition party in Punjab that has not been made part of the tercentenary celebrations due to political reasons, has decided to organise its own programmes.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi will inaugurate in April a Shobha Yatra (religious procession) exhibiting relics belonging to Guru Gobind Singh. These relics, incidentally, are in the possession of Punjab Congress chief Captain Amarinder Singh, the former maharaja of Patiala.

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