Sacha Sauda: Sikh militancy comes to the fore

New Delhi, May 23: In the backdrop of sectarian clashes in Punjab, Sikh militancy, which arose from a similar type of Sikh-Nirankari feud in the 1970s, has again come to the fore forcing the Sikh clergy to adopt a stringent posture against the Dera Sacha Sauda.

On the other hand, the Dera too has became adamant and has refused to close the sub-deras.

The raging passions in Punjab have sent an alarm bell for BJP, an ally of Akalis in the State government. And, BJP has dissociated itself from the Akalis in their bid to teach a lesson to the Dera Sacha Sauda.

The situation may be controlled as per the political requirements of both ruling Akalis and BJP, but the Punjab cauldrun will continue to boil as the extremist Sikhs too are out to settle their personal scores with the Badal Akali Dal whom they have been accusing of decimating the separate identity of Sikhs by aligning with the BJP.

In fact, there was nothing new that took place at the gathering of Dera Sacha Sauda Chief at Salabatpur village in Bathinda District of Punjab on May 13, 2007 which provoked such a fierce reaction among the Sikhs.

It was old routine way of preparing a sweetened concoction by Chief Gurmeet Singh and thereafter distributing to his followers.

And, along with distributing 'pahul', the Dera Chief also dispensed 'NAAM' to them, utterance of a few lines in the praise of Almighty.

The Dera organisers gave the event publicity and they inserted an advertisement in popular Punjabi daily, AJIT, showing the Chief wearing a special robe and performing the ceremony. And, talk went around that the Dera Chief had posed himself as tenth Sikh Guru, Gobind Singh and imitated the guru's style of baptising the Sikhs while he created 'Khalsa Panth' on the Baisakhi day of 1699. It was said that mimicking the Sikh guru, the Dera Chief made seven of his followers act as ''seven piaras'' instead of the guru's five ones.

The next day, on May 14, 2007, the employees of Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), Amritsar, an apex gurudwara management body, at presently controlled by ruling Akali Dal(Badal) were directed to gather in SGPC's Hazi Rattan gurdwara in Bathinda.

And some other Akali workers also joined them after making an announcement that they would burn the effigy of Dera Chief for his blasmephic act of'' ridiculing the Sikh practice of baptising".

A relatively small group of Sikh youths and SGPC employees armed with kirpans and other traditional weapons marched towards the Bathinda district courts where already Dera followers carrying lathis and iron rods had gathered in a large number. The Dera followers were too in aggressive mood to check the opponents from burning the effigy of the Dera Chief, whom, many of them, consider as incarnation of God. Despite prior information, the district administration could not stop the clash between the two groups. That was the beginning of frenzy, almost on the pattern of communal riots, which engulfed Punjab and also sparked riotous reactions in Jammu and Kashmir, Haryana, Delhi and other parts of the country.

It looks like, the Bathinda district administration might have been instructed by the ruling Akali leaders to go slow and allow clashes to take place. Because, without Akalis' consent, no gathering could be held in the SGPC controlled Gurdwara and neither SGPC employees could take leading role in that clash.

The basic cause behind the trouble is sheer politics. Akalis have been nursing a bitter grouse against the Dera Sacha Sauda. And they, in fact, are waiting in wings to settle scores with the Dera Chief and the Salabatpura village event seemed to have come handy for them. Only two odd months ago, in the recent Punjab assembly elections the Dera Sacha Sauda openly sided with Akalis' arch political enemy, Congress which cost them heavily. In the Akalis' known hinterland of Malwa belt of Punjab, Congress won 37 of the 65 seats. Many Akali stalwarts from the area, licked the dust in the polls. The Malwa belt raised the tally of Congress almost equal to the Shiromani Akali Dal of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal. And, Badal could form the government only with the help of its ally BJP winning 19 seats in 117 member Vidhan Sabha.

Even otherwise, there has been a long history of simmering feeling of hatred, illwill and mistrust between the managers of Sikh religious affairs and the Dera followers known as 'Premies'. The Dera with its headquater in Sirsa, in Haryana, is said to be continuously nibbling at Sikh principles and practices. It also draws its followers from rural areas who include dalits, lower castes among Sikhs and small Sikh peasantry -a traditional constituency of the Akalis in Punjab, Hayrana and adjoining districts of Rajasthan.

In fact, Dera Chief Gurmeet Singh born in a Sikh peasant family in Gurusar Modia village in Rajasthan's Sri Ganganagar district. He is the third head of the Dera Sacha Sauda who has been attempted to market himself to faithfuls of all major religions and added 'Ram Rahim' to his name later after becoming the chief in 1990 since 50 per cent of his followers are 'Hindus' (mainly lower castes). Of the 2.5 crore Dera followers, 7-8 per cent are said to be muslims and 40 per cent are Sikhs-- mostly farm labourers known as Majibi Sikhs.

How has the present Dera Chief expanded his flock of followers? He holds daily 'parvacnan' to the congregation which even now swells to many lakhs at the Sirsa Dera at certain occasions. The Dera Chief liberally borrows commonly understood religious principles from Sikhism, Hindu Mythology, Christianity and Islam. And the thus prepared religious cocktail served in commonman's language by Baba Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh assuming a lofty embellished platform--a spectacle that inspires feelings of awe, grandeur and piety among the mismerised followers gathered there for solace from mental agony and social discord they are usually suffering from.

The Dera Chief scrupulously avoids the tickish issue of prompting religious conversion. His followers are allowed to retain their religious demeanours. Dera oganisers claim that the Chief had initiated a social reformist movement- making the people shun vices- like forsaking intoxicants of all type. The Dera has a vast organisational network with 45 branches in 16 states plus another 450 smaller branches. Besides undertaking de-addiction on a large scale, the Dera arranges mass marriages at negligible cost. And infuses sense of brotherhood among its followers who help one another in distress and also renders free services to the several venture and industrial projects of the Dera establishment.

The Akalis also are losing their base to the Dera because the Gurdwaras have all along been controlled by politicised landlords and moneyed people virtually restraining visit of the downtrodden people there for solace and spiritual consolation. On the other hand, the Dera Chief's diktats run down to his followers even in matter of voting for certain candidates in the elections.

In a bid to limit the increasing influence of the Dera Chief, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal went to the extent that nothing short of 'apology' from the Dera could bring peace in Punjab. And, perhaps for the first time, Mr Badal controlled Sikh clergy, the Akal Takht gave call for the Punjab Bandh on May 22 and gave an ultimatum for shutting down the sub-Deras in the State.

UNI