The jathedar who outplayed Badals, Giani Harpreet Singh to lead new Shiromani Akali Dal faction

Indian Express

a day ago

In its century-plus-long existence, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) has undergone several splits and transformations, with one faction or the other holding a pre-eminent position. Synonymous with the Badal family for decades, the SAD now has a new faction with a new president.
On Monday, the latest SAD breakaway group unanimously elected Takht Damdama Sahib's ex-Jathedar and former Sri Akal Takht Sahib acting Jathedar Giani Harpreet Singh as its president, days after he ruled himself out of the race. With this, he has become the first Sikh from a Scheduled Caste (SC) community to head an SAD faction. The new faction has been formed by the members of a seven-member committee that was originally constituted by the Sri Akal Takht Sahib — the supreme temporal seat of the Sikhs — on December 2, 2024, for the reorganisation of the SAD.
Giani Harpreet Singh was part of the Sikh clergy that held SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal and others in his party guilty of violating the religious code of conduct with their mishandling of the crisis sparked in Sikh politics following the incidents of sacrilege in October 2015. The Akal Takht Sahib also formed the committee for reorganising the SAD. Though Badal, a former Punjab Deputy Chief Minister, and his party submitted to the religious sentence, they refused to allow the committee to reorganise the party. It subsequently targeted Giani Harpreet Singh who was removed from his post at Takht Damdama Sahib by the SAD-controlled Shiromani Gurudwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) in February. The SGPC also removed Sri Akal Takht Sahib Jathedar Giani Raghubir Singh and Takht Kesgarh Sahib Jathedar Sultan Singh.
Hailing from Muktsar, the home district of the Badals, Giani Harpreet Singh was a priest in SGPC-run gurudwaras when he was appointed acting Akal Takht Jathedar in 2018, replacing Giani Gurbachan Singh who had become an unpopular figure. At the time, the SAD's critics and rivals did not hold much expectation from him as he was considered someone remote-controlled by the Badals, who have maintained their control on the high temporal seats of Sikhism through the SGPC.
Tasked with restoring the confidence of Sikhs in the Akal Takht, the supreme temporal seat of Sikhism located exactly opposite the Harmandir Sahib in Amritsar, the 53-year-old paused his PhD work at Punjabi University in Patiala to focus on the job at hand.
He surprised everyone by winning the confidence of the anti-Badal factions in the community. He also adopted a softer approach towards jathedhars appointed by the Sarbat Khalsa (assembly of the entire Sikh community) who posed a challenge to not only his authority but that of the SGPC. This moderate stance towards his opponents won Giani Harpreet Singh praise.
Before the 2022 Assembly elections, the Jathedar surprised many when he told The Indian Express that he was not reluctant about a non-Sikh becoming the Chief Minister of Punjab. 'Behtar insaan hona chahiye, achchai pehle number pe. Sikh hona ya Hindu hona secondary hai (Should be a good person, that is the primary consideration. Whether the CM is Hindu or Sikh is secondary).'
Though he tried to build cross-party relations, he did not escape the allegations of working under the influence of the SAD and the Badals. In 2020, he was accused of favouring the Badals' party over other Akali factions and Sikh parties in his address on the 100th foundation day of the SGPC. In his address from the Harmandir Sahib complex, he gave a call to the SAD to start a journey from 'Punjab to Panth'. At the same event, the Jathedar had also targeted the BJP.
However, by 2022, things had changed and the SAD appeared unhappy with the Jathedar. The party's Delhi unit president at the time, Paramjit Singh Sarna, openly criticised him over his links to leaders of other parties. This came in the backdrop of his meeting with Union Home Minister Amit Shah. Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat had also met him the year before. This created a sense of unease within the SAD.
Objecting to his ties with non-SAD leaders, Giani Harpreet Singh was removed from Akal Takht in 2023, though he still remained part of the Sikh clergy as Takht Damdama Sahib Jathedar.
When the SGPC appointed Giani Raghubir Singh as Sri Akal Takht Sahib Jathedar, many expected it would be difficult for Giani Harpreet Singh to work with him. However, the two developed a cordial relationship and made it nearly impossible for the SAD to expect any favour from the Akal Takht Jathedar when Badal submitted to the high temporal seat in July 2024 and confessed his mistakes.
The party, according to insiders, had expected that Badal would get away with his confession in exchange for a religious sentence. However, Giani Raghubir Singh, with Giani Harpreet Singh standing beside him, first made Sukhbir confess every mistake in a live telecast of the proceedings and then ordered him to resign as SAD president. In addition, a committee was formed to reorganise the party.
The same committee ran a recruitment drive, with the delegates elected during the process having now chosen Giani Harpreet Singh as the new faction's president.
While in terms of the hierarchy of Sikh institutions, Giani Harpreet Singh's latest appointment appears to be a step down, it is a challenge similar to the one he faced in 2018 when he had to restore confidence in the Sri Akal Takht Sahib. The challenge this time is more political: reviving Akali politics. And standing before him is a familiar adversary he once managed to outmanoeuvre.