NEW DELHI: In its continuing effort to win over the Sikhs and farmers back,
the BJP on Wednesday inducted senior Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader
Manjinder Singh Sirsa into the party. The move comes a couple of months
ahead of the assembly elections in five states, particularly Punjab and Uttar
Pradesh, and during the ongoing farmers’ protest over minimum support price
(MSP) and other issues.
Besides being a former two-time Delhi assembly MLA, Sirsa was also the
president of the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC). In
fact, he resigned from the post just on Wednesday, shortly before he joined the
BJP in the presence of Union home minister Amit Shah and party president JP
Nadda in New Delhi.
In a tweet, he said: “With gratitude to all office-bearers, members, staff, and
people who worked with me, I am resigning from Delhi Sikh Gurudwara
Management Committee as President.
I will not contest the upcoming DSGMC
internal elections. My commitment to serve my community, humanity and
nation remains (the) same!”
The BJP has been wooing the Sikhs more vigorously ever since the farmers’
protest was launched on November 26 last year at the three Delhi borders.
Sirsa joining the party appears to be a step in that direction.
Sirsa was a vociferous critic of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) legislated
by the Centre in 2019. He was against granting citizenship to minorities from
India’s neighbouring countries of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan based
on religion. As a mark of protest, he did not contest the 2020 Delhi assembly
election during the peak of Shaheen Bagh protests in the national capital.
Subsequently, as a leader of SAD, he was also against the three farm laws.
While SAD broke away from the BJP-led NDA at the Centre, Sirsa became an
active protester at the Delhi borders organising langars for the farmers who
have been camping there since November 26 last year.
By one stroke of inducting Sirsa, the BJP has silenced a prominent voice of the
Sikhs and farmers against its government.
The move comes about a couple of months before the forthcoming assembly
elections. A large section of the protesters at the Delhi borders comprise
largely Sikhs and mainly from Punjab besides some from Haryana and western
UP.
A large number of Sikhs were being viewed as opponents of the BJP. The
Lakhimpur Kheri incident of UP, in which four Sikh farmers were allegedly
mowed down by a vehicle owned by Union minister of state for home Ajay
Mishra’s son Ashish Mishra on October 3, added fuel to the already surging
anger against the ruling party at the Centre and in UP.
Meanwhile, former Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh, who quit the
Congress after stepping down from the post on September 20 on receiving
orders from the party high command, had announced that he was willing to
join hands with the BJP if the farmers’ protest was resolved.
Recently Amarinder formed his party called Punjab Lok Congress and declared
that he had spoken with Union home minister Amit Shah and Prime
Minister Narendra Modi about an alliance between the two parties in his state.
After Amarinder, Sirsa is a major Sikh face to get associated with the BJP. It
would help the BJP in allaying the anger of the Sikhs and the farmers.
The BJP and PM Modi have already taken several steps recently to appease the
Sikhs. He visited Delhi’s 18th-century Gurdwara Sis Ganj Sahib on May 1 on
the occasion of the 400th Prakash Purab of Guru Tegh Bahadur. He reached
there without a special route or special arrangements.
Just two days before Guru Nanak Jayanti, the Centre reopened the Kartarpur
Sahib Corridor which was closed for about one-and-a-half years. Kartarpur
inside Pakistan is the place where Sikhs’ first guru spent the last 18 years of
his life.
Amit Shah tweeted on November 16: “In a major decision, that will benefit
large numbers of Sikh pilgrims, PM @Narendramodi govt has decided to reopen the Kartarpur Sahib Corridor from tomorrow, Nov 17. This decision
reflects the immense reverence of Modi govt towards Shri Guru Nanak Dev Ji
and our Sikh community.”
