Chapter 4
TURMOIL IN AKALI POLITICS
The period from 1969 to 1978 witnessed history-in-the-making in various parts of India, especially in Punjab and Haryana. This period also proved to be an important turning point in my professional career in that I was associated with the National Herald as in charge of news coverage for the north-western states of India. My being a representative of the Nehru family’s newspaper proved to be of great advantage in building contacts with some of the Central Congress leaders who were privy to the closed-door deliberations held in the Prime Minister’s House (PMH), particularly after the 1975 Allahabad High Court judgment.1
I also got an opportunity to gain insights into the public and private lives of leading political personalities, notably Punjab’s Congress chief minister, Giani Zail Singh, Akali Dal leaders Justice Gurnam Singh, Parkash Singh Badal and Surjit Singh Barnala (who became chief ministers of Punjab at different points of time) coupled with Haryana Congress chief ministers Bansi Lal and Bhajan Lal besides the state’s non-Congress chief minister Devi Lal. While Zail Singh went on to become Union home minister (in January 1980) and then president of India (in July 1982), Bansi Lal and Devi Lal climbed the ‘power ladder’ to become defence minister (in December 1975) and deputy prime minister (in December 1989), respectively. Bhajan Lal too became a Union minister in 1985; in 2007, he broke away from the Congress and formed his own party called the Haryana Janhit Congress (but more on these leaders later).
The internal Emergency (25 June 1975 to 21 March 1977) and the terrorism that was rampant in the 1980s and early 1990s, mainly in North India, made a deep impact on India’s politics.
In a later chapter, I shall describe in some detail the role that Zail Singh played as Punjab chief minister and as Union home minister to promote religious extremism and prop up and protect Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale.
My interactions with Parkash Singh Badal during the terrorism years throw light on the tussle for power within the Akali Dal during the post-Operation Bluestar2 period (i.e., after June 1984). In the Punjab Assembly elections held in the wake of the Rajiv—Longowal Accord of July 1985 (also known as the Punjab Accord),3 the Akali Dal gained an absolute majority and formed the government with Surjit Singh Barnala as chief minister. Badal, who was promised the leadership of the Akali Legislature Party by Sant Harchand Singh Longowal, did not join the ministry as he was denied not only the promised office but also the post of deputy chief minister or the number two position. This development permanently strained relations between Barnala and Badal. Even in the new millennium, the two leaders continued to take potshots at each other. For instance, in one of his speeches during the run-up to the 2012 Punjab Assembly elections, Badal described Barnala as ‘a cheat’. Barnala, in his counterattack, branded Badal as ‘a wily politician’.
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Born on 8 December 1927 in a landowning Jat Sikh family of Abul Khurana village of Punjab’s Malwa region, Parkash Singh Badal was the architect of what he later called the ‘lifelong alliance of the Akali Dal and the BJP’. In Punjab, this alliance was successful in capturing power in 1997, 2007 and 2012. Badal has been chief minister five times: March 1970—June 1971; June 1977—February 1980; February 1997—February 2002; March 2007—February 2012; and March 2012 onwards.
It may appear ironical, but Badal’s entry into politics was unintentional. He explains his journey from his native village to becoming Punjab’s top executive officer in the following words:
Before entering politics, I wanted to become a Punjab Civil Service [PCS] officer. At that time PCS officers were nominated, so I asked Giani Kartar Singh [who later became Badal’s political mentor] to get me nominated as a PCS officer. He took up the matter with the concerned minister and I was issued the appointment letter. When I went to thank him for this, with a box of sweets, he told me that he could not refuse [my gift] but did not want me to join duty as one day I would go on to attain such a position that I would myself appoint PCS officers.
I began [as] a sarpanch [village head] and went on to become the chief minister of Punjab five times. Prior to wishing to become a PCS officer, I wanted to become a doctor and took science subjects. It proved to be a tough call. While I remained confined to studies, the other students (who had taken other subjects) used to play around. I dropped the idea and did [my BA from the] Faculty of Arts [at] Lahore. I also had a go at attaining a law degree but could not complete the course after being sent to jail for [taking part in] a political movement.
The 85-year-old Badal’s political career, spanning over 60 years, had started in 1947. His legislative career, however, began in 1957, when he was elected to the Punjab Assembly on a Congress ticket after the Akali Dal renounced politics and Akali leaders joined the Congress. After his brief stint as chief minister in 1970-71 and as leader of opposition in the Assembly in 1972, he was virtually in the wilderness. Later, he was jailed several times. He fought a long political battle against the Emergency and was detained under the Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA). When the Janata Party came to power in March 1977, he was inducted into the Morarji Desai Government as Union agriculture and irrigation minister. But he soon quit and returned to Punjab, where he has been outmanoeuvring his Congress opponents to play a dominant role in state politics.
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The 1969–78 time span laid the foundation of political events that gave new dimensions to Punjab politics, signalling the prolonged turmoil in Akali politics and the failure to instal the unilingual Punjab’s first Akali—Congress coalition government.
In Punjab, it was the intense infighting and the rebellion within the party ranks that was responsible for the fall of four Akali Dal-led governments within a span of four years – from 1967 to 1971. Interestingly, both chief ministers, Justice Gurnam Singh and Parkash Singh Badal, lost their gaddis (literally meaning throne) twice, as explained later.
The turmoil in Akali politics began after the Justice Gurnam Singh-headed Punjab’s first non-Congress coalition government made up of the Akali Dal, the Jan Sangh and the Communist Party of India (CPI) came to power in Punjab in March 1967. This government tottered and fell after the Congress-backed Akali rebel Lachhman Singh Gill revolted and took over as chief minister on 25 November 1967. He too had to quit after a few months in office (on 23 August 1968), necessitating the imposition of president’s rule in the state. Such a state of affairs, in turn, led to a mid-term poll in early 1969. The Akali Dal—Jan Sangh combine won the elections and formed the government on 17 February 1969. For the second time Gurnam Singh was sworn in as chief minister.
However, it did not take long for Gurnam Singh’s opponents in the faction-ridden Akali Dal to set in motion a campaign for pulling down his government. Following the tensions generated between the coalition partners, the Jan Sangh threatened to quit the ministry.
On 1 February 1970, when I met Gurnam Singh in the Punjab Secretariat’s corridors at Chandigarh, I sought his reaction to the Jan Sangh’s threat. The soft-spoken chief minister, who hailed from my native city Ludhiana, put his arm around my shoulders and said: ‘They want me to fight with the prime minister [Indira Gandhi]. How could I do that?’
I then asked him: ‘Will the Jan Sangh [ministers] quit the government?’
His reply was: ‘Where will they go? They will continue to be in the ministry’. But he was proved to be wrong.
On 27 March 1970, Gurnam Singh’s rivals succeeded in ousting him from power and replacing him with Parkash Singh Badal, who, with the help of the same Jan Sangh, became chief minister. The Jan Sangh ministers, however, later quit the government. Their main grouse was that the Badal Government had gone back on its commitment to open two new universities, one each in Jalandhar and Amritsar. But without taking the Jan Sangh into confidence, the government had decided to establish only one university at Amritsar as desired by the Akali Dal, thereby ignoring the Jan Singh’s demand for a university at Jalandhar.
The Jan Sangh’s exit posed a threat to the stability of the Badal Government. Consequently, the Akali Dal’s Gurnam Singh faction and the Congress joined hands in an attempt to dislodge the Badal regime and form a Gurnam Singh-led Akali—Congress coalition government. They, however, failed as Badal, on getting prior information about their plans, got the Punjab Assembly dissolved. On 14 June 1971, the state once again came under president’s rule.
I was a witness to the 6–14 June 1971 behind-the-scenes ‘Operation Topple Badal Government’. The operation was conducted from the Haryana Government’s guest house in Chandigarh.
On 5 June 1971, it became apparent that the Badal-led Government was in deep trouble as the Jan Sangh had moved out. While Darbara Singh, chief of the Punjab Congress, believed that the government would not fall, External Affairs Minister Swaran Singh’s4 group succeeded in finalizing terms with Gurnam Singh for toppling Badal.
Gurnam Singh laid down two conditions that he wanted the Congress leadership to fulfil. First, he sought full Central support and second he insisted on the appointment of a senior Central leader to direct the Congress strategy for toppling the Badal Government. Swaran Singh then spoke to Gurnam Singh over the telephone (on the same day: 5 June) and agreed to both the conditions. Swaran Singh was also in touch with Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and kept her informed about the fast-paced events in Punjab.
The plan drawn up was as follows: Gurnam Singh would meet the prime minister at Delhi for final talks; he would go there on the pretext of discussing Delhi gurdwara affairs with her. Gurnam Singh would form his own party (to be known as the Progressive Akali Dal) and efforts would be made to win over the maximum number of Akali legislators. Eventually, there would be an Akali—Congress coalition government with Gurnam Singh as chief minister, which would forcefully oppose Sant Fateh Singh (the Akali Dal supremo at that time) and try to deprive him of control over the state’s gurdwaras.
Congress circles, however, feared that, at the last moment, Gurnam Singh might accept a possible offer from Sant Fateh Singh to head a ‘pure’ Akali government. Hence, they wanted the party leadership to pressurize Gurnam Singh against taking such a step. Moreover, the Congress did not want to admit Akali defectors into the party for two reasons. First, because such Akalis would then have to be given ministerial berths from the Congress’s own quota. Secondly, such a move would considerably reduce the numerical strength of Gurnam Singh’s core group, which would adversely affect his potential to take on the sant.
On 9 June 1971, both the Darbara Singh and the Swaran Singh groups embarked upon the operation to oust the Badal Government. Gurnam Singh made a secret air dash to Delhi, where, at a meeting with the prime minister, it was decided that he would lead the Akali—Congress coalition government and would take on Sant Fateh Singh. Later, the Punjab Assembly would be dissolved and he (Gurnam Singh) would be appointed either governor or ambassador.
A day later, the Haryana chief minister, Bansi Lal, provided all facilities to keep at a ‘safe place’ those MLAs (Members of the Legislative Assembly) who were planning to defect from the Akali Dal to the Gurnam Singh camp. He also arranged the money to be paid to the defectors as the Punjab Congress leaders were apparently incapable of mobilizing enough hard cash for the purpose. Two Jan Sangh MLAs also submitted letters to the speaker of the Punjab Assembly to the effect that they were quitting their party. To counter the pressures that would inevitably be exerted on them to return to their parent party, both the MLAs were quietly sent to Delhi.
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Gurnam Singh, now assured of the support of a majority of MLAs, was to meet the governor of Punjab (D. C. Pavate) at 12 noon on 14 June 1971 to present the list of his supporters and to stake his claim to form the next government.
Meanwhile, Badal came to know from his sources about the plan to topple his government and also about Gurnam Singh’s scheduled meeting with the governor. After fixing an appointment with the governor half an hour before Gurnam Singh’s scheduled meeting, Badal rushed to the Raj Bhawan with the cabinet’s resolution recommending dissolution of the Assembly. Gurnam Singh too reached the Raj Bhawan with his own list of MLAs, but was not allowed to enter the barricaded premises. Thus, he could not meet the governor who was already in a meeting with Badal. For his part, Badal ensured that the governor issued an order for the dissolution of the Punjab Assembly before he left the Raj Bhawan.
The move to form unilingual Punjab’s first Akali—Congress coalition government failed. Consequently, Assembly elections in Punjab, which were otherwise due only in 1974, were held in two years earlier. The Congress emerged victorious and Giani Zail Singh took over as chief minister. But before discussing the Zail Singh regime, it would be useful to find out what was happening in Haryana in the late 1960s and 1970s.
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1 The judgment (dated 12 June 1975), given by Justice Jagmohan Lal Sinha, held Prime Minister Indira Gandhi guilty of ‘corrupt practice’. Mrs Indira Gandhi lost the election petition filed against her by Raj Narain (who was her main rival in the 1971 Lok Sabha elections from Rae Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh) in the Allahabad High Court. Raj Narain later went on to become a Union minister in the Janata Party Government that came to power after defeating the Congress in the March 1977 Lok Sabha elections.
2 In the first week of June 1984, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi ordered the Indian Army to enter the Golden Temple at Amritsar (the holiest shrine of the Sikhs) to evict the militants holed up there. This exercise was given the name Operation Bluestar and had serious repercussions (described in later chapters).
3 Signed in New Delhi by Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and the respected Akali leader Sant Harchand Singh Longowal. Sadly, Sant Longowal was killed by militants in a gurdwara of village Sherpur in Sangrur district on 20 August 1985, which happened to be Rajiv Gandhi’s birthday.
4 Swaran Singh had earlier played a prominent role in Punjab politics before becoming a Union minister. On 13 May 1952, he had resigned as home minister of Punjab when Jawaharlal Nehru had included him in the Central cabinet.