Parties in race, religion to take centre stage
CAPT GOVT TO LAUNCH 550TH BIRTH ANNIV CELEBRATIONS OF GURU NANAK DEV A YEAR IN ADVANCE; SAD, SGPC TO HOLD PARALLEL SHOWS
CHANDIGARH : It is the language of shrine and faith that will set the tone for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls in Punjab. In the already charged-up religious atmosphere of the state, its three mainstream political parties will be harvesting votes, flirting with the religious Right.
After pushing Akali Dal patriarch Parkash Singh Badal and his political heir, SAD chief Sukhbir Badal, to the wall over sacrilege and police firing incidents of October 2015, Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh is all set to outdo Badals in the 550th birth centenary celebrations of Sikh founder Guru Nanak Dev.
The festivities were to begin next year in November. But just this month, Amarinder decided to kick-start them from November 23, leaving the government racing against time to meet the deadline. In 1999, Badal had held grand tercentenary celebrations of the Khalsa Panth by 10th Sikh master Guru Gobind Singh. It had helped him assert his Panthic credentials and marginalise rebel Gurcharan Singh Tohra who was removed as SGPC chief a few days before the commencement of celebrations.
Amarinder will be launching 'Ghar ghar haryali' drive, a mission to plant 550 saplings in every Punjab village, on Friday from Sultanpur Lodhi, where the Sikh founder lived for many years.
But the SAD is crediting the centre for big ticket projects. Union minister Harsimrat Badal on Tuesday thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for developing Sultanpur Lodhi as a heritage city, plan to set up a National Institute of Inter-Faith Studies in Punjab and ‘Pind Bebe Nanki Da’, an eco-tourism project depicting the life and teachings of Guru Nanak. She said the National Implementation Committee (NIC) will be planning year-long programme to commemorate the event.
The Badals are also projecting the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), the knowledge partners for celebrating the anniversary by the Centre, as the main state organiser. It maintains their domination of Akali political apparatus.
Amarinder, on his part, has made former prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh as the patron of the state-level organising committee headed by him.
He has also roped in the Sant Samaj, a conglomerate of various Panthic organisations, and urged SGPC chief Gobind Singh Longowal on Monday to join the celebrations. The latter too called on him at his residence to extend an invitation for the celebrations being launched by it the same day.
Some Sant Samaj patrons have requested people to gather at Bargari on November 25 for the celebrations. BJP, whose political graph has been on the decline in the state, is helping RSS in mobilising support for building the Ram Temple at Ayodhya. State leaders of RSS are holding meets with BJP functionaries to chalk out the plan of action.
"After the main rally at Delhi on December 9, where we will give a call for making the Ram Temple, we will start similar events in all districts," RSS Punjab leader Narender Ji said.