Badungar loses favour with Badals, was non-pliant
CHANDIGARH: Kirpal Singh Badungar (75), who was brought in as president of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) a year ago, when the panth was facing a turmoil after incidents of sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib, was replaced by a new face Gobind Singh Longowal.
It seems he failed in the “big job” assigned to him, to reconnect with the Sikhs masses, spruce up gurdwara management and ‘dharma parchar’.
His removal was on expected lines when in a meeting with the SGPC elected members a few days before the presidential polls, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal had signalled Badungar’s ouster.
He even earned wrath of the SAD high command for not acceding to the way they wanted him to work. Looking back at Badungar’s one year, his second term in the top post of the coveted body had controversy over appointment of five secretaries and not giving funds to the World Sikh University in Fatehgarh Sahib. Also, his removal points towards a leadership crisis in the Sikhs’ religio–political set-up that no leaders have emerged after death of Gurcharan Singh Tohra, who remained SGPC president for 29 years.
All SGPC presidents who were appointed after Tohra including Bibi Jagir Kaur, Jagdev Singh Talwandi and Badungar, could not last beyond a term of one year. Is it deficit of trust from the party
high command or lack of leadership incase of all three, but baring Avtar Singh Makkar, none could go beyond a year’s term. Makkar was no favourite, but managed to stay on the top post because of a Supreme Court’s order that froze the general body led by Makkar over a pending amendment in gurdwara act 1925, in the parliament
for no vote right to sehajdhari Sikhs in the SGPC polls.
Sukhbir Badal led SAD has majority among 170 members in general house, and he alongwith his father and former CM Parkash Singh Badal as patron of the party plays a key role in selecting the name to head to coveted committee. In the fag-end of his tenure,
Badungar had a clash with Sikh clergy when it failed accept celebration for Guru Gobind Singh’s birth anniversary on January 5, as passed by the SGPC executive body led by Badungar. The clergy fixed December 25, on a day clashing with three day Jor mela in Fatehgarh Sahib to mark martyrdom day of two sahibzadas of Guru Gobind Singh.
“Badungar remained involved in the day-to-day management affairs, but failed to carry out a course correction of damage that panthic constituency suffered in the past few years. Also, he was not listening much to the party cadres, that annoyed the top brass,” said a party insider on anonymity. He said, “Badungar thought himself to an unmatchable choice, which is never true in politics.”
Mild-mannered, having academic credentials and a clean image did not work in Badungar’s favour as he was unable to create a fine balance between religion and politics. Having good equations with Badal-baiters on the radical side, Badungar was unable to take along SGPC members and Akali leaders.