Seek forgiveness from Panth: SAD panel to party leadership

The 13-member panel of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) formed to suggest “course correction” for the party after its recent rout in the Punjab assembly elections wants the leadership to seek forgiveness from the Akal Takht and Panth for all “inadvertent or advertent mistakes” committed in the past.

The panel has submitted its report to the party’s core committee, which is the top decision-making body, while clarifying that the appeal for forgiveness should be “specific” by naming all controversies that surrounded the Akali Dal during its 10-year rule between 2007 and 2017, and calling the leadership to accept the punishment as per the tenets of Sikhism.

The panel was set up on the insistence of the core committee to tour the state and meet party workers to hear their grouse and suggest course correction. In a 20-page report, it has made 42 suggestions.

“We have explained all issues concerning the party and discussed them with senior leaders Balwinder Singh Bhunder and Prem Singh Chandumajra. The report will be made public soon,” said Iqbal Singh Jhundan, who heads the committee. He said the party also failed to counter unwarranted criticism and its social media presence was weak, for which suggestions for improvement have been made in the report.

The panel, it is learnt, has also recommended changes in the top leadership and left it to the senior leaders to make a call. “We can’t pin the blame entirely on a section of leadership; we all are responsible at some level,” said Gurpartap Singh Wadala, a panel member, while adding that they held at least 100 meetings with people across the state since April 4 before preparing the report.

‘Cadre felt left out’

Wadala said party workers were angry with the leadership, as they felt “left out” and were saddened over the party’s worst show in the state polls. “According to them, the party deviated from the Panthic ideology and started projecting itself as a secular Punjabi party in the past 15-20 years,” he said.

Wadala said the report asks the party leadership to follow the Panthic ideology, establish contact with the peasantry and downtrodden strata of society.