Mending fences: BJP’s attempt at building bridges with the Sikh community post the farmer protests

Led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the BJP is making conspicuous overtures to the Sikh community. It was evident at the televised Veer Bal Diwas, presided over by the PM, to commemorate the sacrifice of the two younger sons of the tenth Sikh guru, Guru Gobind Singh, on December 26. In November 2021, the PM chose Guru Nanak’s birth anniversary to repeal the three farm laws that had sparked what is arguably independent India’s longest farm agitation. The farmers’ movement had pitted the Punjab peasantry against the BJP, once a junior partner of Shiromani Akali Dal, the oldest regional party of India, which had for long alternated with Congress in ruling Punjab.

The farm agitation proved to be a watershed for the state in many ways, paving the way for a clean sweep by the Aam Aadmi Party in the February 2022 election. The results marked a radical shift in the Punjab polity, shrinking the Akali Dal, and pushing Congress to the margins. As the AAP government in Punjab tries to find its feet in the mercurial state, perhaps the BJP sees a window of opportunity. Once considered a party of largely urban Hindu traders, its Punjab unit is now a mix of formerly dyed-in-the-wool Congressmen like Captain Amarinder Singh and Sunil Jakhar, and panthic faces close to Gurcharan Singh Tohra, the longest-serving president of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee.

But even in the best of times, Punjab has never been an easy conquest. The AAP is already struggling with protests born of high expectations. For the BJP, it’s a long walk back from the acrimonious agitation, which also saw efforts to tar the community, especially the peasantry, as separatists. Moreover, the fall of the Akali Dal has opened up spaces for radical forces — the victory of Akali Dal (Amritsar) president Simranjit Singh Mann, a divisive leader, in the Sangrur Lok Sabha bypolls, merely three months after the assembly elections last year, is a case in point. For now, the BJP appears to be trying hard to make all the politically correct noises. For instance, commenting on CM Bhagwant Mann’s failed meeting on the Satluj Yamuna Link canal, which had stoked tensions in the early 1980s, BJP state president Ashwani Sharma warned that Punjab had no drop of water to spare for another state — a line that, the BJP calculates, will resonate in the countryside. What the border state, which is often a target of sabotage from across the border, requires, however, is a party that can hold all sections and streams together. Whether the BJP has the acumen and a heart large enough for the task remains to be seen.