NEW DELHI: In its continuing effort to win over the Sikhs and farmers back, the BJP on Wednesday inducted senior Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Manjinder Singh Sirsa into the party. The move comes a couple of months ahead of the assembly elections in five states, particularly Punjab and Uttar Pradesh, and during the ongoing farmers’ protest over minimum support price (MSP) and other issues.
Besides being a former two-time Delhi assembly MLA, Sirsa was also the president of the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC). In fact, he resigned from the post just on Wednesday, shortly before he joined the BJP in the presence of Union home minister Amit Shah and party president JP Nadda in New Delhi.
In a tweet, he said: “With gratitude to all office-bearers, members, staff, and people who worked with me, I am resigning from Delhi Sikh Gurudwara Management Committee as President. I will not contest the upcoming DSGMC internal elections. My commitment to serve my community, humanity and nation remains (the) same!”
The BJP has been wooing the Sikhs more vigorously ever since the farmers’ protest was launched on November 26 last year at the three Delhi borders. Sirsa joining the party appears to be a step in that direction.
Sirsa was a vociferous critic of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) legislated by the Centre in 2019. He was against granting citizenship to minorities from India’s neighbouring countries of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan based on religion. As a mark of protest, he did not contest the 2020 Delhi assembly election during the peak of Shaheen Bagh protests in the national capital.
Subsequently, as a leader of SAD, he was also against the three farm laws. While SAD broke away from the BJP-led NDA at the Centre, Sirsa became an active protester at the Delhi borders organising langars for the farmers who have been camping there since November 26 last year.
By one stroke of inducting Sirsa, the BJP has silenced a prominent voice of the Sikhs and farmers against its government.
The move comes about a couple of months before the forthcoming assembly elections. A large section of the protesters at the Delhi borders comprise largely Sikhs and mainly from Punjab besides some from Haryana and western UP.
A large number of Sikhs were being viewed as opponents of the BJP. The Lakhimpur Kheri incident of UP, in which four Sikh farmers were allegedly mowed down by a vehicle owned by Union minister of state for home Ajay Mishra’s son Ashish Mishra on October 3, added fuel to the already surging anger against the ruling party at the Centre and in UP.
Meanwhile, former Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh, who quit the Congress after stepping down from the post on September 20 on receiving orders from the party high command, had announced that he was willing to join hands with the BJP if the farmers’ protest was resolved.
Recently Amarinder formed his party called Punjab Lok Congress and declared that he had spoken with Union home minister Amit Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi about an alliance between the two parties in his state.
After Amarinder, Sirsa is a major Sikh face to get associated with the BJP. It would help the BJP in allaying the anger of the Sikhs and the farmers.
The BJP and PM Modi have already taken several steps recently to appease the Sikhs. He visited Delhi’s 18th-century Gurdwara Sis Ganj Sahib on May 1 on the occasion of the 400th Prakash Purab of Guru Tegh Bahadur. He reached there without a special route or special arrangements.
Just two days before Guru Nanak Jayanti, the Centre reopened the Kartarpur Sahib Corridor which was closed for about one-and-a-half years. Kartarpur inside Pakistan is the place where Sikhs’ first guru, Guru Nanak, spent the last 18 years of his life.
Amit Shah tweeted on November 16: “In a major decision, that will benefit large numbers of Sikh pilgrims, PM @Narendramodi govt has decided to re-open the Kartarpur Sahib Corridor from tomorrow, Nov 17. This decision reflects the immense reverence of Modi govt towards Shri Guru Nanak Dev Ji and our Sikh community.”
On the morning of Guru Nanak Jayanti on November 19, PM Modi surprised all by announcing the repeal of the three farm laws. The laws were indeed repealed on the very first day of the winter session of Parliament on November 29.
The farmers have not yet withdrawn their agitation though, putting six demands before the government and they include according to a legal guarantee to minimum support price (MSP) and compensation to 700 of them who died at the Delhi borders in the last year.
The joining of Sirsa after Amarinder announced an electoral pact with the BJP is a major development for the party to win over the Sikhs and the farmers once again.
