Op/Ed: SAD (Badal) Delegation En-route to North America May Face Staunch Opposition

CHANDIGARH, Punjab—Ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal) is going to send its high power delegation to Canada, US and other countries to uplift its graph there among Sikh Diaspora.

The delegation includes state education minister Dr. Daljit Singh Cheema, CM advisor Maheshinder Singh Grewal and former MLA Inderiqbal Singh Atwal.  Akali delegation would hold various meetings with migrant Sikhs to mobilize them in support of the party as well as propagate major tasks done in last 8 years by their government.

Before leaving for the visit, Atwal said that SAD (B) is supreme organization of Punjabis and has been taking care their interests. He said that they would compete with the forces who “mislead” the migrant Punjabis against the party by spreading “false propaganda” against it.

It is worth mentioning that led by Parkash Badal, SAD (B) has lost base among Sikh Diaspora due to its anti-Sikh agenda which was adopted by it in Moga conference held in 1996. In that conference, the SAD (B) had formally announced to turn itself from Sikh party to Punjabi party discarding Sikh concerns.

Forming an alliance with Hindu extremist force RSS through its political wing BJP, it has been suppressing the Sikh voice and violating the human rights of various Panthik bodies which are struggling for freedom for Sikhs in Indian peninsula. These are some reasons that Sikh diaspora strongly dislikes this controversial party. Sikhs advocacy group ‘Sikhs for Justice’ has taken legal action in US courts against the CM Parkash Badal and its senior leader from New Delhi, Manjit Singh GK for human rights abuse in Punjab.

Now, the party is trying to find losing ground in the said countries in view of forthcoming Punjab assembly elections of 2017. This visit is also the part of ongoing practice. Prior to this, SAD (B) MP Prem Singh Chandumajra has visited both the countries.  Chandumarja kept a low profile during his visit, and only spoke publicly at two events.  Similarly, Manjit Singh GK too has been unable to speak publicly as he has been served with summons by a New York federal court.