If it made an already awkward situation worse, Sukhbir Singh Badal ensured he showed no sign of it. On Tuesday, as the former Punjab Deputy Chief Minister sat on “punishment” guard duty at the Golden Temple, on the orders of the Akal Takht, a woman approached him and bent down to take his blessings, touching his fractured leg. She reportedly mistook him for a holy man.
Surrounded by his own guards – Badal is a Z-plus protectee – and party leaders who stood a little distance away in solemn deference, the Akali Dal leader spent the hour he had to serve in silence, or reciting something under his breath, his eyes fixed on the ground, and straying nowhere near the placard that hung around his neck.
It carried a hymn from the Gurbani, translated as: “The True Guru, the Primal Being, is free of revenge and hate; He is God, the Great Giver. I am a sinner; You are my Forgiver. That sinner, who finds no protection anywhere… If he comes seeking Your Sanctuary, then he becomes immaculate and pure.”
A few Akali leaders tried to get around the tension by greeting Badal, who wore the robe of a “sevak (servant)” and carried a spear sported by the usual Golden Temple guards.
A big part of the guard duty is ensuring that no one enters the premises of the Darbar Sahib without a head covering, but no one pressed Badal to do his part.
If the 62-year-old, whose resignation as Akali Dal chief is set to be accepted after the Akal Takht’s orders, sat in a wheelchair at one end of the Golden Temple gate, at the other sat former Rajya Sabha MP Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa.
Dhindsa’s day wasn’t any better as, having rebelled against the SAD, it was perhaps the closest and longest time he had spent with his former party chief. The entourage around the 88-year-old was smaller, and as the winter sun dappled his wheelchair, Dhindsa appeared to be nodding off.
Tuesday was the first day of the religious punishment ordered by the Akal Takht for Badal and other Akali leaders, besides Dhindsa, over the “mistakes” made by the SAD government in Punjab from 2007 to 2017. They are required to perform these duties for a consecutive 10 days.
As a courtesy for their age, Badal and Dhindsa were spared penalty such as cleaning toilets – unlike Akali heavyweight Bikram Singh Majithia, for example – and put on guard duty. After an hour of that, they are required to listen to at least an hour of kirtan (devotional songs) at the Golden Temple and do around an hour more of some “kar seva”. Badal volunteered with collecting dirty utensils after the langar.
Brother-in-law Majithia, also declared a “tankhaiya”, cleaned toilets at the Guru Arjan Dev inn near the Golden Temple. The devotees and guests were instructed not to use the toilets while the Akali leaders were cleaning them. Majithia, 48, got down on his haunches to clean the toilets, impressing several with his “fitness”.
Some Akali leaders have been put on kitchen duty, and those doing kar seva Tuesday included SAD working president Balwinder Singh Bhundar and former ministers Daljit Singh Cheema, Jagir Kaur, Prem Singh Chandumajra, Sucha Singh Langah, Mahesh Inder Singh Grewal, Charanjit Singh Atwal, Adesh Partap Singh Kairon, Janmeja Singh Sekhon, Hira Singh Gabria, Gulzar Singh Ranike, Surjit Singh Rakhra, and Parminder Singh Dhindsa.
Chandumajra, among the few who spoke after the seva, said: “We are busy as such in worldly affairs. But when we perform seva at a gurdwara, we realise our mistakes. Seva makes us humble. It makes God happy. Seva makes one pledge to correct our mistakes.”
Visitors to the Golden Temple, especially the non-Sikhs who were not aware of the punishment ordered for the leaders, looked on curiously at Badal and Dhindsa. But the Sikh devotees were mostly in agreement that Badal had to pay for what he did. “It is God’s house. You have to pay for your sins sooner or later. You can’t escape divine justice,” two among them discussed, as they looked on at Badal.
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