Decode Politics: Why Sukhbir Badal seeks PM Modi intervention in Shinde govt’s Hazur Sahib Board rejig

When Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) chief and MP Sukhbir Singh Badal on Friday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, seeking his intervention in the Maharashtra government’s move to reconstitute the Shri Hazur Sahib Gurdwara Management Board, not only was he signalling a thaw in relations between the BJP and the SAD ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, he also put the spotlight back on structural changes in India’s four main gurdwara management institutions and democratic crises in their governing bodies since 2014.

While their alliance talks are reportedly underway, it would not be easy for the SAD to join hands with the BJP again without ensuring reversal of some of the changes made in leading Sikh institutions in the BJP-ruled states.

Badal called the move by the Maharashtra government — in which the BJP is a key part of the ruling coalition led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde — a “provocative and brazen interference” in the functioning of the board governing the Takht Sachkhand Shri Huzoor Sahib at Nanded, Abchal Nagar Sahib, Maharashtra, through an amendment to the Nanded Sikh Gurdwara Sachkhand Hazur Abchal Nagar Sahib Act, 1956.

In his letter to the PM, Badal reminded the Centre that one of the key commitments to Sikhs made by the Government of India after Independence was that it would not interfere in the management of Sikh shrines or other religious affairs without prior approval of a two-thirds majority in the General House of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), which, by virtue of its power in choosing the Akal Takht Jathedar, remains the apex body of Sikhs in India.

This is not the first time that a gurdwara management institution — whether a board as in Nanded, or a committee as in Punjab, Haryana and