Punjab's political memory becomes particularly unforgiving when questions of power intersect with faith, injury and delayed justice. More than a decade after the 2015 sacrilege incidents and the police firing at Behbal Kalan, Sukhbir Singh Badal continues to face sustained political attacks. The ruling Aam Aadmi Party, along with dissident Akalis and other opponents, repeatedly return to Bargari, Kotkapura and Behbal Kalan whenever Shiromani Akali Dal-Badal (SAD-B) attempts to rebuild its organisation or regain political ground.
Sukhbir Singh Badal may have completed the religious punishment imposed upon him, but his party is still being made to serve a political punishment.
That raises an uncomfortable question: is SAD-Badal genuinely haunted by an unresolved past, or are the ruling party and its other rivals deliberately keeping that past alive because it remains the Badal leadership's greatest political vulnerability?
The answer lies somewhere between the two.
Why 2015 Has Returned to the Political Debate
The Behbal Kalan investigation has once again brought the events of 2015 to the centre of Punjab politics.
According to reports, the SIT questioned former Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Raghbir Singh about the proceedings held before the Akal Takht on December 2, 2024, including the answers given by Sukhbir Singh Badal. The exact nature of what was acknowledged during those proceedings, and its possible legal relevance, is now sharply disputed.
Giani Raghbir Singh's reported account has been interpreted by SAD's opponents as carrying specific implications for the Behbal Kalan case. Sukhbir Singh Badal and his party reject that interpretation, maintaining that he accepted broad moral and political responsibility as the head of the then government, rather than criminal responsibility for a particular act. Sukhbir Singh Badal reacted strongly."Neither am I afraid of cases being registered against me, nor am I afraid of going to jail," he said. He also clarified his Akal Takht submission, "As a humble Sikh, I took full responsibility for any fault committed by the SAD government and even for causing hurt, if any, to anyone."
His party argues that statements made by a Sikh while submitting to a religious process should not be selectively converted into evidence of criminal liability. According to the party, doing so could compromise the autonomy and sanctity of the Akal Takht. Its opponents offer a different argument. They say that an acknowledgment made before the Akal Takht, the highest temporal seat of the Sikhs, cannot be invoked for religious atonement and then treated as irrelevant when questions of governmental accountability arise.
The distinction is crucial. A general acceptance of moral or political responsibility is not automatically an admission of involvement in a particular criminal act. Nevertheless, the SIT development has ensured that the past is again shaping the present.
From a Law and Order Failure to a Crisis of Faith
The sacrilege controversy was never viewed in Punjab as an ordinary administrative failure. It entered Sikh religious memory. The police firing at Behbal Kalan, in which two anti-sacrilege protesters were killed, deepened the rupture. Questions over who authorised the police response, what senior functionaries knew and why accountability remained delayed transformed the episode into a continuing crisis of confidence.
Congress, the Aam Aadmi Party, dissident Akalis and other Panthic formations have all used the issue against the Badal leadership. But it would be too convenient to suggest that the controversy survives only because political opponents keep reviving it. Rivals can exploit a wound; they cannot sustain it indefinitely unless a section of society continues to believe that it has not healed.
The December 2024 Proceedings
Against this background, Sukhbir Singh Badal and several former Akali ministers appeared before the Akal Takht on December 2, 2024. Sukhbir did not appear only as a former deputy chief minister or party president. He appeared as a Sikh submitting to the authority of the Akal Takht. During the proceedings, he accepted responsibility for mistakes committed by the government of that period, placing them, in his words, in his own "jholi".
The Akal Takht imposed religious punishment on him and other Akali leaders. Sukhbir subsequently performed the prescribed sewa at Sri Darbar Sahib. During that period, an armed man attempted to shoot him outside the Golden Temple. He escaped unharmed. The attack was widely condemned, and rightly so. But the attack, the sympathy it generated and the completion of the prescribed sewa did not settle SAD's larger political crisis.
Parkash Singh Badal, the father of Sukhbir Singh Badal, had died in April 2023. The Akal Takht, however, posthumously withdrew the Panth Rattan Fakhr-e-Qaum title conferred upon him in 2011. That decision was deeply symbolic. Badal was a five-time chief minister and one of the most consequential figures in modern Punjab politics.
His admirers remember him as a federalist, a consensus-builder and an architect of Hindu-Sikh political cooperation. His critics associate the final decade of his rule with the sacrilege crisis, the police firing, allegations of failure to control the drug trade, and the concentration of political and institutional influence. Both versions now form part of his legacy.
Did Religious Atonement Produce Political Closure?
The completion of the prescribed sewa closed the religious punishment imposed upon Sukhbir Singh Badal. It did not, however, close the legal investigation or restore political trust. The Akal Takht determines matters of Sikh discipline and Panthic conduct. Investigative agencies and courts deal with evidence and criminal responsibility. Voters make a separate judgement about political trust.
SAD therefore faces three different tests:
- The religious test of its obedience to the Akal Takht.
- The legal test before investigators and courts.
- The political test before Punjab's electorate.
Organisational Reform or Restoration?
The December 2024 directions went beyond personal punishment. The Akal Takht instructed SAD to accept Sukhbir Singh Badal's resignation and initiate organisational restructuring through a fresh membership process. Although Sukhbir had resigned in November 2024, the party formally accepted it in January 2025. He returned as SAD president in April following the party's membership and organisational election exercise.
That generated a new controversy.
The SAD maintained that it had to comply with the legal requirements governing a political party. Its critics argued that the party accepted the Takht's authority in matters of religious atonement but followed a separate path when organisational control was at stake. Was the exercise a genuine restructuring of a century-old regional party, or did it ultimately restore the same leadership arrangement? That is a question the party has not yet convincingly answered for all sections of its traditional constituency.
Power Was Shared, but the Burden Was Unequal
The Shiromani Akali Dal and the Bharatiya Janata Party governed Punjab together from 2007 to 2017. As coalition partners, both shared political responsibility for the government's overall record. Yet after the sacrilege incidents and the Behbal Kalan firing, the political and emotional backlash fell overwhelmingly on SAD and the Badal family.
It was said that SAD was the senior partner and controlled the government's most powerful offices. It also claimed a special relationship with Sikh institutions and Panthic concerns. The political and emotional burden therefore fell much more heavily upon SAD and the Badal leadership. The deeper explanation lies in identity.
The Road Back
The SAD retains assets that should not be underestimated. It has a historic name, an experienced cadre, a rural organisational network and a substantial memory of governance. It can also claim a distinct political space as Punjab's principal regional party when AAP, Congress and BJP are all ultimately directed by national leaders outside the state.
Punjab continues to need a force capable of articulating its position on federalism, river waters, Chandigarh, agriculture, border trade and Sikh institutional concerns. But history can become an asset only when accompanied by reform.
For a meaningful political recovery, SAD will have to acknowledge the depth of the damage caused in 2015 without dismissing every question as an opposition conspiracy. It must demonstrate that Sikh institutions can operate independently of party or family influence. Most importantly, the party must move beyond defence of its past and present a serious programme for Punjab's future, covering agriculture, groundwater, drugs, migration, border development, industrial revival, education and employment.
Haunted or Hunted?
It is experiencing both. Its rivals undoubtedly use 2015 to obstruct its political recovery. But the weapon remains effective because SAD has not fully restored the trust damaged during its decade in power. Political ghosts survive when the underlying questions remain unsettled.
The Akal Takht imposed religious punishment, and Sukhbir Singh Badal completed it. However, court proceedings in the interconnected Kotkapura and Behbal Kalan firing cases are continuing in Chandigarh, while the SIT's latest questioning has added a new layer to the investigation. Ultimately, the political punishment will end only with the judgment of Punjab's voters.
(Ravinder Singh Robin is a broadcast journalist with over two decades of experience in covering Punjab, Sikh affairs, border issues, India-Pakistan relations and international developments.)
Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author.
