By Jaideep Sarin, IANS
Chandigarh,: The latest move by Akali Dal-led Punjab government Wednesday night, allowing the police to arrest the Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmit Ram Rahim Singh, can only worsen the relationship between Sikh hardliners and Dera followers.
The Dera chief – who lives in a sprawling mini-city on the outskirts of Sirsa town in neighbouring Haryana, 300 km from here – is unlikely to give in easily when the policemen try to arrest him.
A Bathinda court issued the arrest warrant June 20. A month before that, the police had registered a case, accusing the Dera chief of hurting religious sentiments of Sikhs.
The warrant is valid till July 1. The sect chief plans to visit Uttar Pradesh and other states during the next three days.
The Punjab police will have to depend on the willingness of their colleagues in Haryana to carry out the arrest.
Before the Punjab government gave the sanction for the arrest, Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda had ducked the question of helping the Punjab police. He had described the question as “hypothetical”. Now it has become very real, and will probably trouble Hooda quite a bit.
Thousands of sect members who have gathered in Sirsa are likely to physically oppose the arrest of Gurmit Ram Rahim Singh. The sect has over two million followers in Punjab and Haryana. If they turn violent, the two states may see a repeat of the May incidents, when there was widespread violence and arson in the wake of the controversy.
While the Sikh community has maintained its tough stand on the controversy that erupted after the Dera head portrayed himself like the tenth Sikh guru Gobind Singh, Gurmit Ram Rahim Singh himself has perhaps not done enough to resolve the controversy.
He has apologised to the Sikh clergy twice, but both apologies have been interpreted as reluctant. They clearly fell short of the conditions laid down by the Sikh religious leaders.
The ruling Akali Dal is obviously annoyed with the Dera chief, who had sided openly with the Congress in the last assembly election. But the Punjab government cannot wish him away. He has a large following in the state, especially among the poor.
The average resident of Punjab and Haryana can only wait and watch in trepidation as the possibility of violence becomes more real all the time.