Scrapping blacklist of Sikh NRIs won't help Badals in Punjab polls

Many gurdwaras in Europe, the United States and Canada have photos of slain militant leader Jarnail Singh Bhindrawale hung on their walls. Portraits depicting the assassination of then prime minister Indira Gandhi are also common there. 

Back in Punjab though, Khalistan is no longer a rallying topic.

On Friday, August 19, news reports about what was claimed to be a PMO-driven move to scrap a 32-year-old Indian blacklist of diasporic Sikhs made an exaggerated assumption. Reports said the measure would be cheered by thousands of Sikhs in the election-bound state.

According to reports, a home ministry committee has taken 212 entries off the 324-strong list of overseas Sikhs who were banned to travel back home because of their suspected links with Punjab's decade-and-a-half-long militancy.

32 years is a long period.

Also read: Akali Dal-BJP has let the Punjabi youth sink deeper into crisis

Reports gave no breakdown of the 212 families/individuals who might be able to visit Punjab again. Perhaps, officials didn't brief the journalists on purpose about their present age and status.

By conservative estimates, most of the unbanned Sikhs may be more than 70 years, if they are still alive. It's unclear how many of them are craving to visit Punjab, except for religious reasons.

The Indian Army's Operation Blue Star wounded the Sikh psyche irreparably. 

Diasporic Sikhs, who have no reason to fear ostracism, commemorate the 1984 attack on the holiest of the Sikh shrines as a lasting ordinance - through art work, TV debates, anniversary events and public seminars.

The BJP government's travel permit for the 212 of them is, therefore, unlikely to sooth their sentiments about the events of 1984 in Amritsar. Nor will Punjab erupt in euphoria over the arrival of the 212 Sikhs, mostly aged, should they decide to conduct a group tour of their home state.

Also read: How government is aiding a separatist agenda in Punjab

Sikh perceptions about Operation Blue Star and the remnants of the erstwhile Khalistan movement are finely disparate.

At most, the easing of travel restrictions is a Sikh card that the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) has played through its ally at the Centre.

The Badals will most likely use it as a talking point in their election speeches from religious podiums.

A large section of the Sikh community, within and outside of India, is also worried about what is widely believed to be the misuse of the Akal Takht, the highest seat of Sikh temporal authority, under the watch of the Badals.

The Takht's Jathedar, or head, is appointed by the executive committee of the SAD-controlled Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC).

Diasporic Sikhs in Europe, the United States and Canada have already launched a "Free Akal Takht Movement".

So to predict that pruning a couple of hundred Sikhs from an already outdated blacklist will pay rich political dividends to the embattled Badal family is a fallacious presumption.