Punjab politics: HS Phoolka to join Shiromani Akali Dal

Former Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA from Dakha and human rights lawyer Harvinder Singh Phoolka, 69, on Saturday announced that he would be joining the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD).
A Jat Sikh from the Malwa belt of Punjab who has been fighting a four-decade-long legal battle for victims of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, Phoolka told reporters in Chandigarh that there is an urgent need to revive and strengthen Punjab’s leading regional party, the SAD.
“The recent reforms in SAD’s leadership are a positive development that instills hope among those who have long awaited a rejuvenated Akali Dal. Punjab needs a strong regional party to address its unique challenges. The current leadership has acknowledged past mistakes, creating a new opportunity to rebuild trust and expand membership,” he said.
Phoolka criticised the Bhagwant Mann-led AAP government’s failure to ensure adequate security for former SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal, who had a narrow escape when former Khalistani terrorist Narain Singh Chaura fired at him, while he was performing sewa (penance for religious misconduct) at the Golden Temple entrance in Amritsar on December 4.
The former leader of opposition in the Punjab assembly, who resigned in 2017 when he was debarred from practising as a lawyer for acquiring an office of profit, appealed to the SAD core committee to launch a membership drive, pledging to be among the first to register.
A law graduate from Panjab University, Chandigarh, who went on to become a human rights lawyer relentlessly fighting for justice for the Sikh community, Phoolka has the right credentials to emerge as a consensus candidate to head the SAD.
He, however, clarified: “I am not seeking any designation within the party or planning to contest the elections. My focus is solely on fortifying the Akali Dal and restoring its original stature.”
Phoolka’s decision to join the SAD comes five days after Akal Takht, the supreme temporal seat of the Sikhs, asked the Shiromani Akali Dal working committee to accept Sukhbir Singh Badal’s resignation as the SAD chief and constitute a panel to reorganise the party in six months.
Sukhbir was declared a ‘tankhaiya’ in August by Akal Takht after he was held guilty of religious misconduct “for mistakes committed by the party when it was in power in Punjab from 2007 to 2017”, including pardoning Sirsa-based Dera Sacha Sauda head Gurmeet Ram Rahim in 2015 that triggered clashes between Dera followers and Sikhs in parts of Punjab.