One of the legendary stories related to the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) is about the near-absurd levels of honesty that one of its most illustrious leaders, Master Tara Singh, displayed as a matter of routine. Former Indian Administrative Service officer and widely respected professor of Sikhism, Gurtej Singh, recalls how Master once refused to be dropped near his Putlighar residence, quite near the SGPC office in Amritsar, because it was an official car, paid for by the “sangat”. After all, the Guru was watching.

Several versions of the story, possibly apocryphal, have done the rounds over decades among Sikh circles – much like the tale about Lal Bahadur Shastri’s famous resignation following a train accident.

But perhaps honesty was then not making much news, since that was in any case the staple of the times – being an idealist, or a naxalite, or a hippie – or a quintessentially panthic leader.

Much has changed since then. Not least in the SGPC. And now there are two of them.

Since 1925, after the Punjab Council (not Assembly) passed the Sikh Gurdwara Act and the SGPC was formed to run the Sikh shrines as a culmination of the Gurdwara Reform Movement, it virtually fought parallel to and often in intended or unintended conjunction with the freedom struggle. The community has passed through phases that match the vast sweep of sub-continental history – a history of division.

The sub-continent was divided, the country partitioned, Punjab vivisected, and for the community, some of its holiest shrines lost to a different country.

Then, the post-partitioned-left-over Punjab saw the Punjabi Suba movement of the sixties, leaving behind a rump of a state, and both the 1925 Act and the SGPC became the children of multiple states – Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh – areas that the Act covered.

With the Punjab Reorganisation Act 1966 virtually making the Union of India the grand daddy of the Act because of such multiple parentage, the Akalis were forever condemned to sing the tune of “Centre is interfering in Sikh affairs”.

For every single change in the 1925 Act – increasing the number of Sikh Takhts from four to five, or reserving seats for women – the community (read the SGPC), had to knock at Delhi’s door.

Throughout Punjab’s dark era of the early‘80s, and before and after it, “Delhi is against us” was the defining stance of the Akali Dal, which lorded over the SGPC. There was little competition from rival Akali Dal clones, and none from Congress. The SGPC budgets, meanwhile, bloated into crores and then hundreds of crores, now touching nearly a thousand crore.

A lot has changed in the country with the advent of Narendra Modi, and you can see that in Punjab. Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, currently in the throes of a no-holds barred battle with Haryana and Congress, is singing a tune the Sikhs have hardly ever heard – “The Centre is with us. The Centre must intervene in Sikh religious affairs.”

This latest truth versus falsehood war of epic panthic proportions began exactly 14 years ago. Haryana-based SGPC members complained of discrimination and exclusion from decision-making, and said they would rather have their own SGPC.

Of the 185 elected members of the SGPC, 11 come from Haryana. The Om Prakash Chautala-led Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) in the Jatland is in cahoots with the Badals, sharing more than a political understanding. Just as the SGPC money is widely understood to fund Shiromani Akali Dal’s (SAD) politics, the INLD stands to gain from Badals’ inroads into Haryana’s Sikh shrines.

Those who felt excluded found their interests converging with the Congress’. Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, having alienated vast sections of non-Jats, wants to woo some, and found a worthy cause in the demand for a separate SGPC. In 2005, it figured in Congress’ manifesto, in 2007 came an exploratory panel, and in 2014, Hooda sprang a bill upon Badal that the latter considered enough cause for threatening to give up Chief Ministership and lead the kind of protest he is well known for – Morcha.

Much has been said about whether Haryana could pass a bill to set up a new SGPC, given the “fact” that Sikh Gurdwara Act 1925 is now the Centre’s baby. Interestingly, not many have so far cited the Punjab Termination of Agreements Act 2004 passed by Amarinder Singh’s Congress government that was widely seen as a direct challenge to Constitutional scheme of things, and was supported by Badal. (That Act went for Presidential Reference, and the apex court has seized of it.)

With their sway over a saffron Centre, Badals have managed to display some muscle – the Union Home Secretary wrote to Haryana Chief Secretary, asking him to tell the Governor not withdraw his assent to the bill passed by the Assembly. Under what provision a Governor can do so – after finalisation of the legislative process including notification and gazetting – is not clear to anyone. The Badals are spoiling for a fight, and see it as a direct challenge to their hold on the SGPC. Any possibility of their hold on SGPC weakening scares them. It’s the cash cow that SAD milks routinely. The Haryana Sikh Gurdwaras (Management) Bill, 2014 has brought back the politics of the 1980s.

In this eye-for-an-eye situation, the Badals have uncharacteristically upped the scales. Badal Sr may resign, and his Deputy and son Sukhbir Singh Badal may take over. A morcha style agitation may bring back to the SAD those voters who veered away after the Akali Dal gave up its panthic character under Sukhbir’s leadership in order to don secular robes.

As in any high decibel joust, the argumentative Sikhs’ nuanced articulation and analysis of the situation has been utterly lost. Can Haryana lawfully establish its own SGPC? And can the Centre thwart the free will of an Assembly? These have become a sort of reductive binary, excluding all complex questions.

“If Haryana’s Sikhs have, through the new Act, liberated their gurdwaras, then how will Punjab Sikhs get theirs liberated? After all, it’s no one’s case that SGPC’s mismanagement was only Haryana-centric!” said Hardeep Singh, an independent and vocal SGPC member. Master Tara Singh’s granddaughter and SGPC member Kiranjot Kaur, a much respected voice, dissented when Akal Takht excommunicated three Sikh leaders of Haryana for disobeying its dictate to not back a separate SGPC.”The clergy has long been an SAD affair, and this Akal Takht directive has only deepened the divide “, said Dr Balkar Singh of Department of Sri Guru Granth Sahib Studies at Punjabi University, Patiala.

In this Haryana versus Punjab, Akali versus Congress, Badal versus Hooda and SGPC versus HSGPC debate, those pushing for the need to expand the democratic space in management of Sikh shrines and better regulation of community resources are not being heard.

For years, demands for making the religious body accountable when it comes to measurable deliverables, financial aspects, management of real estate owned by the community and end use of the golak have been brushed aside.

Some consequences can be seen already. It’s for the first time that Congress’ clear interference in Sikh religious affairs has not triggered widespread protests, and SAD is cutting a lonely figure on the political firmament.

Voices from the radical fringe of Dal Khalsa, Damdami Taksal and others seem more liberal than the SAD’s stance, and the moderate Badals are resorting to a grammar of morchas, aar-paar ki larayee, and that old redoubtable slogan – Panth is in danger.

Interestingly, Badals have skipped taking legal recourse though they made a lot of noise about Haryana’s act being a money bill. Haryana claims that a separate statutory body to manage its own gurdwaras flows from Section 72 of the Punjab State Reorganisation Act 1966. Legal opinion is currently divided.

When local tiffs flare up, attracting OB vans of news channels, small-time dirty but public secrets that survive in the nooks and crannies of provincial politics become Breaking News in large font. Suddenly, SGPC’s Task Force, a ragtag body of armed men that SGPC president Avtar Singh Makkar has sent to gurdwaras in Haryana was in the news, hardly adding respectability to a religious cause.

With battle lines drawn, and one side claiming Akal Takht and Delhi durbar on its side, some Sikh intellectuals are now planning to observe an Ardas Diwas (Prayer Day) to pray for better sense to prevail.

Going by past experience, if Merciful Providence delays immediate relief and good sense did not prevail, Force(s) are all set to carry out their respective Task(s). This week, Badal called on editors of various newspapers in person – his signature style to indicate he is preparing a big move.

Has anything changed since the 1980s? “Since 1966”, Sikh legislative affairs expert and advocate Manjit Singh Khaira, currently backing Haryana’s new HSGMC, corrects me. “Since 1947”, further corrects a former Jathedar of Akal Takht, lamenting that “Khulle Darshan Didaar” (free access) to gurdwaras was now not even possible in neighbouring Haryana, forget about Nankana Sahib. How far back can a community go, in its quest to do “sewa”? A long way back, if you go by Badals’ plans. But then these days, ruling politicians in Punjab use choppers, and there is no Master Tara Singh around to agonise over scruples about official SGPC cars.