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The political surroundings isn’t any totally different as Punjab heads into meeting polls in lower than two weeks. There’s a drawback of a lot: There are too many political events within the fray and other people aren’t positive what the political harvest would yield.
Historically, akin to the monoculture kind of farming practised within the agrarian state that sows paddy and wheat, Punjab has had two events for a very long time: Congress and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD). In 2017, a brand new get together made its entry: Aam Aadmi Occasion (AAP). This yr, the variety of events has diversified. Disgruntled Congressman and former chief minister Amarinder Singh has fashioned Punjab Lok Congress and tied up with Bharatiya Janata Occasion (BJP) and a few Akali leaders. There’s the Sanyukt Samaj Morcha (SSM), a farmers’ union get together, which, like AAP desires to alter Punjab’s politics.
Individuals, nevertheless, level to an irony: Till final December, Punjab led an over-a-year lengthy farmers’ protest in opposition to the Centre’s farm legal guidelines. Whereas the Centre stated farmers would have had the liberty to promote their produce to any purchaser outdoors the state-regulated wholesale markets, farmers feared the legal guidelines would finish in a company takeover of their land and stockpiling of farm produce. They have been pitted in opposition to an elected authorities on the centre, however displayed acute political consciousness and resolve. That pressured the federal government to comply with their calls for. The legal guidelines have been in the end repealed.
The irony: quickly after the protests, the farmers discovered themselves within the midst of an election. They’re imagined to elect a authorities however might discover it arduous to make it accountable. This scepticism is palpable when one talks to farmers.
“This has been occurring for the reason that British left. It fits the state to disregard individuals’s actual energy and distract individuals by means of empty ritual of elections,” says Harinder Kaur Bindu, normal secretary of Bhartiya Kisan Union (Ekta-Ugrahan). “Do you keep in mind how militancy led to 1992? By calling for elections. Solely 23% voted, however a authorities was fashioned. Calling elections is how the state retains a canopy on who actually exploits individuals–the complete political class.”
The political soup
The SAD-BJP authorities, whose regime led to 2017, was mired in controversies, with allegations that the management of the state assets had shifted to mafias in sand, gravel, transport and liquor even because the drug menace continued unabated.
Incidents associated to the sacrilege of holy books and locations of worship, and the killing of two protesters on the Behbal Kalan police firing fuelled the simmering discontent within the state—in October 2015, the police opened fireplace at individuals protesting in opposition to the desecration of the Guru Granth Sahib.
Congress received the 2017 polls not simply due to the SAD-BJP anti-incumbency, but in addition as a result of its then chief Captain Amarinder Singh swore on the Sikh holy textual content to unravel Punjab’s woes. The brand new entrant AAP was considered with numerous cynicism, significantly because it was hobnobbing with these projected as Khalistan sympathizers. The Maur Mandi blast was another excuse that drove many city Hindus to vote for the Congress.
Congress candidate Harminder Singh Jassi had simply completed his ballot marketing campaign on 31 January 2017, three days earlier than the final elections, when a strong bomb blast rocked Maur Mandi close to Bathinda. Seven individuals, together with minors have been killed within the blast, and 14 have been injured.
Regardless of promising to rid the state of the dual evils of corruption and drug menace, the Congress did nothing after coming to energy. To this point, there have been two judicial commissions, three police investigations in addition to a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation into the incidents of sacrilege and police firing. Equally, the Maur Mandi blast probe is hanging fireplace.
The Congress additionally went again on its promise of waiving loans of farmers and labourers. Farm loans have been a delicate challenge within the state. A lot of the Congress inactivity has not gone unnoticed, a lot in order that when Captain Amarinder Singh was not too long ago identified with covid-19 and declared that he would isolate himself, some individuals requested: “However didn’t you isolate your self for the final 4.5 years?”
Although the Akalis have damaged their virtually 25-year-old alliance with the BJP now, farmers say that the get together initially supported the farm legal guidelines. To get the Dalit vote—32% of the inhabitants, SAD has aligned with the Bahujan Samaj Occasion this time and even promised a Dalit deputy chief minister.
As for AAP, Sangeet Toor, a journalist and activist, says that Punjab continues to really feel AAP doesn’t signify its pursuits due to Arvind Kejriwal’s working model. “AAP is conducting tiranga yatras and peace marches to undertaking Punjab as a disturbed space. Individuals view it as a matter of Punjab’s honour. Persons are cautious of Kejriwal who, as the top of AAP and chief minister of Delhi, supported abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir, notified one of many three farm legal guidelines, and is ambiguous over the discharge of Sikh political prisoners,” she says.
During the last yr and a half, owing to anger in opposition to the farm legal guidelines, BJP had turn into persona non grata within the state. It’s got a brand new lease of life after a tie-up with Captain’s Punjab Lok Congress. The current defections from Congress to the BJP and its ticket distribution are indicative of the get together gaining traction, no less than amongst elite Sikhs and concrete Hindus—about 40% of Punjab.
Whereas SSM believes it ought to try to alter politics from inside, its mother or father group, Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM), isn’t impressed. The union physique would favor persevering with as a strain group and stay non-committal to elections.
Communist events which can be a part of SSM are fielding candidates below their flag. It must be seen how SSM fares when it represents just one constituency—farmers—and doesn’t have sufficient presence amongst each Dalits and concrete voters, or in Majha and Doaba areas.
Realpolitik
Late final yr, Congress selected some face-saving measures. It appointed Navjot Singh Sidhu because the Punjab Pradesh Congress chief. He was liable for the ouster of Captain Amarinder Singh because the Congress chief minister. To counter the Akalis, Congress appointed a Dalit face, Charanjit Singh Channi, to the put up of chief minister. It was a daring step and signalled a giant change.
Channi bought 111 days to manipulate. One in every of his first strikes was to put the muse stone for a museum on Babasaheb Ambedkar. He granted funds to instructional establishments and introduced numerous welfare programmes: waiver of pending water and electrical energy payments, discount in tariffs on electrical energy and water, reduce in sand charges, and sops for police and sportspersons, amongst others. Channi’s picture bought a lift on 5 January when Prime Minister Narendra Modi cancelled his Firozepur rally citing safety issues. Channi strongly defended Punjab and received admirers throughout the board.
But, the difficulty with Congress is that former cricketer and opening batsman Sidhu isn’t seen as a lot of a group participant. He’s consistently at loggerheads with Channi. By anointing Channi because the get together’s chief minister candidate, Congress has shifted the narrative from Aam Aadmi (widespread man) to Garib Aadmi (poor man)—that many see as a sign of the autumn of Punjab which was the nation’s primary developed state just a few many years again. It now must be seen how Sidhu initiatives Congress as a united home.
Earlier than declaring Bhagwant Mann because the chief minister candidate, AAP’s slogan was: ‘The entire of Punjab is with Kejriwal.’ It was an assertion however when SSM got here up instead in Malwa, Kejriwal was piqued. Now, the slogan has modified to: ‘Punjab is not going to be cheated once more’.
The Congress has appropriated Sikh prayers to coin its slogan: ‘Punjab Di Chardi Kala, Congress Mange Sarbat Da Bhala’—excessive spirited Punjab seeks welfare of the world’. Sikh our bodies have objected to it and the Election Fee’s phrase is awaited.
In the meantime, the competition between two commoners main the 2 main events—Mann and Channi—alerts an enormous departure from how till now the state has practised elitist politics.
Channi’s picture suffered a blow when the Enforcement Directorate not too long ago raided his nephew over sand mining and located ₹6 crore money within the latter’s possession. The Akalis had their share of issues, when, in December 2021, the Punjab police filed a case in opposition to senior chief Bikram Singh Majithia below the Narcotics and Psychotropic Act on the idea of a report by the Particular Process Pressure. Now, the Supreme Courtroom has prolonged Majithia’s detention till after the elections. Whereas Captain Amirinder Singh retains taking pot-shots at Sidhu, the Akalis have declared that it is going to be Majithia who will tackle Sidhu in Amritsar East.
“These are the primary elections the place conventional Punjab-centric points—Satluj Yamuna Hyperlink canal , Chandigarh, Punjabi-speaking areas, 1984 riots, and so on—should not being raised by any of the principle events,” political analyst professor Harjeshwarpal Singh says. “As an alternative, the principle points are Delhi Mannequin (AAP) versus Punjab Mannequin (Sidhu), free electrical energy and water, pensions and so forth. AAP now stands for mushy Hindutva, BJP for arduous Hindutva, and Congress for caste assertion. All that is intently associated to the top of Jutt Sikh hegemony and factors to the irrelevance of Akalis in state politics,” he provides.
Actual points
Famous author and Dalit activist Des Raj Kali has been travelling in Punjab to gauge individuals’s pulse. “Whenever you take heed to extraordinary individuals, you’re feeling depressed on how even hope is lacking. These elections are not about core socio-economic points–training, unemployment, the impact of pandemic, well being, even agriculture. It’s as if the elections are being fought within the skies, not on floor,” he says.
Jaskirat Singh, an environmentalist who has labored for a few years to scrub the polluted Buddha Dariya (a seasonal rivulet that passes by means of Ludhiana) and opposes the Mattewara Industrial Park on the banks of Satluj, says, “No political get together is elevating surroundings as a problem. Nobody is focussed on how the area’s water desk is depleting. Our rivers are poisoned with sewage and industrial effluent. Our forests are a measly 3.67% and reducing. However we don’t give attention to how we are able to get clear water and air. These are the true points. Until we are able to reside and breathe, what’s using all these welfare schemes or identification politics?”
Although AAP claims to be a celebration with a distinction, it has given no less than 38 seats to leaders who stop different events and joined them. Congress, too, is being accused of nepotism in its seat allotment.
A well-liked joke goes: “It’s so chilly. Should you take a muffler, individuals contemplate that you’re with Kejriwal; for those who take a loi – massive scarf—you’re with Channi; for those who take an outdated scarf, you’re with Sidhu; for those who put on an extended coat, you’re with Badal”.
“A cursory have a look at the candidates’ listing of all political events reveals solely about 10% ladies candidates have gotten tickets. AAP has introduced that if it wins, it is going to pay each girl ₹1,000 for the following 5 years. Congress has bettered it by providing ₹2,000. In a deeply feudal and patriarchal society, the events are conveying that ladies are solely entitled to doles not equality,” activist Toor says.
Till now, owing to the third wave of the pandemic, the Election Fee had banned rallies within the state. When rallies begin, maybe after 11 February, the fog will change the rains. With no clear imaginative and prescient, all events will proceed to seem as apparitions of one another. The core challenge is belief deficit in political events.
As of now, just one side is obvious: Punjab is in a state of flux and in contrast to 2017, it received’t be a sweep for one get together. In a contest between Congress and AAP, there may very well be a hung meeting the place different events may play the king-maker.
(Amandeep Sandhu is the creator of PANJAB: Journeys By way of Fault Traces.)
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