Politics Shifting Gears In Punjab

Politics in Punjab is shifting gears rapidly. It is one of the states with a complex political matrix and dynamics, and the people of Punjab have never shied from making strong statements, and no political party can take them for granted.

With the Lok Sabha polls approaching next year, the political forces have now started flexing their muscles. Visits by senior political functionaries have begun, as have a series of rallies, there is a high pitch mix of emotive and real issues being discussed, and positions are being taken on various subjects.

This is a prelude to the formalising of alliances, if any, that will emerge later, along with the seat sharing agreements. The Parliamentary elections promise to offer a high voltage drama as the stakes are high. Punjab is a state where the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ruling at the Centre, is not as strong as it is in some of the other states.

There was a show of strength on October 2 in Patiala, organised by the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). Patiala is one of the most prestigious constituencies of Punjab. It is the home turf of former Congress chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh who is currently in the BJP.

It is also a seat currently represented by Amarinder’s wife Preneet Kaur. She had won the last election on a Congress ticket, but her future trajectory is now being questioned. Patiala is also the neighbouring constituency of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann’s home turf of Sangrur.

At the October 2 rally, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann was once again in the company of his Delhi counterpart and AAP’s national convener Arvind Kejriwal. They were seen hard-selling the AAP government’s achievements to the people. Observers say that the AAP leadership is highly dependent on Punjab for its future across India.

The occasion chosen for the event was the formal launch of Sehatmand (healthy) Punjab. A project that will cost Rs 550 crore, and has been described as the ‘starting of a health revolution’ in the state, as promised in the run up to the Assembly Polls.

Bhagwant Mann said that in the last 18 months after AAP took charge, electricity has been given free of cost to the people. He said that 88% households are now getting free power, and zero power bills in Punjab. This is in addition to the farmers getting free and uninterrupted power.

Mann reiterated his government’s commitment to ensure canal water till the tail end of the last field in the state. He claimed that water has now reached the far flung areas of Fazilka district.

The Chief Minister also claimed that his government has given 36521 jobs in the first 18 months of its tenure and industry is coming to invest in the state.

Delhi CM Kejriwal, while patting Mann’s back, said that the Punjab government will soon start delivery of citizen centric services to the people’s doorsteps.

This AAP rally had followed the show of strength organised by Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal in Lambi. It falls in Bathinda district that has been the home turf of the Badal family till the last Assembly polls when the party patriarch and former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal lost to an AAP candidate.

The SAD president while addressing a ‘Youth Milni’ programme said “Badal Sahib did the utmost for you. He was responsible for transforming this former desert region into a green paradise. He not only brought in irrigation and drinking water facilities but also modern civic amenities into all villages. I am committed to bringing development and jobs back to this constituency.”

Asserting that the former CM should not have lost from this constituency, the SAD president said, “Now the time has come for the youth and all other sections of society to understand the evil designs of the Congress – AAP alliance and unite under the banner of the SAD to drive the anti- Punjab parties out of the state.”

Launching a frontal attack on Bhagwant Mann, the SAD president said that every section of society was being victimised despite electing AAP to power with an overwhelming majority. He said farmers had not been paid compensation for repeat crop failures and the ‘girdwari’ process was yet to be finished for the huge crop losses due to floods in July this year.

Stating that the AAP government had provided an additional 100 units of power free of cost to people from the 200 units of power given free of cost by the Badal government, he added, “In return the government has increased fuel prices by Rs 2.50 per litre besides ending all social welfare benefits including the Shagun scheme, Scheduled Castes Scholarship scheme, free cycles for girls and Chief Minister Teerath Yatra scheme. Even the Atta – Dal scheme had been discontinued by the AAP government with beneficiaries being supplied flour from the Centre.”

Sukhbir Singh Badal also claimed that the old age pension scheme had been diluted by taking lakhs of beneficiaries out of the ambit of the scheme. He attacked the state government on deteriorating law and order situation and accused the AAP legislators of ‘protecting drug smugglers’ and due to which the drug menace had reached alarming proportions.

As reported earlier by The Citizen Punjab remains one of the toughest states when it comes to seat sharing, if at all, among the AAP and the Congress as a part of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (I.N.D.I.A). The two have been involved in a bitter political war, with the Congress gunning for the AAP government at every occasion.

Things turned for the worst with the arrest of senior Congress leader and Bholath MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira in a case of reported seizure of drugs, gold and arms from one of his aides in 2015. The case has been continuing and the arrest came at a time when the Congress was attacking the AAP government on the worsening drug menace in the state.

The Congress leadership has called Khaira’s arrest a part of vendetta politics from the AAP stable. In the larger context it is being seen as a major setback for any efforts on seat sharing for the Parliamentary polls in Punjab where the local Congress leadership has been resisting any seat sharing arrangement.

Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh Raja Warring, and Leader of Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa launched a fierce attack when they were not allowed to meet Khaira at Jalalabad Police Station for a ‘courtesy call’. They said the incident exposed the fact that the party in power was misusing the Police force to intimidate opposition leaders.

Saying that attempts were being made to gag the voice of vocal leaders, Warring accused the AAP of using Police to harass the Opposition. “We are aware that the entire process is purely politically motivated, and the police force is being ‘misused’ to pressurise our leader.”

On the other hand Bajwa claimed, “In sheer violation of the democratic rights of public representatives, the CIA staff Fazilka didn't allow a delegate of senior congress leadership to meet arrested Bholath MLA, Sukhpal Singh Khaira. The AAP government has stooped to an all-time low and now resorted to petty vendetta politics. The Punjab Congress will not be cowed down by such pressure tactics.”

The party workers and leaders held a protest on the issue on Tuesday in Chandigarh. Bajwa raised a couple of pertinent points when he asked why Kejriwal gave a ticket to Khaira for contesting the 2017 Assembly polls and why did he make the latter the Leader of the Opposition afterwards if Khaira was a drug trader? He also said that Bhagwant Mann had in the past termed the case against Khaira a politically motivated move.

The matter was also taken up by the central leadership of the party. Party spokesperson Supriya Shrinate called Khaira’s arrest ‘condemnable and shameful’ that ‘smacked of political vendetta’.

“I think the assault on free speech and any assault on opposition which smacks of vendetta politics must and should be denounced. We denounce the arrest of Sukhpal Khaira Ji. He is not just our MLA, he is also the head of Kisan Congress. I do appeal that more sane minds in the AAP will prevail and will not let the unbridled Punjab government act out of vendetta that it has been doing,” Shrinate said.

However, amid this melee, an interesting reaction came from Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu who has otherwise been quiet. “The I.N.D.I.A alliance stands like a tall mountain… a storm here and there will not affect its Grandeur!!! Any attempt to sabotage and breach this shield to safeguard our Democracy will prove futile… Punjab must understand that this is an election to choose India‘s Prime Minister and not Punjab’s Chief Minister !!! #JudegaBharatJeetegaIndia,” Sidhu tweeted.

Meanwhile, the AAP leadership claimed that Khaira’s arrest had followed the new special investigation team (SIT) finding ‘enough evidence’ on his involvement in the case. The party’s chief spokesperson in Punjab Malvinder Singh Kang said that the AAP government is working rigorously to eliminate drug mafia from Punjab and free the youth from drug addiction.

“The Mann government has zero tolerance against the drug mafia. Anyone involved in drug trafficking, no matter how influential they are, will not be spared,” Kang said.

He added that Khaira's arrest has no political vendetta behind it. His arrest was made on the basis of evidence found against him during the SIT investigation. “If we wanted any political revenge, we have had a government in Punjab for more than a year and half now, he would have been arrested earlier already,” Kang claimed.

Appealing to all the political parties of Punjab, Kang said that if the Opposition parties want to eliminate drugs from Punjab, then they shouldn't oppose the arrest of Khaira. If any party opposes this, it will be clear that they support drug smugglers.

The AAP government has also been under attack for ‘squandering public money’ for realising its dream of party expansion. It is Congress leader Bajwa who has been the most vocal in attacking the Bhagwant Mann government on this front.

"Maharaj of Satauj (Mann) with his inclination to please the King of Delhi (Arvind Kejriwal), who lives in a newly built Rs 40 crore bungalow has all set to further jeopardise the already deteriorated fiscal health of the state," Bajwa recently said. His remarks came amid reports on the government proposing to rent a Falcon 2000 aircraft.

“The only motive behind hiring this aircraft at such an exorbitant rent is to take the AAP leadership sitting in Delhi including Delhi Chief Minister and AAP's national convener Arvind Kejriwal to the rallies at election-bound states. They are also planning to hide such ulterior movements from the people of Punjab that's why they are stationing their plane in Delhi," Bajwa said.

Bajwa along with Sidhu has been raising the issue of misuse of a government helicopter and an aircraft. They have been pointing out that the Punjab government already has a helicopter and has already hired a fixed-wing aircraft.

The Congress leadership has been accusing Mann as being a ‘puppet, who dances to the tunes of the AAP's Delhi leadership without performing his obligations as Punjab Chief Minister’.

Taking the attack further on the issue of the financial health of Punjab, SAD general secretary Parambans Singh Romana on Tuesday accused Bhagwant Mann of passing off borrowings as revenue to mislead the people on Punjab’s finances besides falsely claiming that the state had surpassed Haryana in revenue collection.

In an interaction with the media persons, the SAD leader said, “The chief minister has added the revenue figure of Rs 31,839 crore with the borrowing of Rs 16,075 crore and merged them to project revenue earnings of Rs 47,923 crore which is tantamount to committing a fraud on Punjabis.”

Romana said it was equally shameful that the CM had chosen to use these ‘fudged figures’ and launch a misinformation campaign on his official handle.

Romana claimed, “It is also a fact that Punjab’s revenue has decreased by Rs 2,000 crore when compared for the same period last year even as its borrowings have increased by three times.”

Meanwhile, on Tuesday, citing financial prudence and optimum utilisation of state resources, the Chief Minister furnished the details of “every single penny” spent by the state government in the last 18 months to the Governor Banwari Lal Purohit. A government spokesperson said that the Chief Minister ‘profusely’ thanked Banwari Lal Purohit for seeking the information which allows him to put many things in perspective.

Mann said the state government used both debt and state’s own revenue resources to fund organisations and schemes ignored by his predecessors, utilised the new debt to create capital assets and undertake development activities in the state.

He said the state government is committed to honour the state’s rightful liabilities and servicing the debt in a timely manner while striving to mobilise resources to fund development. Mann said his government is working 24 x 7 to mobilise additional resources for the state.

The AAP government has also been persistently under fire from the opposition parties for compromising on the interests of the state. These include the emotive issues like Punjab’s claim to Chandigarh, the contentious Sutlej Yamuna Link (SYL) canal issue, Haryana seeking land for a separate assembly complex and a host of others.

These are issues on which the parties not only in Punjab but in neighbouring Himachal Pradesh and Haryana as well are under compulsion to stick to their guns keeping their local political goals in mind.

These issues were in the forefront of the political narrative once more during the recent North Zone Council meeting held recently in Amritsar in the presence of union home minister Amit Shah.

After the meeting the AAP leadership came out claiming that unlike his predecessors, Bhagwant Mann raised Punjab's issues with the Centre in a loud and clear manner. These issues included Punjab's right on Chandigarh, its riparian rights, Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB), SYL, Shanan power project, drug smuggling from the other side of the border and international flights.

Malvinder Singh Kang claimed that the previous chief ministers of Punjab used to compromise before the Centre at the expense of the state's rights unlike Bhagwant Mann. Kang said that these issues are not new and have been pending for decades now.

He claimed that Bhagwant Mann also took up the matter of Panjab University with the Home Minister and asked that all funds of the University should be released immediately. He also demanded pending rural development fund (RDF) money from the Centre and said that Punjab has the best Mandi system in the country which is suffering now because the Centre is holding the RDF. This is causing obstacles in the development of mandis and roads in the rural areas of the state.

Kang also praised the Chief Minister for taking up the matter of Punjab being a border state and the need for the Centre to foot all the bills when the central forces come to the state. He said Punjab's security is not only the responsibility of the state government but also that of the Centre.

Kang said the Centre should have already given Punjab a special package to encourage crop diversification which is the need of the hour along with a financial package to cover damages incurred due to the floods this monsoon.