BHAGWANT MANN, who was chosen as Punjab chief minister after the Aam Aadmi Party’s surprisingly decisive victory a year ago, had a lot of promises to fulfil. In fact, he had an eventful first year, though not exactly the way he would have liked it: A minister and a legislator from his party were arrested on corruption charges; another minister resigned after his name figured in an alleged extortion call; Mann’s close aide lost the by-poll in the Sangrur Lok Sabha seat that he had vacated; rapper Sidhu Moose Wala was gunned down by gangsters after the government withdrew his security; and the decision to elect ‘outsiders’ to the Rajya Sabha has not gone down well with the people.
The growing disillusionment with the Mann government has left a political vacuum, making the state a fertile ground for the self-styled separatist leader Amritpal Singh. In fact, the trucker-turned-preacher’s swift rise took the people of the state by surprise, leading to speculation that he was parachuted from outside. And his raid of the Ajnala police station on February 23 to free his associate brought back memories of the state’s chequered past.
While the Khalistan movement may not have many takers in the state, the polarisation and disenchantment with political institutions spells bad news. “Failure of moderate political parties to capture the space has led to the emergence of elements like Amritpal, as there was no group or process in the state to check it. There was no road block,” said Prof Pramod Kumar, director, Institute of Development and Communication, a Chandigarh-based think tank.
There is a wider socioeconomic angle to the development as well. Punjab’s economy has moved on from being the food basket of the country. “The agriculture has turned from a seller’s market to a buyer’s market with the emergence of other wheat producing states like Madhya Pradesh,” said Kumar. “This impacts the economic status of the Jat Sikh peasantry. Even the political hegemony of the Jat Sikhs was being broken as dalits and Hindu groups are asserting their demands. So, the Jat Sikh peasantry are available as fodder. If they are not co-opted into the system, then they are available for others to co-opt them out of the system. So the role of the state and moderate political parties is important.”
The state’s main political parties are all busy dealing with their own problems. The Shiromani Akali Dal has seen a massive erosion of its support base. The Congress has been in a state of flux. The BJP’s attempts are limited to invoking the 1984 anti-Sikh riots and co-opting Sikh leaders from other parties. It was this absence of the liberal political parties to catch hold of the narrative that led to Akali Dal (Amritsar) chief Simranjit Singh Mann, a vocal proponent of Khalistan, winning the Sangrur by-poll last July.
Amritpal is thriving in the same vacuum. “The issue has exposed that all sections could not rise up to the occasion,” said Sunil Jakhar, former state Congress president, who is now with the BJP. “Be it the government, security agencies, intelligentsia, society or youth, no one reacted when they should have.”
Amritpal’s initial bravado when he spoke about Khalistan and taking on the might of the Indian state ended in a whimper as he started running. However, the police action to arrest and detain hundreds of his supporters led to the Akal Takht, the highest body of Sikhs, and the SGPC joining the chorus for releasing them. A section of the Sikh diaspora reacted with alacrity as police action fed into the anxiety of Sikhs being targeted by the state.
Sikh historian and commentator Prof Gurdarshan Singh Dhillon puts the blame on the Punjab government for the current situation. “There is a feeling in the state that Bhagwant Mann is acting on the dictation of Arvind Kejriwal, which people do not accept. This has been rejected by the people of Punjab, the kind of mandate he got has already been lost. Mann is losing ground,” he said.
Dhillon said Sikhs were feeling alienated as the issues they raised remained unsolved. “The Sikh community all over the world is feeling hurt. They have to talk with open heart with the Sikh leadership across the table, and not just to those leaders whom they find amenable,” he said.
Mann is still a crowd puller, thanks to the gift of the gab. The AAP claims that its internal surveys indicate that his approval rating are high. But it has more to do with the fact that there is no alternative yet. However, the work done by the AAP in health care and education is being overshadowed by law and order issues, as criminal gangs with drug, mafia, and terror links continue to hold sway.
AAP’s chief spokesperson Malwinder Singh Kang said law would take its own course. “The Punjab government had made it clear from the first day that strict action would be taken against anyone disturbing the law and order of the state or trying to disturb the communal harmony,” he said. “Punjab Police will catch Amritpal soon. Look at this operation, neither a single shot was fired nor was there blood shed. If one looks at all police actions in the past, there have been atrocities against the innocent also. We have prevented that.”
The next test for the state’s political parties is the Jalandhar Lok Sabha by-poll, necessitated by the death of Congress MP Santokh Singh Chaudhary during the Bharat Jodo Yatra. The Congress is fielding Chaudhary’s widow in the reserved seat.
Kang said the AAP would contest the election on the government’s performance in the fields of health, education, power and agriculture. While the polls may be interpreted as referendum on Mann’s performance, it is of importance for all parties ahead of the Lok Sabha elections next year.
But again, it is not just about winning elections. “The big lesson in the current Punjab situation is the that liberal political parties have to get active and get into the protests,” said Kumar. “They should mobilise and intervene wherever there is conflict so as to moderate its impact on society and politics.”