- Thursday, April 25, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
ALL eyes are on the northern Indian state of Punjab at the moment because of the endless twists and turns in the politics of the ruling Indian National Congress there. Two top leaders in the state, including chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh and state party chief Navjot Singh Sidhu quit their posts within a gap of a week, and the repercussions of the chaos in Chandigarh have been felt as far as New Delhi where senior Congress leader like Kapil Sibal has questioned the functioning of the country’s grand-old party.
The drama in Punjab has intensified over the meeting of Singh with Indian home minister Amit Shah, who is also the second-most powerful man in the saffron party after prime minister Narendra Modi. Although Singh himself has said that he will not join the BJP but added at the same time that he will not continue in the Congress. This has added to the speculation on whether the party can overcome the challenges in the next state elections that are a few months away?
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India Weekly spoke to Dr Pramod Kumar, director of the Institute for Development and Communication (IDC), an autonomous research organisation based in Chandigarh, on the situation in Punjab.
When asked whether Singh’s resignation as the chief minister, that too just before the elections, will deliver a big blow to the Congress, Kumar said it would not. He said the Congress high command had been considering a change of guard in Chandigarh because of a rising anti-incumbency sentiment against Singh.
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“It was under the consideration of the Congress leadership at the centre for the last two years. There was a huge anti-incumbency against Amarinder Singh’s govt. He outsourced governance of the state to a retired civil servant who acted as de facto chief minister of the state. It made political leadership of the Congress Party defunct. His resignation restored democratic political governance and dismantled a decadent monarchy.”
Singh was replaced by Charanjit Singh Channi, a former minister in the former’s government and also a past leader of the opposition in Punjab assembly. Channi was picked as first Dalit chief minister of the state after a lot of names did the rounds. The man is lesser known but has a major responsibility on his shoulders to face the next elections.
Kumar feels Channi is capable of leading the Congress to the next elections but cautioned that he has inherited a “non-performing government” and “divisive politics” that the party has enacted in public domain and it has put the chief minister under a big challenge.
“First, the Congress party announced a gentleman politician of Punjab as the CM candidate and by evening a statement was issued by a senior party leader from Delhi that a Sikh but not a Hindu can be the CM. And the name of a Jat Sikh was circulated but was later replaced by a Scheduled Caste leader. This drama was staged in the public domain. To resolve their inner crisis, they created fissures in the Punjabi society. And in the process, a reverse consolidation of Jat peasants and urban Hindus has been unleashed. It is a big challenge for CM Channi to deliver on any front. Further, he is under pressure to arrest the Badals (the leadership of the Shiromani Akali Dal, a major player in Punjab politics) without following the rule of law,” the IDC chief said.
Finally, on the question of Sidhu, a former cricketer who changed camp in 2017 by joining the Congress after quitting the BJP. The man has been known for courting controversies in his political career and Captain Singh even called him “unstable”.
What factor does Sidhu play in the current scenario in Punjab?
For Kumar, the 57-year-old is an entertainer.
“Sidhu has excelled as an entertainer. The transition from an entertainer to a politician has overburdened him to lead the country with complex issues. If such people falter it’s not surprising. It only makes you laugh…at end of the day he is an entertainer.”
He added, “To play Panthic politics is an artistry — not to get trapped in radical politics and divisive designs of external forces like Pakistan. Sidhu is clueless about it. It is understandable as his politics is more personal than ideological. Imran khan becomes farishta , Rahul Gandhi captain and Modi ji bulbul. In anti-Badalism, he moved from the BJP to the Congress. When in the Congress, he talks 2002 (Gujarat riots) and the in BJP, he remembers 1984 (Delhi anti-Sikh carnage). His constituency keeps shifting. He is ideologically free and politically mobile politician who represents a lunatic fringe of a pendulum.”
