Power Play in Punjab Congress

By 

Randeep Wadehra

Rahul Gandhi’s recent yes-yes-no-no visit to Punjab baffled the state’s Congress leaders as much as it did the Akalis. When reports of the visit’s cancellation came in the Shiromani Akali Dal chief Sukhbir Singh Badal had termed it as an insult to Punjab and lamented the step motherly treatment meted out to the flood ravaged state by the central government. But when Rahul landed in the Golden Temple on the morning of 22 September a flustered Sukhbir called it a vote-catching gimmick. The plight of Punjab Pradesh Congress leaders was no better. Till the last moment not many knew of his arrival. This has been interpreted as an indication of the Congress High Command’s disapproval of the state of affairs in the Pradesh Congress.

With Lok Sabha elections looming large, the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee is in disarray. Saddled with a weak PPCC president, a sulking convener and an election campaign chairman who has been unseated from the state assembly following an indictment on corruption the party is not exactly battle-worthy. But this does not come as a surprise to those familiar with the ways of this faction-ridden entity. Although intra-party rivalries are a habit with the Pradesh Congress – Darbara Singh versus Zail Singh being the most notorious and debilitating – the current tussle between Rajinder Kaur Bhattal and Captain Amarinder Singh is proving to be quite destructive.

Amarinder has few friends among the party’s rank and file. His stand-offish demeanor has earned him quite a few enemies within and without the party. Moreover, he has always been looked upon as an interloper – someone who has been thrust upon the Punjab Congress by 10, Janpath. The fact that he made no effort to connect with the grassroots level worker did little to endear him to the foot-soldiers who play a vital role during elections. It was not uncommon for him to snub district level party leaders by refusing to meet them let alone attend to their problems. This is something a Chief Minister would do only if he had no intention of continuing in politics. Rumors of his bohemian lifestyle, “friendship” with a Pakistani journalist and frequent visits abroad came in handy for his rivals as propaganda ammunition.

On the other hand Bhattal is looked upon as a genuine Congress person who is connected to the state’s grassroots. However, although her tenure as Chief Minister was short – January 21 1996 to February 12 1997 – she drew flak for the Congress debacle in the 1997 General Assembly elections. When Congress returned to power five years later it was Amarinder who became the Chief Minister while she had to remain content with the Deputy CM’s post. This only intensified rivalry between the two. Things came to such a pass that on more than one occasion the AICC chief had to intervene. But faction fights continued in one form or another with allegations of corruption and favoritism flying thick and fast.

Even as late as April this year the feud sustained its unseemliness with Amarinder dubbing Bhattal as a friend of the Akalis and the latter hitting back by alleging a nexus between him and BJP. On more than one occasion Bhattal had cited the corruption cases and Arusa Alam as causes of major embarrassment to the party. Both sides buttress their charges with “circumstantial evidence” and prima-facie cogent arguments. The Amarinder camp points out that during the 2007 Assembly elections the Bhattal led faction had behaved like Akalis’ “Trojan horse” – not only she and her supporters refrained from campaigning for Congress candidates belonging to the Captain’s faction, but also encouraged dissidence within their ranks. This is cited as a major contributing factor to the Congress electoral defeat. In fact the unseating of Amarinder is being looked upon as a quid pro quo of sorts, courtesy the Badals, as Bhattal is a major beneficiary of his mortification.

On the other hand the Bhattal camp points out that during his tenure as CM Amarinder did not file a single case against former BJP ministers even as he went hammer and tongs after the Badals. Worse, they point out, during his tenure “36 false cases” were filed against Congress workers, which came in handy for the Akali-BJP combine to embarrass the Congress party both during the assembly elections and debates in the house. They further allege that since K. Natwar Singh – formerly a Congress Union Minister who was virtually pushed out of the party after charges of corruption were leveled against his son – is his close relative. But how does this establish the BJP-Amarinder nexus? There are no answers as yet. But they point out that, given the Captain’s propensity for changing parties to protect/promote his personal interests one cannot overrule the possibility of him striking some sort of deal with BJP through Natwar Singh.

Be that as it may, it is evident that the faction-fights have done immense damage to the party’s image as well as interests as these have enabled the Akali BJP combine to consolidate their hold on the state’s political space. In fact it was this faction fight that has now culminated in the unseating of Captain Amarinder Singh. During the Congress regime, the atmosphere of one-upmanship and back-stabbing had reached such levels that the Congress MLA and former Deputy Speaker Bir Devinder Singh’s charges of corruption against his bête noire and Amarinder loyalist Chaudhry Jagjit Singh – then Local Bodies Minister – came in handy to push the Captain on the back-foot. Among the various charges it was the one involving 32.5 acres of prime land in Amritsar that has proved to be a time bomb, which exploded on 10 September leading to Amarinder Singh’s unseating as MLA.

If the last Assembly elections were lost by the Congress due to charges of corruption, faction fights and Amarinder Singh’s image as an elitist outsider (despite his belated attempts to reach out to the masses as well as ordinary party workers just before the last assembly elections) then its campaign for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections is already in jeopardy thanks to the additional blot in the form of indictment of Amarinder Singh and his loyalists. Mind you, he is presently the chairman of the party’s election Campaign Committee; and Bhattal is its convener, which does no good to the party’s image or electoral prospects. The current PPCC president Mohinder Singh Kaypee is considered as too weak to “manage” the two strong rivals.

Another fallout of the rampant factionalism has been in terms of hijacking of the party’s secular-developmental agenda by the Akali-BJP combine. Even as the Congress got bogged down in petty politicking its traditional vote-bank comprising Hindus, urban and non-Jat Sikhs as well as the marginalized sections of society melted away to a significant extent. While the BJP has won over huge chunks of Hindu voters the Akalis have begun accommodating urban Sikhs in the Jat Sikh dominated panthic hierarchy. Moreover, eschewing communal rhetoric, the coalition is focusing on such issues as power generation, infrastructure, education and employment. The intellectually bankrupt PPCC appears to be bereft of any ideas to counter these moves. All they can think of is how to checkmate each other in their efforts to gain ascendancy within the party.

One can gauge the state of affairs from the fact that the AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi scrupulously avoided the state party’s senior leaders during his maiden visit to Punjab. If it is an expression of disapproval it may not do much in reining in rampant factionalism. The party’s image has been irreparably tarnished at least for the foreseeable future. Belated efforts by Rahul Gandhi to charm Punjab’s youth and the marginalized sections of society may not cut much ice with the electorate.

However, Rahul must have been perceptive enough to realize that the present lot of Punjab Congress leaders need to be consigned to history’s trash-bin, and replaced with young men and women with unimpeachable character and strong commitment to the state’s welfare. This cannot be done in a kneejerk fashion, yet certain urgency needs to be displayed. In order to discover such leaders one requires an insight into human nature and a vision for the future. Since the Gandhi scion is still discovering India, one hopes he comes up with the right sort of talent during his quest.