Revision as of 01:11, 19 September 2021

Congress

Pressurising the high command: 2015, 2021

IP Singh, July 20, 2021: The Times of India

JALANDHAR: The factor which worked for Captain Amarinder Singh in 2015 — when he could get support of several MLAs to build pressure on the party high command to get Partap Singh Bajwa replaced as the Punjab PCC president — is now working for Navjot Singh Sidhu.

It is the perception among MLAs and prospective candidates that Sidhu could help them win their seats in the 2022 assembly elections that has made them welcome his appointment as PCC president despite Amarinder’s serious objections and unhappiness.

In 2015, they believed that Amarinder, not Bajwa, could lead them to victory. Amarinder enjoyed such support from party MLAs and other senior leaders that Bajwa was isolated and the high command was forced to replace him.

However, the CM is now facing anti-incumbency and several questions about his government’s work. The same set of MLAs and a few ministers, especially the Majha brigade of three ministers — Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa, Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa and Sukhbinder Singh Sarkaria — who were in the forefront to organise support for him in 2015, have now sided with Sidhu for the same reason.

Unlike Amarinder, who rallied the MLAs behind himself in 2015 and started holding public functions under ‘Mission Punjab -2017’, Sidhu appeared to be plodding alone. He remained inaccessible to most of the party leaders but stood his ground in questioning the CM through his tweets.

It was Amarinder’s direct attack on Sidhu, challenging him to contest from Patiala, that made the ex-cricketer emerge as the main challenger. This was the beginning of Sidhu’s strengthening his fight within the party.

It was after Jalandhar Cantt MLA Pargat Singh, who too had picked up the gauntlet against the CM, reached out to Sidhu that the latter met a few ministers and MLAs in Chandigarh.

As the party crisis precipitated in Punjab, the Congress high command was forced to intervene, and the balance started tilting. However, most MLAs still did not side with Sidhu even if they did not support Amarinder in their feedback to Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

Sidhu vs Amarinder

2021: the BSP factor

IP Singh, June 23, 2021: The Times of India

The performance of the main political parties in the Punjab assembly election, 2007, 2012, 2017
From: IP Singh, June 23, 2021: The Times of India

BSP's performance in Punjab Assembly Elections; BSP's performance in Lok Sabha elections, 2014-19
From:

Sidhu – a thorn in chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh’s flesh for a long time now – has already made it clear that his stand will remain unchanged on the issues he has been raising. Of the seven states going to polls in 2022, Congress is in power only in Punjab, where it also has the best chance of returning to power. Or does it?

This question posed a couple of years ago, when the party had looked poised to return to power comfortably, would have been dismissed summarily. But then, it is the Congress – a party that has honed political suicides into a fine art.

With less than a year to go for the election, the party in Punjab is riven with factionalism, is facing anger over mishandling of the probe in the Kotkapura firing case, and must now react to a deftly sewn Shiromani Akali Dal-Bahujan Samaj Party (SAD-BSP) alliance. And then, of course, there is Navjot Singh Sidhu. If politics is about turning adversity into opportunity, the Congress in Punjab has turned the idiom on its head and turned an opportunity it was offered on a platter into an adversity it must now contend with.

The Congress’ prospects had appeared bright not because the state government had done very well and had delivered on its promises in the past four years. It appeared well placed for a return to power because the opposition was fractured with Shiromani Akali Dal and the BJP parting ways and AAP’s fortunes on the decline since 2017. But instead of building on that opportunity, the good prognosis only built complacency in the rank and file, giving space to the opposition to get its act together.

Now with SAD-BSP alliance in place, Congress has its task cut out – to find a response to a partnership that can hurt it in several constituencies. Out of the 23 seats in Doaba region, the BSP has considerable presence in around a dozen. The 2019 Lok Sabha elections already demonstrated that its vote aggregating capacity increases considerably in alliance. The BSP also has the potential to tilt the balance in quite a few other seats in Malwa and Puadh regions.

Meanwhile, Sidhu – a thorn in chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh’s flesh for a long time now – has already made it clear that his stand will remain unchanged on the issues he has been raising. They both seem to be considering it a fight to finish. Sidhu has recently been joined by former Indian hockey captain and member of legislative assembly Pargat Singh has now also been repeatedly questioning the CM on different issues. If it is not an open rebellion, it is not so subtle either. In 2015, Amarinder with the support from a majority of MLAs and party cadre, could force the high command to appoint him as the state party chief and project him as CM candidate in the run-up to the 2017 polls. But this time, not even half of his ministers and MLAs have spoken up for him in public.

What has emboldened Captain’s critics and made his supporters circumspect is the Punjab and Haryana high court order of April 9 scrapping investigation by a special investigation team (SIT) in the Kotkapura firing case. The court also absolved then chief minister Parkash Singh Badal of allegations of conspiracy in the case. Amarinder is facing questions over handling of this emotive case that had helped Congress come to power.

An incident of desecration of the Sikh holy book Guru Granth Sahib at village Bargari in October, 2015 had led to protests across the state. Police firing on protesters at Behbal Kalan village and Kotkapura town in Faridkot district had left two dead and several others injured. This had generated a wave of anger against the SAD-BJP government. The Congress, riding on the promise to deliver justice to the victims and their families, benefited from the discontent. Rahul Gandhi visited the firing victims in 2015 and before the Lok Sabha polls in 2019 held a rally at Bargari.

For a large part of the state’s Sikh electorate, the Congress had become a no-go after Operation Blue Star and the massacre of Sikhs in November 1984. But the police firing incident was a game-changer. As SAD’s popularity touched a new low, Congress regained acceptance it had lost in 1984.

But the same Kotkapura firing incident has now become a liability for the party. Even though a new SIT has restarted the probe, people are disappointed by the delay and party MLAs are facing the heat. In private, Congress MLAs admit there is a perception that Amarinder helped the Badals get off the hook in the Kotkapura, a suggestion that he has strongly denied.

Questions about the state government’s performance on other issues are also being raised. Till 2017 polls, drugs, mining mafia, corruption, lopsided power purchase agreements (PPAs) signed during the SAD-BJP regime to extend the benefit to private players, unemployment were important issues for Congress. But after four years in power, the Congress has not made any progress on these issues. If the Congress loses Punjab in 2022, it will not be a case of a defeat handed by another party, but a self-inflicted blow.

SIDHU VS AMARINDER – THE SLANGING MATCH

Sidhu on Amarinder:

- “I say, ‘you fulfill the agenda; I will support you without a post’. You may even appoint me to the zila parishad. But if you do not fulfill people’s aspirations, no post will matter to me”

- “One man has taken the party for a ride. Who takes decisions as the home minister and then shifts the blame?”

- “Capt Amarinder is not the Congress... he lies every day”

- “A game of chess is being played in Punjab where the king and the 'wazirs' (ministers) are being protected and sepoys are being attacked”

Amarinder on Sidhu:

- “Sidhu doesn’t even know which party he is in. If he is in Congress, then this is total indiscipline. I think maybe he is planning to join AAP or go somewhere else”

- “He is most welcome to contest (from Patiala). Last time, Gen JJ Singh (retd) had come (to contest from Patiala) and forfeited his security deposit. He (Sidhu) will meet the same fate”

- “Why should he be the president?” (On reports that Sidhu was keen to take over as Punjab Congress president or deputy CM)

Murders of members of religious organisations

2015-17

Payal Dhawan, Top R-S-S official shot; 7th murder in 2 years, Oct 18 2017: The Times of India

The killings began with the murder of Mata Chand Kaur, patriarch of Namdhari Sikhs, on April 4, 2016, and have mostly taken place in Ludhiana and surrounding region.

Of the seven killings, four victims have been members of Hindu right wing organisations. Gosain is the second R-S-S official to be murdered after vice-president of the Punjab unit, brigadier (retd) Jagdish Gagneja was shot in Jalandhar on August 6, 2016.

Despite a clear pattern emerging in the murders, cops have failed to solve any .Senior officers said that they are certain only one group is behind the murders which is trying to foment communal tension in the state with these attacks, but has been unable to get specific leads.

Gosain was the head (mukhya shikshak) of the Mohan Shakha in Amantran colony of Jodhewal area, barely five minutes from his home.

He had returned from the shakha around 7 am and stepped out of his home with his two grandchildren when two men on a motorcycle, who had their faces covered, approached him. They asked Gosain to look at him and then shot him in the head.The moment the R-S-S leader fell to the ground, one of the assailants shot him in the back, killing him on the spot.

Gosain's daughter-in-law Preeti said, “My father-in-law was waiting for my son to put on his school uniform so that he could take him along to get candies. Suddenly , we heard gunshots and rushed out. Papa was dead and both children were screaming.“ Commissioner of police, R N Dhoke, said, “CCTVs installed near the spot have captured two masked assailants on a black and yellow bike. Our men have recovered two bullets shells from the spot, one of a .30 bore revolver and another of a .32 bore revolver indicating two weapons were used.“

YEAR-WISE DEVELOPMENTS

2019

 CM strips Sidhu of local govt ministry, allots power

Vibhor Mohan, June 7, 2019: The Times of India

Captain strips Sidhu of local govt ministry, allots power

Chandigarh:

Punjab chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh stripped minister Navjot Singh Sidhu of the coveted local government portfolio as well as tourism and cultural affairs ministry on Thursday, less than a month after the cricketerturned-politician had publicly criticised his boss during the Lok Sabha poll campaign. Sidhu has now been allocated power and new & renewable energy resources portfolios.

The reshuffle is set to escalate the war of words between the two. Hours before the changed portfolios were announced, Sidhu skipped the cabinet meeting.

Performer like me cannot be taken for granted: Sidhu

I cannot be taken for granted. I say that with humility. I’ve been a performer throughout — be it cricket, commentary, television or as a motivational speaker,” Sidhu said.

Countering Amarinder’s criticism that it was Sidhu’s “failure to do development work” that had cost Congress the urban vote bank in places like Bathinda and Sangrur, the former cricketer released details to point out that cities and towns, in fact, had played a pivotal role in the party’s victory in Punjab. He said that while in urban areas, Congress’s strike rate was 63%, in the rural areas it was 55%.

Amarinder has given the local government portfolio to Brahm Mohindra. Sidhu’s portfolio of tourism and cultural affairs has gone to Charanjit Singh Channi. After the election results, Amarinder had indicated that he intended to change Sidhu’s department. Amarinder said the rejig would help streamline the government systems and bring more transparency and efficacy into various departments. The CM said he hoped that the changes would re-energise his team and bring freshness to the working of the major departments.