Political fortunes of Badals, Amarinder, Hooda, Chautalas and Bishnoi at stake

POLLS WOULD BE THE BAROMETER OF POPULAR WILL

The “election season” has begun in the region and is set to dominate the political discourse for the next five months. As these elections coincide with the half way mark of the UPA government at the Centre, many poll analysts and psephologists would see the results as a sort of mid-term referendum on the performance of the Congress-led UPA government apart from obviously that of the state governments concerned.

SGPC elections across the region in Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh last Sunday heralded the “election season” and the process will conclude with the Assembly elections in Punjab in February 2012. After a popular government is elected in Punjab, a similar process would be set in motion for Himachal Pradesh which is slated to elect its new assembly later next year.

Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) was expected to win and it performed remarkably well in the SGPC polls – one of its best performances in recent times. It won 157 seats, improving on its past performance and vanquishing the motley opposition. But what has worried the SAD poll managers is the reduction in the margin of victory. While the number of seats which the party got is indeed impressive, the reduced margin has increased the worry lines of the SAD workers and leaders and sent them scurrying for cover.

Publicly Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and Deputy CM and SAD President Sukhbir Badal are gloating on the performance but as veterans of the game, they also know that the real battle lies ahead and the SGPC polls cannot be held as the barometer of public mood for the Assembly polls. Moreover, the votes which the SAD got in the polls are only a fraction of the total votes for the assembly polls. It cannot be even called a representative sample size for a pollster to predict the polls as only the Sikh voters were enrolled, not the entire population. But the results obviously worried the Congress. Even after propping up the Panthic Morcha through supporters like Paramjit Singh Sarna of the DSGMC and Surjit Singh Barnala of SAD (Longowal), it failed to cut ice with the Sikh voters ahead of the Assembly polls. Had the Panthic Morcha won even a dozen seats, Congress would have been much happier.

As the din of the SGPC polls is yet to die down, the challenge of the Hisar bye-election in Haryana stares the main political parties in their face. It is the first Lok Sabha bye-election after the Anna Hazare storm and it is hardly surprising to find that the parties contesting the polls have made corruption the main issue. “Who is more corrupt?” seems to be the tagline as all the three main contenders in the fray are charging each other of indulging in corruption.

The results of Hisar would throw open a wide range of possibilities for the parties. While a victory for the Congress would cement the position of Bhupinder Singh Hooda, a loss would further embolden the detractors of the CM within the party. More so, when the party candidate Jai Prakash is a personal choice of Hooda and he has left no stone unturned to ensure that nothing goes wrong in the polls.

For the Indian National Lok Dal, the implications could be profound. The second most important leader in the party after his father O P Chautala, Ajay Chautala is contesting the polls – the third generation of Chaudhary Devi Lal. Battling corruption cases in a Delhi court, if Chautala romps home, it could well be a vindication of what the INLD has been claiming all through that the charges of corruption are politically motivated. However, if Chautala is defeated, it could well be a long spell in opposition and that corruption is indeed a poll issue.

The third major player here, Kuldeep Bishnoi, is fighting a battle for political survival. Having lost five of his MLAs to Congress after the 2009 assembly polls, this is the first election which he is fighting without the larger than life figure of his father. If Bishnoi wins, it could well mean that the legacy of Bhajan Lal has been passed on to his son. As his party HJC is in a long-term alliance with the BJP, a loss could well mean that the non-Jat voters which the party is eyeing, have rejected them and it will take time and effort to build the alliance.

Sandwiched between Hisar bye-polls and the Punjab assembly polls is the elections to the Municipal Corporation of Chandigarh, sometime in December. Congress is ruling the corporation in the joint Capital of the two states and BJP is set to throw a major challenge to the party. As the impact of Hazare’s movement was largely confined to the urban areas of the country, the election result would for the first time reveal the mindset of the urban voters. If Congress is rejected, it could well mean that the urban voters have rejected the way the entire Hazare movement was tackled and a similar trend could be there in other urban areas of the country as well. If Congress wins, the poll analysts could well argue that Hazare’s impact was only on television and not amongst the urban voters who actually take the trouble of going to the polling station and use their franchise. The BJP does not really have much to lose here but a win would certainly bolster the morale of the cadres.

But undoubtedly, the biggest battle of the “electoral season” would be the February 2012 Assembly polls in Punjab where the ruling SAD-BJP combine is fighting anti-incumbency and a resurgent Congress. For the psephologists, predicting the outcome has been very safe so far – both the Akalis and the Congress share power every five years. This trend has been going on for a few decades and according to this trend, it is the turn of the Congress now.

But what has given hope to the Akalis is the fact that the party’s development card has found many takers and the announcement spree of the government has forced people to take notice. The SGPC elections also set into motion the electoral machine of the party and made it aware about the areas to concentrate on. Moreover, the Akalis think that if the BJP governments of Raman Singh in Chhatisgarh and Shivraj Singh Chauhan in Madhya Pradesh and Nitish Kumar’s JDU-BJP government in Bihar can be voted back to power, why can’t they?

Congress, nevertheless, is over confident. It is taking the trend in its stride and leaders claim that the Akalis cannot be voted to power come what may. PCC President and contender for Chief Ministership Captain Amarinder Singh is so confident that he already has drawn a list of what the party will do after coming to power.

Battle lines are drawn. Swords are out. Politics is in the air and the fortunes of all the prominent players in the arena at stake. Only the voters know, who survives and who doesn’t. (Sunday, Sept 25, 2011)

http://dailypioneer.com/state-editions/chandigarh/8902-fate-of-politicos-at-stake.html

SAD’s victory could have implications for Assembly polls

Amitabh Shukla / Chandigarh

The Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) election results in Punjab have surprised not only the Akali Dal but also the Congress in the state which goes to assembly polls in less than five months from now.

Even the die hard SAD supporter never thought that the party would sweep the polls, way it has and vanquish all opponents like never before. Winning 157 of the 170 seats and that too when the political temperature is running high due to the Assembly polls has come as a shot in the arm for the SAD-BJP combine in Punjab.

The wave of SAD, which had gone to the polls in alliance with the Sant Samaj, helped the party overhaul its election machinery and make it fighting fit for the bigger battle of February 2012 when the Assembly elections would be held. It also lifted the morale of the party workers who have been bearing with the onslaught of the Congress campaign against the government on a host of issues. SAD had been pitching the elections as the semi-final before next year’s poll – a semi final which they won convincingly.

The polls for the religious body also completely sidelined the hardliners and pro Khalistan elements in Sikh politics and made them irrelevant, some say for all times to come. Simranjit Singh Mann, President of the Akali Dal (Amritsar) and the most visible hardliner, lost the polls. His son Eman Singh Mann too lost and so did a score of pro Khalistani elements in parties like SAD (Panch Pardhani). It clearly showed that the extremist ideology has no takers in today’s Punjab.

While Congress had stayed away from the polls of SGPC, called the “mini Parliament” of Sikhs, its tacit support to the Panthic Morcha, led by President of the Delhi Sikh Gurudwara Management Committee (DSGMC), Paramjit Singh Sarna was quite apparent. The Morcha lost badly and in the process its credibility was eroded. Congress was banking on the DSGMC to sway a section of the voters for the assembly polls, the gamble has clearly failed as the results indicated that Sarna has no influence on the Sikh voters of the state. Like most leaders defeated in polls, Sarna too blamed bogus voting and misuse of state machinery for the defeat, an argument which cuts little ice.

Surjit Singh Barnala, who retired as the Governor of Tamil Nadu on the eve of the polls, too could not yield any influence and his party’s association with the Panthic Morcha, a conglomeration of several parties, proved to be damp squib.

Thought the victory of the SAD was a foregone conclusion as the party has been winning the polls ever since the religious body to manage the Gurudwaras and Sikh institutions came into being, the complete annihilation of the opposition just before the assembly polls, has come as a morale booster for the workers of the party.

Prior to the elections, Akali leaders and even their allies, BJP, has been privately saying that anti-incumbency could be a factor in the SGPC polls and the assembly elections ahead. “The manner in which the people have reposed faith in SAD and defeated some of the key figures who would also contest the assembly polls, is a harbinger of the things to come,” a party leader said.

Party Secretary Daljit Singh Cheema said, “results have proved that Sikh masses have completely rejected the Congress led so called Panthic Morcha and reposed full faith in the policies and programmes of SAD. Congress should be well prepared to face a similar humiliating defeat in the coming assembler polls also”.

Given the political implications, Punjab Congress refrained from commenting on the results. “They created such a hype about these elections that at the end of the day they started feeling scared and insecure and thus used and abused all the resources available to them including the government machinery, particularly the Punjab Police, they are controlling”, said PCC chief Captain Amarinder Singh.

SAD President, Sukhbir Singh Badal was quick to react and termed the Congress charges as “show of breast-beating”. “Congress and its front men tried to disrupt poll process by bringing bogus and clean shaven impersonators for casting votes...Instead of indulging in 'the pathetic ravings of political frustration' , everyone in the fray should have shown humility in accepting the verdict of the Khalsa Panth with grace,” he said. (Sept 20, 2011)

http://dailypioneer.com/state-editions/chandigarh/7548-sads-victory-could-have-implications-for-assembly-polls.html

Hisar bypoll to be litmus test for Hooda, HJC-BJP alliance

Amitabh Shukla / Chandigarh

The battle lines have been firmly drawn. The Hisar Lok Sabha bye-election in Haryana would prove to be a litmus test for not only Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda but also the newly formed alliance between the Haryana Janhit Congress and the BJP.

Congress has gone in for a conventional politician by nominating Jai Prakash who has won three times and lost an equal number of times and not for Brijendra Singh, an IAS officer of the 1998 batch who was aspiring to contest from the party. Brijendra could well have fitted the slot, envisaged by party general secretary Rahul Gandhi of a well educated and young candidate interested in politics. But that was not to be.

Jai Prakash, who came third in the 2009 polls, is the choice of Hooda as he did not apparently want Brijendra, son of arch rival in state politics, Birender Singh, to get the prized ticket and get a further foothold in the state. The logic, rivals argue, is that there can only be one father-son duo – Hooda and his son Deepinder and not Birender and Brijendra, at least in the near future. Though there is a mother-daughter duo – Minister and MLA Kiran Chaudhary and her daughter Shruti Chaudhary, MP. But they do not pose any threat to Hooda in state politics.

If Jai Prakash wins, Hooda gets the bouquets and Congress another member to add to the wafer thin position UPA has in the Lok Sabha. If he loses, Hooda supporters would argue that the seat was in any case with the opposition and does not reflect the popularity of the Chief Minister. It is practically heads I win, tails you lose for Hooda, well entrenched in his second term in the state.

For the HJC-BJP combine, it is a battle of survival in the state politics. If the alliance loses its first election, it could well sow seeds of discontent between the two alliance partners and its future could become a popular debating point in the politically vibrant state. Moreover, the seat became vacant after the death of Bhajan Lal, a political stalwart and if his son and the President of HJC, Kuldeep Bishnoi loses, it could well mean that the legacy of the leader is lost.

On the other hand, if the HJC-BJP alliance, looking for the consolidation of non-Jat votes, wins, it would indicate which way the political wind is blowing in the state. As the two parties – one national and one state – have a long-term partnership, the morale of the workers would get a boost and would cement the third front in the bipolar politics of the state. Though Lok Sabha elections are scheduled in May 2014 and Assembly polls in November the same year, the two parties have already divided the seats amongst themselves. BJP would be the big brother in the Lok Sabha elections and would contest 8 of the 10 seats while for the Assembly polls, both are equal partners, contesting 45 seats each.

For the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) candidate Ajay Chautala, there is nothing to lose except the face. The INLD posed a serious threat to the Congress in the 2009 assembly polls, forcing Hooda to poach the MLAs of HJC and get support of independents to form the government. Even on this seat, its candidate Sampat Singh lost only by around 7000 votes to Bhajan Lal in the last elections. Singh is now in the Congress and an MLA. If Chautala, the grandson of Devi Lal and son of Om Prakash Chautala wins, the INLD would see a ray of hope for the next assembly polls. If not, it could well be a long time in the opposition for the Jat centred and dominated party.

The Bahujan Samaj Party which polled around 90,000 votes in the last Lok Sabha polls is likely to stay out of the bye-election on October 13. All the three parties would be vying for the dalit votes if the BSP does not field a candidate and it could well be the HJC candidate who will benefit given the distrust which a section of the community has shown towards the Congress in the aftermath of the Mirchipur incident.

Hisar could well be only one seat in the state which is going to polls, but given the political positioning of the parties and the importance they are attaching to it, the outcome could change the dynamics of state politics. The outcome has the potential to set the tone for the remaining term of Hooda. (Sept 19, 2011)

http://dailypioneer.com/nation/7465-hisar-bypoll-to-be-litmus-test-for-hooda-hjc-bjp-alliance.html

TURF WAR IN CONGRESS

FACTIONALISM TURNS PHYSICAL AS RIVAL FACTIONS COMES TO BLOWS

Congress may not have a copyright to the slogan “party with a difference” but it has indeed pipped the BJP to claim the slogan in Punjab and the neighbouring Haryana. In no party would you find, workers hurling shoes, abuses and what not at each other in their internal meetings. In Punjab, some party meetings have turned into mini battlefields with the workers treating each other to choicest of Punjabi abuses and hurling anything they find handy at each other with a zeal which would leave people wondering if they belong to the same party.

Three days ago, a Congress demonstration in Fazilka against the ruling SAD-BJP combine turned out to be a free for all – a kabaddi for some, wrestling and boxing for others. Instead of opposing the state government for which the demonstration had been planned, the local leaders started opposing each other. For over half an hour, it was “might is right” as the workers hurled sticks, bricks, water bottles, even pens at each other. A former MLA, at the receiving end, suffered a heart attack in the process. He was shifted to the hospital. A serious contender for the seat in next year’s Assembly election had to get a thick plaster coat on his broken leg in the fracas. A Block President was injured. Over a dozen workers returned with either a broken nose, bruised face, a twisted arm or torn clothes.

Interestingly, at stake was not a trophy after the finals of a kabaddi match but a simple dispute - under whose leadership was the demonstration being carried out?. The supporters of two contenders for party ticket battled it out physically for supremacy and none of the factions won as the issue remained undecided.

A few days ago, AICC in-charge of the state, Gulchain Singh Charak saw a demonstration of this “free for all” at two separate meetings at Gurdaspur and Jalandhar. Fisticuffs, pulling, pushing, abusing throwing objects etc became order of the day and the Congress leader had to be safely evacuated from the venue. Charak, a party leader from Jammu and Kashmir, wanted to emerge as a parallel power centre in Punjab politics; he had to beat a hasty retreat given the acrimony of leaders at the district level. He called off his entire tour of the districts. PCC President Captain Amarinder Singh even ordered an inquiry into the indiscipline. Charak said that such workers would be firmly dealt with. But every Congress worker knows that nothing comes out of such enquiries and warnings as such behaviour comes “naturally” to them.

In Haryana, AICC General Secretary in-charge B K Hariprasad too is well aware how to play it safe when Congress workers of rival factions clash with each other in the meetings. None of his meetings in Haryana has passed off without the aggressive display and posturing of one faction against the other. He has been a youth Congress leader in Karnataka and knows the behavioral pattern of the fellow Congressmen like the back of his hand.

A few years ago, I was covering a Congress rally at Gohana (Sonepat) in Haryana. At that time a fierce turf war was being fought between Bhajan Lal, who was in Congress then and Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who was trying to challenge him as the undisputed leader of the Haryana Congress. In the presence of central leaders, Hooda supporters shouted down Bhajan Lal and the situation could have taken an ugly turn had it not been for the presence of senior AICC functionaries. Some of the Hooda supporters were even armed with black flags which they waived the moment Bhajan Lal disembarked from his vehicle. This was as if an “enemy” of the Congress had made a sudden appearance. The fact that Bhajan Lal had been at the helm of affairs in the state for over a decade was completely lost to the protesting workers.

Now when Hooda has firmly established himself as the most acceptable face of the Congress at the state level, his supporters no longer indulge in such wanton acts. However, rival factions still fight it out for turf space at local meetings in the presence of the Chief Minister.

When I asked a senior Congress leader about such reckless acts on the part of the workers, he simply said it was because of “too much democratization” at the local level and “too much centralization” at the central level. “As long as you raise the slogans of ‘Sonia Gandhi Zindabad’ and Rahul Gandhi Zindabad’ and remain loyal to the first family of the party, such acts are condoned,” he said.

Having covered the Congress party as a reporter for a while now, I know that the Congress leadership has a deliberate policy of not making any one leader too powerful in a state, lest he emerges as a power centre on his/her own right. When Bhajan Lal was the all powerful Congress satrap in Haryana, he had to contend with Hooda. When Hooda became the all powerful leader, he has to contend with Union Minister Selja and AICC General Secretary Birender Singh.

In Punjab, Captain Amarinder Singh had to fight a long turf war with Rajinder Kaur Bhattal in his tenure as Chief Minister so much so that MLAs loyal to each other were being paraded in New Delhi every now and then. When the party lost the 2007 Assembly polls, a delicate balancing act was done with one made PCC President and the other CLP leader to sort out the leadership issue. They have entered into a peace pact as of now to accomplish the larger goal of winning the 2012 assembly polls. But no one knows how long would this “peace” last, more so if the party indeed emerges victorious in the elections.

Himachal Pradesh is no exception to this thumb rule. One faction led by Union Minister Virbhadra Singh and the other led by PCC Chief Thakur Kaul Singh exchanged blows with each other in a meeting at Mandi a few weeks ago. While the person manning the stage received a head injury, several others returned with torn clothes and bruises on their body. The state goes to polls next year and this will only intensify in the coming weeks and months.

Congress politics in the northern states is practically on similar lines. In Delhi, it was the late Ram Babu Sharma who was made the PCC President to take potshots at Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit every now and then. The AICC General Secretaries too were given charge of Delhi to cut Dikshit to size. Now J.P. Agarwal is the PCC President and he too takes his chances once in a while against Dikshit. In Rajasthan, it is Union Minister C.P. Joshi versus Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot who are fighting each other out through their supporters.

“When the party is in power, it is a fight for the loaves of power when it is in opposition, it is a contest for the crumbs,” summed up a senior leader in Chandigarh. Few would disagree.

(The writer is Senior Editor, The Pioneer, Chandigarh)

September 18, 2011

http://www.dailypioneer.com/state-editions/chandigarh/7219-turf-war-in-congress.html

BJP-HJC combine eye non-Jat voters

Amitabh Shukla / Chandigarh

None of the “Lals” may be in power in Haryana but they still call the shots in the state so much so that the national party BJP now has to bank on the scion of one of these Lals to make a footmark in the state politics.

While the scions of Bansi Lal are firmly with the Congress with a Lok Sabha MP (Shruti Chaudhary) and an MLA and Minister (Kiran Chaudhary), BJP had to go for the scions of the other two “Lals” - Om Prakash Chautala (Son of Devi Lal) and Kuldeep Bishnoi (Son of Bhajan Lal) who are either politically dominant or aspiring for the dominant position.

After having rejected the olive branch extended by Indian National Lok Dal’s Om Prakash Chautala, the son of Chaudhari Devi Lal, BJP has gone for the son of Bhajan Lal, Kuldeep Bishnoi, for a long term tie-up in the state where the party has not been able to make a significant mark despite its influence in all the neighbouring states – Himachal Pradesh, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and even Punjab. The BJP has ruled all these states and still is in power in Himachal and shares power with the Akali Dal in Punjab but has never been able to call the shots in Haryana.

Billed as the Third Front, the new formation is looking at the formidable non-Jat voters who have been voting either for the Congress or the INLD due to lack of viable political options in the state. Bhajan Lal still remains the only non Jat leader who was at the helm of affairs in Haryana for over a decade despite his community (Bishnoi) being a miniscule minority in the caste conscious state.

The political magic of Bhajan Lal is still not lost as his Haryana Janhit Congress bagged six seats in the 2009 Assembly polls. It is different matter that five of them moved for greener pastures and joined the Congress to give it the numbers to form the government after a resurgent INLD virtually knocked at the gates of Haryana Assembly with an impressive performance.

Taking a hint from the way Bhajan Lal ruled the state before being outsmarted by Bhupinder Singh Hooda, BJP thought that perhaps it was better to align with the legacy which he has left. Also, the only other option for the party was an alliance with INLD which the party refused to have any tuck in the last Assembly polls. In fact has the BJP gone into an alliance with the INLD in the last Assembly polls, it could well have been Chautala in power rather than Hooda.

But given the fact that Chautala is facing corruption charges and it was on this very issue that two of its Chief Ministers – B S Yeddyurappa in Karnataka and Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank in Uttarakhand – had to leave their posts, HJC was the only plausible option.

BJP leaders here say that non Jat communities like the Brahmins, Vaish, Gujjars, Ahirs (Yadavs), Bishnois, Dalits and even non-Jat Sikhs could form the backbone of the new alliance and has the potential to change the dynamics of Jat dominated politics. “Both Congress and INLD are Jat dominated. This could be a fresh beginning as the non-Jat communities clearly are in a majority in the state,” a BJP leader said.

The Hisar Lok Sabha bye-election could be the harbinger of the new change in state politics. If the HJC-BJP candidate Kuldeep Bishnoi defeats Ajay Singh Chautala of the INLD and the yet to be declared Congress candidate, the alliance would be cemented firmly for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections and the subsequent Assembly polls.

Bipolar politics has been the order of the day in the state for quite a while now ever since Haryana Vikas Party lost its sheen and merged with the Congress seven years ago in 2004. But there could well be a third pole in 2011 and beyond if the “Lal” scion, chosen by the BJP, romps home and goes to the Lok Sabha. This is what the BJP would be earnestly hoping for given its marginalization in the state so far and also to increase its seat tally in a bid to challenge the UPA in 2014 general elections.

http://dailypioneer.com/nation/6250-bjp-hjc-combine-eye-non-jat-voters.html

Do not play with fire

Abolish Capital punishment if you cannot implement the law of land

The bomb blast at the reception counter of Delhi High Court has shifted the focus back on those who have been convicted to be hanged. These terrorists on the death row have benefited from a system where the will power of the state is missing, it is dilly-dallying and the political push and pressure is creating a situation conducive to continued terror attacks.

There are people who argue, and rightly so, that had Afzal Guru (one individual) been hanged, the death of 12 innocent people (who died in the High Court blast) could have been prevented. They ask: Is one life, and that too of Guru, more precious than those who died in the blast. No one has the right answers and certainly not those in the government. No one knows when will Guru’s turn for the gallows come and till when his supporters will keep blasting innocent victims to death.

Soon after the blast, an e-mail, sent by terror outfit Huji claimed responsibility saying if the government did not “repeal” Afzal Guru's death sentence, it will target other courts and the Supreme Court next.

As I have covered the Delhi High Court as a Reporter for the Hindustan Times, where I was working then, the blast was in a territory where I visited almost everyday for more than a year. It causes more pain and anguish when you know that no one is safe and it could well have been me, my colleague, friend, relative, neighbour or any other citizen. And whose fault is this? Fingers would only be pointed towards the “soft” state and political brinkmanship.

Only a few days ago, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah raked up the issue of Afzal Guru and tweeted about clemency to the Parliament House attack convict whose mercy petition has been rejected by the President and referred to the resolution of Tamil Nadu Assembly on clemency to three in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.

Not only J & K, another border state Punjab, which has seen terror at close quarters for two decades, too is playing with fire. Instead of disassociating itself from the acts of Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar, the state government has repeatedly asked for clemency for the terrorist, who is responsible for killings and bomb blasts in the heart of Delhi. Like the Tamil Nadu Assembly, there is a thought process going on in a section of the ruling party in the poll bound Punjab that a resolution should be passed in the state assembly and sent to the central government.

Ironically, it was a similar mindset amongst a section of the Congress and the Akali Dal leadership in the late 1970s and early 1980s which saw a mayhem in Punjab with thousands killed in the mindless violence. The common people of the state have not yet got over the nightmare which gripped the state for almost two decades. The bitter lesson seems to have been forgotten so soon.

I am not into the merits or for that matter the demerits of capital punishment. Let the sociologists, the criminologists, human right groups argue that in perpetuity. I do not come in either of the categories. But the point is if you cannot legally hang somebody even if the person concerned has committed the most heinous crime and the highest court of India and even the President of the country has given a go ahead, why keep the façade of death penalty at all in your legal system. It would be better if capital punishment is done away with as in any case you cannot implement the order. There would be some smart lawyer somewhere who will invariably find that it is cruelty if you do not hang someone after the death punishment has been pronounced.

In that case, if death penalty is done away with, at least there would be no controversy. No political party would be pitching for the Afzal Gurus, Devinder Pal Bhullars and the Murugans, Arivus and Santhans of this world. All of them, including Kasab, would live all their life and die naturally in their old age. The Dravidian parties, Akali Dals and the National Conferences would not make an issue out of capital punishment. At least this would be settled once and for all. But do not procrastinate. You take a decision either way. Don’t say that taking no decision is a decision in itself.

Alternatively, why not make a law that no one who has committed a terrorist crime will be sent to the gallows. Make an amendment in the Indian Penal Code which says that only the common murderers, who have no political backing, will be hanged and not those who indulge in bomb blasts, shoot outs and anti-national activities.

As a student of history and politics, I had studied in the text books that after the Supreme Court confirms the death penalty, the President of the country can pardon anyone or reject mercy petitions. The textbooks never mentioned that after a mercy petition had been rejected, state governments could build political pressure, pass resolutions in assemblies in favour of the killers, write letters to the Prime Minister and President for reviewing the rejection of mercy petitions so on and so forth. This is a new lesson for all us.

Huji is in favour of clemency to Guru so is an independent J&K MLA while the CM Omar Abdullah is sympathetic. The Dravidian parties are sympathetic to the Rajiv Gandhi killers and so are the run-away members of the now defunct LTTE. Akali Dal is in favour of mercy for Bhullar and so are the remaining members of terror groups like the Khalistan Liberation Force and organisations with the name “Khalistan” prefixed or suffixed with them. The line is blurring and this is a cause of anguish and concern for the citizens.

(The writer is Senior Editor, The Pioneer, Chandigarh)

http://dailypioneer.com/state-editions/chandigarh/5374-do-not-play-with-fire.html

11.09.2011

Brinkmanship in Sehajdhari dispute; Political battles should be fought only through the ballot

No one knows who is speaking the truth. But the fact is that Punjab was in a political turmoil for almost 20 hours after the High Court hearing on the voting rights of the Sehejdhari Sikhs and before the statement of Home Minister P Chidambaram in the Lok Sabha.

There is so much of trust deficit between the Centre and the Akali Dal-led state government that even after Chidambaram categorically denied that Sehejdhari Sikhs will get voting rights, SAD and its affiliates still made a lot of hue and cry. To derive maximum political mileage out of the faux pass, they only changed their target to the state unit of the Congress from the central government.

Not only the political leadership of the Akalis but all religious leaders, including the Sant Samaj, the Amritsar-based Sikh clergy, SGPC leadership and various factions of hard-line groups took an intransigent position vis-à-vis the central government, reviving the memories of the nightmare with which Punjab went through a few years ago.

The controversy came close on the heels of the Centre rejecting a separate Marriage Act and its separate registration for the Sikhs. A seemingly inconsequential issue for the central government suddenly became an issue for the poll bound Punjab with various factions and parties coming out to demand a separate act.

Officials, closely watching the Punjab developments at the Centre, say that the demand for a separate Marriage Act for the Sikhs is clearly secessionist, the first step for giving a fillip to bigger demands in the future and the Centre has acted in the right spirit and the move is in the right direction. They, however, caution that the reckless manner in which the Sehejdhari voting right issue was handled was dangerous. They point out that religious issues in the state need to be handled more carefully and in an extremely sensitive manner.

“What prevented the Centre from announcing on Thursday evening itself that the lawyer concerned (Harbhagwan Singh) was not appearing on behalf of the Centre. The lawyer made a dramatic declaration at 4 pm. Why didn’t a responsible minister in New Delhi announce that it was wrong at 5 pm. Why did the Centre wait for almost 19 hours to make a clarification? Why this delay? Wasn’t the Home Ministry aware that the state was being pushed to a brink?” asked a senior official.

Was the Centre testing the political waters in Punjab before taking a final call on the contentious issue? Was it a trial balloon? This question is being debated and discussed not only amongst the officials but also the political leadership of the state parties. Those who see a conspiracy theory behind the entire move point out that the state unit of the Congress, headed by Captain Amarinder Singh, failed to take a stand on the developments in the High Court and the statement of the “Centre’s counsel” for 24 hours. And when they finally made a statement, it was in favour of restoring the voting rights of the Sehejdhari Sikhs. Also, the conspiracy theorists hold that the counsel who made the statement is close to Congress leadership and had been a top law officer when the party was in power in Punjab.

We are not debating the conspiracy theories and merits or demerits of voting rights of the Sehejdhari Sikhs and whether any such categorisation exists as the SGPC leadership would like us to believe. Let the political and religious leadership take a call on that and arrive at a consensus. But the fact that political parties – be it the Congress or the Akali Dal and even the smaller factions - have the tendency to fish in troubled waters is the problem area, particularly for a sensitive state like Punjab which has just now recovered from very turbulent times. If the Centre does not recognise this, then clearly it is living in a fool’s paradise. If that remains the case, then it hasn’t learnt the bitter lessons of the late 1970s, the entire 1980s and early 1990s.

It is for the first time in recent memory that two crucial elections in Punjab are being held almost simultaneously, leading to an unprecedented rise in the political temperature. While the SGPC elections will be held on September 18, the do or die Assembly polls are scheduled for early February. Already the atmosphere is surcharged with the SAD and Congress trading charges on a daily basis and calling each other all sorts of names. There is no scope for any miscalculated move or floating a trial balloon at this juncture.

Had it been normal days when both the main parties – Congress and the SAD – were not face to face with elections, such passions would not have been raised. But when scoring brownie points is the order of the day, any miscalculation could simply backfire and boomerang. Punjab cannot afford that. There are still certain elements who can stoke fire and exploit the sentiments.

It is no secret that Congress has been trying to get some kind of a hold on SGPC from the very beginning but has remained unsuccessful. Flouting its secular credentials, the party does not contest the SGPC polls but talk to its leaders here and they admit that results of the SGPC polls would indicate which way the political wind is blowing in Punjab. If the panthic morcha, opposed to the SAD, performs well in the SGPC polls, no one would be happier than the Congress. While even the most ardent Congress supporter would not predict a panthic morcha controlled SGPC after September 22, they nevertheless want that the SAD gets real challenge in the polls of the religious body so that the margin is not beyond repair for the Assembly polls.

Be it the rejection of the Anand Marriage Act (separate Marriage Act for the Sikhs) or the controversy of the voting rights of the Sehejdhari Sikhs, the timing of both seems to be suspect. The reaction would not have been fierce had elections not been around or it was the month of March 2012 when a new government gets in the saddle. You cannot lose sight of the long term implications for short term political adventure.

(The writer is Senior Editor, The Pioneer, Chandigarh)

4.09.2011