Beant killer's execution stayed

Amitabh Shukla/Chandigarh

The suspense around the hanging of Balwant Singh Rajoana, which had kept Punjab on its toes for the last three days, finally ended on Wednesday with the Centre staying the execution of the militant, scheduled for March 31.

In a day of fast-paced developments, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal met President Pratibha Patil in New Delhi on Wednesday evening seeking clemency for the assassin of former Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh. During almost an half-an-hour-long meeting, Akali MPs, and SGPC chief Avtar Singh Makkar were also present.

In his clemency plea, the Chief Minister pointed to the surcharged atmosphere in Punjab and the fact that the State had come out of violence after great efforts. He apprehended that hanging at this juncture could affect the law and order situation adversely. “It has become imperative for all of us tasked with safeguarding the interests and the destiny of the country to prevent the situation from sliding in that tragic direction. This is all the more important considering Punjab’s strategic geographical location, sharing a long active international border with Pakistan and contiguous to J&K, where forces hostile to the country have been active to destabilise conditions in the country,” Badal said in his letter seeking clemency.

Soon after meeting the President, a jubilant Badal announced that the Centre had stayed the execution of Rajoana. “Execution has been stayed. We are very happy,” Sukhbir, who also holds the Home Department, told the media after the meeting with the President.

The decision came soon after there was violence during the day-long bandh called by the hardliners and several Sikh organisations in the State. The bandh was complete with almost all shops closed and very few vehicles plying on the road. Yellow flags were plastered in the streets in several parts of the State. There were also indications that the bandh was turning communal when shopkeepers opposed it in some parts of Patiala and the border areas. Activists of the Shiv Sena clashed with the protesters, triggering fears of the protest turning communal. Heavy police presence prevented any untoward situation but the incident clearly indicated the stress the State was going through.

Referring it as the “accomplishment” of the efforts of the SAD-BJP Government, “people’s support” and the “God’s grace”, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal asked the people to maintain the “hard earned” peace and communal harmony in the State. After Badal handed over the petition on behalf

of the Punjab Government seeking Balwant’s clemency, the President’s office sent it to the Union Home Ministry, following which the “written” stay orders were handed over to the Chief Minister.

Ironically, the ‘condemned man’ wanted the death warrants to be executed and resisted any sort of clemency even though the State Government, Sikh organisations and others are protesting against the execution orders.

Refuting charges of politicising the issue, Sukhbir Badal made it clear that it was “the duty of the State Government to go as per the law of the land…as long as the clemency plea is pending with the President and the cases of co-accused are awaiting decision, you cannot hang anyone”.

The Chief Minister also requested the people of the State to maintain peace and tranquility in the State, while warning of strict action against those “who don’t want to see peace in the State”. “Strict action would be taken against anyone who breaks law,” asserted Badal, in a Press conference after meeting with the President.

The State Government has been under immense pressure in the last few days with radical Sikh groups demanding Balwant’s clemency, sentenced to death for assassinating the then Chief Minister in 1995.

There was political unanimity in the state on the staying of execution with the State Congress supporting the decision of the Akali Dal to move a clemency petition. PCC president Captain Amarinder Singh hailed the Congress-led UPA Government at the Centre for staying the execution of Balwant Singh Rajoana. At the same time he appealed to people of Punjab to maintain peace at all costs.

“The decision will go a long way in maintaining and safeguarding the hard earned peace in Punjab which has been established after a lot of sacrifices,” Amarinder said, hinting how important it was for the stay of the execution. (March 29, 2012)

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Court rejects plea on Rajoana; Badal lobbies for clemency

Amitabh Shukla / Chandigarh

A piquant and tense situation arose on Tuesday with a lower court refusing to defer the death sentence of Balwant Singh Rajoana even though the Punjab Government has categorically declared that the Babbar Khalsa militant won’t be sent to the gallows on March 31.

With three working days left, the Punjab Government was at its wits end as soon as the orders of additional district and sessions Judge Shalini Singh Nagpal was delivered in the afternoon returning the death warrant to Central Jail, Patiala where the accused in the Beant Singh assassination case is lodged.

Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal has sought an appointment with the President, the Prime Minister and the Home Minister as earliest as possible to apprise them of the situation and request for clemency for the condemned prisoner. He has already reached New Delhi and is likely to meet the central leaders on Wednesday. Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) has filed a clemency plea with the President, a decision on which is yet to be taken.

Rajoana’s case is perhaps the first of its kind in several decades where death warrant has been issued even though the entire process of law has yet to play itself out. What prompted the Chandigarh court to issue the death warrant was the fact that the BKI militant refused to file an appeal at any stage and throughout the trial accepted his role in the assassination of the then Punjab Chief Minister.

Even as the Akali Dal is going all out to save the convict from the gallows, Rajoana had made it clear that he does not need any sympathy. In his letter, released from the jail through his sister, he said they (Akalis) have failed to secure justice for the Sikhs, going to the extent of calling them “cheaters”.

Patiala Jail Superintendent LS Jakhar, who had filed a petition in the lower court pointing out the legal and administrative infirmities in the death warrant, would appeal in the Punjab and Haryana High Court against the death warrant. The matter is likely to be taken up on Wednesday. The petition, which has the backing of the entire State Government and the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal, would seek the intervention of the court for cancelling the death warrant of Rajoana.

Officials said that the Punjab Government has a few options even at this stage. First Patiala jail Superintendent LS Jakhar will approach the High Court and if the petition is rejected, he will move the Supreme Court straight away challenging the death warrant and pointing legal infirmities in carrying out the orders. Simultaneously, the State leadership will meet the top echelons of Central Government to seek clemency from the President. If Rajoana gets clemency from the President in the next three days, the entire legal process for commuting death sentence would come to a standstill.

Top officials convened a series of meetings immediately after the fresh court order was delivered to thrash out the next course of action which could save Rajoana even now as the State Government believes that the hanging at this juncture could lead to a serious breakdown of the law and order in Punjab. They feel that it will give an upper hand to the hardliners who have remained on the fringes ever since militancy in the State was thoroughly defeated a decade and a half ago.

Reports with the State police indicate that there is regrouping by the hardliners on the issue, particularly when the highest religious and temporal seat of the Sikhs, the Akal Takht too wants that Rajoana be given clemency.

Protests have already been held in several parts of the State against the hanging and it continued on Tuesday. Alarmed at the protests and the impact it could have on law and order, the police have deployed paramilitary forces in sensitive areas, organised flag march in several district headquarters and sounded a general alert for all officials.

Several Sikh organisations and panthic groups, which have the support of the hardliners, have given a call for Punjab bandh on Wednesday, further complicating matters for the State Government which came to power for the second time in a row just a fortnight ago. (March 28, 2012)

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Punjab not to hang Rajoana

Amitabh Shukla / Chandigarh

Punjab government late on Saturday evening practically made it clear that it was legally and administratively untenable to hang Balwant Singh Rajoana in central Jail, Patiala on March 31.

In a letter cum petition to Shalini Singh Nagpal, the Additional Sessions Judge who issued the death warrant, the Superintendent of central Jail Patiala has pointed out several procedural lacunae in the order saying that the death warrant should have been sent to Burail Jail, Chandigarh rather than Patiala. Citing High Court rules and orders, he said that Rajoana was originally an inmate of Burail Jail and not of Patiala jail.

“The State of Punjab has no jurisdiction in law to execute the death sentence since the offence has taken place within the jurisdiction of Union Territory of Chandigarh. The trial was also conducted at Chandigarh and the conviction and sentence was also passed by Additional Sessions Judge at Chandigarh,” the letter said.

The letter, drafted after consulting legal experts, pointed out that the Supreme Court of India has in several judgments extended the benefit of acquittal or lesser sentence to the other co-accused although they had not filed an appeal, indicating that it was necessary to await the outcome of the matter in the Supreme Court of India before executing the death warrant.

“Balwant Singh Rajoana not filing any appeal or mercy petition so far is of no consequence in as much as the execution of the death sentence cannot be effected till the Supreme Court finally adjudicates the matter,” the letter cum petition said, adding, “ It will not be possible to bring him back to life in case the Supreme Court decides that the matter does not warrant death sentence and may commute to life imprisonment or it may even acquit co-accused/any accused on the ground that the prosecution case under the facts and circumstances is not established beyond reasonable doubt”.

It is also possible that Balwant Singh Rajoana changes his mind and files appeal or mercy petition. It is therefore necessary to let the law complete its final course before executing the death sentence, the letter said.

Sources said that there are legal infirmities in the procedure followed and the State of Punjab has no territorial jurisdiction in the matter.

The Superintendent of the Patiala Jail has requested the court to defer the execution of sentence of death of Rajoana till the decision of the Supreme Court in Appeal filed by co-accused Lakhwinder Singh Lakha which is pending adjudication.

The jail has also expressed its inability to execute the warrant of death due to the legal and administrative infirmities and returned the warrants for the execution of sentence of death.

The assertions of the jail Superintendent has the backing of the Punjab government which is watching the situation closely, particularly the gathering of the hardliners and their decision to call for a Punjab bandh on March 29. Sources said that there was no possibility of hanging given the legal infirmity from which the death warrant suffers and also due to the grave implications it could have on law and order situation in Punjab. (March 25, 2012)

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Rajoana case needs sensitive approach

Convicted for the assassination of former Punjab chief minister Beant Singh, Babbar Khalsa International militant Balwant Singh Rajoana may be willing to face the gallows but indications are that he may not be hanged on March 31, the scheduled date fixed by a Chandigarh court as the entire process of law has not yet played itself out.

This is perhaps the first case of its kind in the country where an accused has throughout the trial refused to file an appeal against the verdict of death sentence. When a lower court awards death penalty to anyone under the law, the order has to be confirmed by the High Court. While Rajoana’s case reached the Punjab and Haryana High Court by default, he refused to contest the prosecution’s charges or use the services of a lawyer to fight his case. Indoctrinated by the ideology of Khalistan, which led to a bloodbath in Punjab not long ago, at every stage of the trial, he accepted that he killed the former chief minister.

The indoctrinated intention is clear. The militant wants hallow of martyrdom and keep alive the failed issue of Khalistan in public memory. He has partially succeeded as the Akal Takht has bestowed him the honour of being a “zinda shaheed” (live martyr).

In the absence of the accused contesting the charges of the prosecuting agency, in this case the CBI, Punjab and Haryana High Court confirmed the order passed by the lower court even though it had commuted the death sentence of fellow accused Jagtar Singh Hawara and converted it into life imprisonment.

It is here where the problem arises. In normal circumstances, after High Court the accused can approach the Supreme Court to get death sentence commuted and after that the President of the country can be approached for clemency. In Rajoana’s case, the entire process is yet to play out as even the High Court verdict upholding the death sentence, was made due to an ideologically motivated militant refusing to contest the charges. In the same case, his partner in the assassination has been saved from the gallows.

So there are still three stages of law to be completed before hanging takes place in the case of Rajoana – a proper appeal in the High Court, then the Supreme Court and finally an appeal to the President for clemency. But what does the higher judiciary do in a situation where the entire process of law is yet to exhaust but the accused wants to go to the gallows? There has to be an interpretation of law here as this is the first case of its kind and there is no precedent of a similar nature on which the judiciary can rely on.

There is another point of law which, I think, needs to be defined. It is settled that any confession made under police custody is not accepted as evidence in a court of law. This is because the statement could have been made under duress. However, if a statement is made due to ideological conditioning, irrespective of the merits of that ideology, there is no remedy as of now. We need the courts to define the aspect of ideological conditioning under which the statements of the condemned militant has been made so that there is no miscarriage of justice.

I think it is here that the Supreme Court has to intervene and define the law governing death sentence, particularly for a case of such a peculiar nature. I am not sure if the apex court ever faced such a situation where the accused awarded death penalty refuses to file an appeal. The court should consider Rajoana’s case and define the law again in such cases. This becomes important because there are several condemned prisoners living in jails whose mercy petition too has been rejected by the President while Rajoana has to avail of all the options made available by law.

Ironically, several organisations have sprung up for the defence of Rajoana now when the issue has snowballed into a political storm as the date of execution nears. No one in Punjab cared for Rajoana till the other day when a special court in Chandigarh sent the death warrants to central Jail Patiala where the condemned prisoner is lodged.

In fast paced developments which have acquired political overtones now, Giani Gurbachan Singh, Jathedar of the Akal Takht has directed Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal and Deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal to approach the President and the Prime Minister for clemency. The Sikh clergy have met Rajoana in Patiala jail earlier and took the views of religious and political leaders before issuing the hukumnama (diktat) to the CM and Deputy CM. The hardliners and pro-Khalistan elements have also come in the picture now. They met the Akal Takht Jathedar and have called for a Punjab bandh later this month but are not sure whether they want Rajoana to hang and keep alive the issue or want clemency for him.

A meeting of the core committee of the Shiromani Akali Dal has also been convened to discuss the issue and chalk out a strategy following the directive of the Jathedar of Akal Takht. Akali Dal had earlier asked the President to reconsider the decision to reject the mercy plea of Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar, convicted for a bomb blast in New Delhi which was aimed to kill Maninder Jit Singh Bitta but killed several security personnel and bystanders.

Bhullar issue did not ignite much debate as the incident took place in New Delhi and he is lodged in the Tihar Jail, away from Punjab. But Rajoana committed the crime in Chandigarh and is lodged in Patiala and the issue has revived the days of militancy from which Punjab could recover only after loss of thousands of lives.

There are indications that the Punjab government could approach the lower court which issued the death warrants or the High Court saying that there is no hangman in Punjab to do the job or may point out some other procedural issue to delay the hanging and buy some more time. It may even ask the Centre to impress upon the prosecuting agency CBI to file a plea in the court about the entire sequence of events in which co-accused Hawara has been spared the gallows but Rajoana faces death as he deliberately did not file an appeal.

My point is that when Punjab has become normal and is one of the only examples where militancy has been successfully defeated thoroughly; there should be no slip at this point of time. Nothing should be done to aggravate the situation. It should be tackled sensitively. Let the entire process of law play itself out in the process. Sometimes taking no decision is a decision in itself and perhaps Rajoana’s case fits the bill on that count. (March 25, 2012)

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

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Time for son to rise in Punjab too: Tale of Badals and Yadavs

The Assembly polls, wrongly or rightly billed as the semi-finals before the 2014 general elections, saw the rise of “son power” – Sukhbir Badal in Punjab and Akhilesh Yadav in Uttar Pradesh.

While both of them were around in politics for a while and by no stretch of imagination could be termed as greenhorns, this was the first election in which they made a mark for themselves, scripted the plot for the victory of their respective parties and rightly got due credit in their states.

Sukhbir Badal, who will turn 50 this July, practically took the command of the 92-year old Shiromani Akali Dal, founded in 1920 to free the Gurudwaras from the Mahants, three years before the assembly elections as President of the party. There were murmurs initially in perhaps the oldest regional party of the country when he was made the President but he showed his leadership skills by effectively wooing the Jathedars and religious leaders, giving them due respect and authority locally. In the Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) elections, held in September 2011, SAD in alliance with the Sant Samaj swept the polls, completely crushing the opposition, backed by the Congress. In a way, the SGPC election was the first test which he passed successfully. He never looked behind and gradually made his way up in the party to gain the confidence of the core vote bank of the Akali Dal.

At the age of 85 while Parkash Singh Badal has more or less given the leadership mantle to Sukhbir, assuming the role of an elder statesman, except for the post of the chief minister, it is the other way round in Uttar Pradesh.

In the biggest state of the country, which sends 80 members to the Lok Sabha, the veteran socialist Mulayam Singh Yadav realised that his brand of politics has few takers amongst the youth. He found a youth mascot in his son Akhilesh Yadav who showed tremendous political potential in the run-up to the polls with his youthful exuberance. People had seen the unimpressive rule of Mulayam Singh in the state for quite a while and except for his role as an “aggressive secularist”, which endeared him to the Muslim voters, he is hardly credited with any development worth remembering. In fact, his image was tarred by the goonda elements having a field day in entire Uttar Pradesh during his tenure which helped Bahujan Samaj Party come to power on its own in the 2007 polls.

In such a situation, Akhilesh came as a fresh breeze - a perfect spoiler for both the aggressive campaign of Rahul Gandhi and the caste arithmetic of Mayawati. Here, the senior Yadav let the junior Yadav become the chief minister but has held on to the reins of power in his hands. The Cabinet, more or less, is the one which Mulayam would have had if he were the chief minister. The bureaucracy too is exactly the way he wants and comprises his favourites at top positions. It will take some time for Akhilesh to get out of the shadows of his father and stamp his authority in the government. It could even be Mulayam’s method to teach the tricks of the trade to his son, who is holding any government post for the first time.

This is what Sukhbir in Punjab has already done. His stamp is there, right from the distribution of Departments to the Ministers, post swearing in to the selection of the top officials in the state. Even before Departments were allotted to ministers, Sukhbir changed the Director General of Police and brought in Sumedh Singh Saini, an official with whom he is comfortable working with. He changed the chief secretary and also brought in his favourite police officials to head the districts, summarily transferring the IPS officers brought in by the Election Commission during the model code of conduct to insignificant positions. He selected the candidates for the Assembly polls and before that for the SGPC polls, drew the electoral strategy and did the micro management which led to the unprecedented victory of the party for the second time in a row.

While Sukhbir did micro management in Punjab, Akhilesh was the mascot of the party in UP and left micro management to his father, Mulayam Singh. Akhilesh rode on his rath, took out rallies and connected to the youth, the anti-incumbency voters and the floating voters. With the M-Y (Muslim-Yadav) combination, assiduously built by the senior Yadav intact, SP rode to power again in Lucknow.

Even if he is gradually making the way for his son, the senior Badal in Punjab brilliantly complemented Sukhbir in the run up to the polls. Many term him as the mascot of the Akali Dal now with the real power passing on to his son. The aggressiveness and innovative strategies of the junior Badal complimented the patience, humility and greater acceptance which the senior Badal enjoys amongst the core Jat Sikh, rural voters and the Gurudwara based panthic organisations, including the SGPC.

A section of the Akali leaders in Punjab believe that the senior Badal could make the way for Sukhbir much before the next elections in 2017, something like Mulayam Singh did in UP by installing his son to the top job. But this is not going to happen in a hurry. There could be a possibility of chief minister Badal moving to central politics after 2014 general elections if the NDA is voted to power. Till then, the arrangement where he does not have to strain himself in day to day affairs and take hard political decisions and Sukhbir runs the show both in the government as Deputy Chief Minister and the party as its President, would continue.

In UP, the senior Yadav hardly has a national role as of now as his best hope of being the leader of a Third or Fourth Front is a distant dream. There is no such entity on the ground nor there in the realm of possibility in the near future, more so when SP is closely aligned to the UPA even though it is not a part of the government. SP had bailed out the Manmohan Singh government on the nuclear deal issue after the Left walked out and has overtly and covertly supported the UPA in the second tenure whenever the need arose during voting in Parliament. The irony is that coming from a party whose existence draws strength from being anti-Congress, party supremo Mulayam Singh would find it extremely difficult to explain to his core vote bank if he moved on to the government even if Mamata Banerjee withdraws support.

With the Badals firmly ensconced in Punjab and the Yadavs in Uttar Pradesh for the next five years, they will be itching to have a bigger space at the national level. SAD’s space is well known – as one of the longest serving alliance partner of the BJP, it is SP which will have to find a role for itself in the run-up to the 2014 polls. (March 18, 2012)

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In Punjab, Congress took voters for granted

The party’s attitude was all wrong: It ran an aggressive and negative campaign, little realising that this only alienated the masses, says Amitabh Shukla

The loss of Punjab is one embarrassment which the Congress is not going to forget in a hurry, at least for the next five years. The party’s defeat at the hands of the Akali Dal-BJP combine has contributed to the scripting of history — an incumbent Government has been voted back to power for the first time in 46 years.

After the embarrassment of defeat, party managers are ascribing different factors and reasons but clearly the Congress in Punjab developed a suicidal tendency of taking the voters for granted. Even before the poll schedule was announced and throughout the campaign, Congress leaders were so over-confident that their attitude bordered on arrogance. They thought that the party was on its way to the corridors of power in Chandigarh and no power on earth could stop its victory march. But the voters had different ideas and they indeed had the last laugh.

The Congress’s theory of “last time they, this time we”, citing elections post-1966, went for a toss as the Akali Dal-BJP combine scripted what had never happened in 46 years. An over-confident Congress kept on banking on the ‘unscientific’ theory that an incumbent Government in Punjab will be thrown out, come what may.

The Congress failed to look beyond Punjab to find that the theory of incumbent Governments being voted out had lost its meaning and relevance. Neighbours Haryana and Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Odisha, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat are recent examples. The list is only growing. Voters like to be respected. You have to go to them with all humility — after all, you are seeking votes from them. They don’t like political parties taking them for granted.

Scion of the Nehru-Gandhi family and the party’s chief campaigner and strategist for the failed ‘Mission Uttar Pradesh’, Mr Rahul Gandhi, too took the voters for granted by unleashing an aggressive campaign. He was continuously seen folding the sleeves of his kurta, an aggressive gesture. In Bollywood films, the hero does that when he enters into a fight with the villain or some other vile character. You do not do this when you are out with a begging bowl before the voters. This was in sharp contrast to the humility of Mr Akhilesh Yadav, who was visibly humble, never rolled his sleeves, never tore papers on stage, considered voters as the king and did not take them for granted. The results are there for all to see.

Punjab’s Captain Amarinder Singh too was threatening the rivals continuously, using phrases like qatal-e-aam and telling the voters what he would do after March 6, when the results are out. On the other hand, the voters saw Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal in a new humble avatar, seeking votes in the name of development and the unfinished agenda of his Government. Now both Mr Gandhi and Capt Singh, declared the Chief Ministerial candidate by the former himself, will have to introspect on what went wrong and whether they need to change their style to win back the voters.

The Congress will have to realise that the Indian polity is gradually getting regional and it will have to meet regional aspirations like never before to remain relevant. Party tickets in the Congress were decided in New Delhi with Cabinet Minister CP Joshi from Rajasthan as chairman of the panel which decided who got the tickets. It may have brought in an element of neutrality in the selection process but just for the sake of it. A million-dollar question is how would Mr Joshi know the strengths and weaknesses of the candidates and the geographical peculiarities of the State, whose language is entirely different from that of Rajasthan?

On the other hand, the selection of candidates by the Akali Dal was decentralised and the choice was made in Chandigarh and various cities of the State. Mr Sukhbir Badal knew the strengths and weaknesses of each candidate, peculiarities of each area, the anger of the electorate against some sitting legislators and decided accordingly — changing some, shifting the constituencies of others, etc.

How could the Congress not see the disaster coming? When Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, son of the soil and the first Sikh Prime Minister of the country, addressed an election rally in Amritsar, he was facing empty chairs. The party had to rope in Gurdas Mann, one of the best entertainers in the State, to hold back the motley crowd. That should have served as a warning signal. The reason is simple. The Congress has never projected Mr Manmohan Singh as the USP of the party to the electorate ever since he became the Prime Minister almost eight years ago. The voters in Punjab feel he is only a ‘mascot’ and nothing else with no powers to do anything for the State.

After its resounding defeat, the Congress has now analysed the reasons at the macro level for the consumption of the party high command. It refers to the role of party rebels, anti-incumbency votes going to Sanjha Morcha and PPP, BSP slicing the Congress vote base of Dalits, SAD-BJP appropriating the ata-dal scheme etc.

The analysis, as expected, does not give any credit to the SAD-BJP, its development oriented campaign, anti-incumbency against almost eight years rule’ of the UPA Government, micro management at the lowest level, big-ticket corruption which rocked the UPA, indecisiveness and policy paralysis of the Centre.

It also does not refer to need of decentralisation, bringing in a new set of local leaders, reducing the dependence on the high command, changing the campaign style, touching the hearts of the voters, the futility of taking voters for granted, factionalism in the State leadership and the failure of the leadership to demonstrate its commitment to good governance the voters.

The entire campaign of the Congress was negative. Instead of showing the way forward, it merely concentrated on criticism of the SAD-BJP Government without giving an alternative. To some extent the Congress campaign in Punjab suffered the same fate as in Uttar Pradesh. Mr Rahul Gandhi, in his meetings merely criticised the 22 years of non-Congress rule in Uttar Pradesh but failed to show the way forward and what the party intended to do if voted to power. There was no positive agenda in Uttar Pradesh as also in Punjab. It remains to be seen if Mr Gandhi learns his lessons and campaigns in a different manner in the 2017 Assembly polls. He cannot talk of 27 years of misrule of non-Congress Governments in the State five years from now. He will have to identify the factors that kept voters away from the Congress in this round of elections.

Despite the shortcomings, the Congress in Punjab did not do as badly as the difference of 26 seats suggests. The difference between the vote share of the SAD-BJP combine and that of the Congress is less than two per cent. This shows that the vote-bank of the party is not on a downward spiral but more or less intact. It could not get the votes of the youth, the anti-incumbency votes or what is called the floating votes. It is here that the Congress has to go the extra mile. It clearly failed to do so this time. (March 15, 2012)

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Cong paid for overconfidence; Needs to introspect

VIEWPOINT

AMITABH SHUKLA

Having observed Punjab closely during the run-up to the assembly polls, I get the feeling that here Congress developed a suicidal tendency of taking the voters for granted. Even before the poll schedule was announced and throughout the campaign, Congress leaders thought that the party was on its way to the corridors of power in Chandigarh and no power on earth could stop its victory march. But the voters clearly had different ideas and they indeed had the last laugh.

The Congress theory of “last time they, this time we”, citing the elections post 1966, went for a toss as the Akali Dal-BJP scripted what had never happened in 46 years. An over confident Congress kept on banking on the “unscientific theory” that an incumbent government in Punjab will be thrown out come what may.

But Congress could have looked beyond Punjab to find that the theory of incumbent government being voted out has lost its meaning and relevance. Haryana, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Chhatisgarh, Bihar, Orissa, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat are recent examples. The list is only growing. Voters like to be respected. You have to go to them with all humility. They don’t like political parties taking them for granted and flexing muscles.

Readers may recall the aggressive body language of Congress scion Rahul Gandhi in Uttar Pradesh. He was continuously folding the sleeves of his arms, an aggressive gesture. In Bollywood films, actors do that when they enter into a fight with a villain or some other character. This was in sharp contrast to the humility of chief minister designate Akhilesh Yadav, who was throughout humble, never rolled his sleeves, never tore papers on stage, considered voters as the king and did not take them for granted. The results are there for all to see.

Punjab’s Captain Amarinder Singh too was threatening the rivals continuously using words like Qatal-e-aam and telling the voters what he would do post March 6 when the results are out. On the other hand, the voters saw chief minister Parkash Singh Badal in a new humble avtaar, asking votes in the name of development and unfinished agenda of the state government. Now both Rahul and Cap Amarinder, declared the chief ministerial candidate by Rahul himself, will have to introspect what went wrong and whether they need to change their style to win back the voters.

Congress will have to realise that Indian polity is gradually getting regional and it will have to meet regional aspirations like never before to continue being relevant. Party tickets in Congress were decided in New Delhi with Cabinet Minister C P Joshi from Rajasthan being the chairman of the panel which decided the tickets. It may have brought in an element of neutrality in selection but just for the sake of it. I wonder, how would Joshi know the strengths and weaknesses of the candidates and the geographical peculiarities of the state, whose language is entirely different from that of Rajasthan.

On the other hand, candidate selection in Akali Dal was decentralised and choice was made in Chandigarh and various cities of the state. Sukhbir Badal knew the strengths and weaknesses of each candidate, peculiarities of each area, anger of electorate against some sitting legislators and took the decision on candidates accordingly – changing some, shifting the constituencies of others etc.

I wonder how could the Congress not see the disaster coming. When Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, son of the soil and the first Sikh Prime Minister of the country, addressed an election rally in Amritsar, he was facing empty chairs. The party had to rope in Gurdas Mann to keep the motley crowd interested. That should have been the warning signal. The reason is simple. Congress never sold Manmohan Singh as the USP of the party to the electorate. The voters in Punjab felt he was only a mascot and nothing else.

After the resounding defeat, Congress has now analysed the reasons of defeat at the macro level for consumption of party high command. It refers to the role of party rebels, anti-incumbency votes going to Sanjha Morcha and PPP, BSP slicing the Congress vote base of dalits, SAD-BJP appropriating the atta-dal scheme etc.

The analysis, as expected, does not give any credit to the SAD-BJP, its development oriented campaign, anti-incumbency against almost 8 years rule of the central government, micro management at the lowest level, big ticket corruption which rocked the UPA, indecisiveness and policy paralysis of the centre.

It also does not refer to need of decentralization, bringing in a new set of local leaders, reducing the dependence on high command, changing campaign style, touching the hearts of the voters, futility of taking voters for granted, factionalism in state leadership and the failure of the leadership to show what they seriously intended to do for the voters after being elected.

The entire campaign of Congress was negative. Instead of showing the way forward, it merely concentrated on criticism of the SAD-BJP government without giving an alternative. To some extent Congress campaign in Punjab suffered the same fate as in UP. Rahul Gandhi, in his meetings merely criticised the 22 years of non-Congress rule in UP but failed to show the way forward and what the party intended to do if voted to power. There was no positive agenda in UP like that in Punjab. Now, if Rahul campaigns in UP in 2017 and talks about 27 years of misrule of non-Congress rule, I wonder if there would be any takers.

Despite the shortcomings, Congress in Punjab did not do as badly as the difference of 26 seats suggests. The vote difference between SAD-BJP and Congress was less than 2 per cent. This shows that the vote bank of the party is not on a downward spiral but more or less intact. The problem was that it could not get the votes of the youth, the anti-incumbency votes or what is loosely called as floating or non committed votes. It is here that the party has to go the extra mile and it clearly failed in that. (March 11, 2012)

http://dailypioneer.com/state-editions/chandigarh/48750-cong-paid-for-overconfidence-needs-to-introspect.html

Badal to be sworn in on March 14

PUNJAB POLL RESULTS-2012

Amitabh Shukla / Chandigarh

Parkash Singh Badal would head the new Akali Dal-BJP government after being sworn in a function to be held at Chhapar Chiri in Mohali on Wednesday, marking a new phase in the history of the state. The 84-year old Badal was elected the leader of the SAD-BJP legislature party on Friday and staked his claim to form the government which the Governor accepted.

This is for the first time in the last almost five decades that an incumbent government received the mandate again and was voted back to power to steer the state till 2017.

The choice of Chhapar Chiri as the venue of the swearing is important. It was here that the great Sikh warrior Baba Banda Singh Bahadur fought a fierce battle with Nawab Wazir Khan of Sarhind in May 1710, leading to the foundation of the first Khalsa Raj. The Akali Dal government had inaugurated a fitting memorial here with a 328 feet high ‘Fateh Burj’ (victory tower) to commemorate the famous battle in Sikh history towards the end of its tenure in November last year.

“Swearing-in ceremony here indicates that those opposed to the Akali Dal in state politics have been vanquished,” an Akali leader said, adding that the symbolism associated with the place was important in deciding the venue. In 2007, Parkash Singh Badal and his Cabinet took oath of office and secrecy in the Punjab Cricket Association Stadium at Mohali, the venue for international matches.

Over 2000 selected guests from all over the country would be invited for the swearing-in ceremony of the 84-year Badal, who will become the CM for the fifth time, equaling the record of Jyoti Basu in West Bengal. A large number of Akali-BJP supporters are expected to witness the oath taking ceremony.

Deputy CM Sukhbir Badal is likely to be sworn in the same day along with a small Cabinet. The Cabinet will be expanded later after the first session of the state Assembly, expected to begin a week after the ceremony.

A confident senior Badal came to Chandigarh and later addressed a function at Anandpur Sahib on Thursday, announcing his intention to bring substantive changes in his second tenure. He gave a call to collectively accelerate the pace of development in Punjab and said that SAD-BJP government won’t indulge in petty vendetta politics against opponents.

He underlined the intention of the government to go for pro-poor and pro-development policies saying it would make all efforts to fulfill the aspirations of people. Making Punjab a power surplus state, completing the unfinished agenda of the previous government, free bicycles to girl students of 9^th and 10^th class, free education to all girls upto MA, bringing an end to the illegal drug trade, improving civic infrastructure in villages and cities, governance reforms and tackling corruption would be the other agenda of the new government.

Laying speculations about Sukhbir assuming leadership role in the state to rest, at least for the time being, the Core Committee of SAD hailed Parkash Singh Badal as “a rare and priceless gem not only for the Panth and Punjab but for the for the whole country”. It, however, acknowledged Sukhbir’s “brave, far sighted and tireless leadership” and termed him as the “architect” of the victory due to his “unmatched and invincible mixture of daring political vision, unbeatable strategy and hard work”.

Humbled by the victory, after the joint meeting of the SAD-BJP legislature party, Badal said that he became the chief minister for the first time in 1969 and was the youngest CM of the country and now would be the oldest one.

He also highlighted the equations of SAD with BJP terming it as “emotional relationship” saying that never in the political history there was any trade off with alliance partner as both parties have moved with perfect understanding. Sources said that the nitty-gritty of Cabinet formation and the number of BJP ministers in the new Cabinet were being worked out in consultation with the top leadership of the party. (March 10, 2012)

http://dailypioneer.com/state-editions/chandigarh/48535-badal-to-be-sworn-in-on-march-14.html

Punjab: Congress fault analysis

PUNJAB RESULTS-2012

Amitabh Shukla / Chandigarh

The difference between victory of SAD-BJP alliance and defeat of Congress in Punjab was less than 2.5 lakh votes or 1.77 per cent of the votes polled.

A day after Congress lost the polls, party leaders calculated that the votes polled by the rebels in around a dozen constituencies was over 2.5 lakh, more than the margin by which the party lost the closely contested polls to its arch rivals.

It was a bitter pill for the Congress leaders to swallow as some of them felt that they had not been rejected by the people but poor poll management did them in. “The party failed to realise the importance of the rebels, they were not talked to and persuaded,” a party leader said.

Informally, the Congress leaders have begun analysing the poll results and what went wrong for the party in different constituencies. Serious rebels in around a dozen constituencies were found to be a crucial factor along with the shift of dalit votes in the Doaba and Manpreet Badal’s PPP and Left party candidates getting the anti-incumbency votes instead of the Congress.

In Pathankot, party rebel Ashok Sharma got 23713 votes while official Cong candidate Raman Bhalla got 24362. The winning candidate and BJP state chief Ashwini Sharma got 42218, less than the votes polled by the two.

Then in Amritsar East, local MP Navjot Sidhu’s wife and BJP candidate Navjot Kaur would not have been able to enter the portals of the Assembly had Congress fought the elections unitedly. Party rebel Simerpreet Bhatia got 26307 votes while the official candidate Sunil Dutti managed 25964. The combined votes of both was much more than the BJP candidate. Ironically, Bhatia had been initially allotted ticket from here but she was later denied party nomination in favour of Dutti.

Congress’ calculations went haywire in Dera Bassi too where its rebel Deepinder Singh Dhillon got 51248 votes while official party nominee J S Randhawa managed a meagre 9484 votes. Not surprisingly, SAD won.

The situation was no different in Sujanpur where rebel Naresh Puri got 27312 votes, more than the official Vinay Mahajan’s 22994 votes, helping the BJP win easily. At Kotkapura, rebel Upender Sharma managed 15202 votes helping SAD win easily.

The icing on the cake for the SAD was the victory of Congress rebel and independent candidate Rajnish Kumar Babbi from Mukerian, leaving the official Cong candidate trailing at the third position.

As the details emerge, Congress is just shuddering how far it is away from power even though the Akali Dal performed poorly in 2012 as compared to 2007 in terms of vote per cent. In 2007, SAD got 37.19 per cent of the votes polled while this time, it received the support of only 34.75 per cent of the voters. Together the SAD-BJP polled 41.88 per cent in 2012 as compared to 45.4 per cent of the votes in the 2007 polls, a reduction of more than 4 per cent. In both the polls, Congress was consistently above 40 per cent, getting 40.94 per cent in 2007 and 40.11 per cent in the current election.

As the figures roll out and the reality of loss sets in, gradually, the Congress leaders are admitting that the Sanjha Morcha led by Manpreet Badal did an equal damage to them as the rebels and got almost all anti-incumbency votes which would have otherwise gone to the Congress. The Sanjha Morcha got over 6 per cent of the votes, in which the PPP alone got 5.17 per cent and the two left parties together got 1 per cent. Congress used to contest Assembly elections in Punjab in alliance with the left not long ago. In an election where every single vote became important, the Manpreet factor damaging Congress was too apparent even though state party chief Capt Amarinder Singh did not admit the damage which the Sanjha Morcha caused to his party leading to a rout.

The impressive victory of the SAD-BJP combine with a difference of 22 seats, despite a reduction in their vote percent in the state is something which the Congress leaders are finding difficult to fathom.

But again, some of them are clear that the improved performance of the Bahujan Samaj Party in the dalit bastion of Doaba led to their rout in the belt and was a crucial factor for denying them power for the second time in a row. In almost a dozen constituencies in Doaba, the BSP improved on its votes as compared to the 2007 polls and almost all of these came from the Congress quota. Though none of the BSP candidates won, they made their presence felt – to the Congress by cutting into its traditional vote base.

Congress leaders are now expecting for changes in the state to remain fighting fit ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. (March 8, 2008)

http://dailypioneer.com/state-editions/chandigarh/48269-cong-for-fault-analysis-after-poor-show-in-polls.html

Badals defy history, SAD is glad

PUNJAB RESULTS-2012

Amitabh Shukla /Chandigarh

Reversing a historical trend and riding a pro-incumbency and development wave, the Akali Dal-BJP alliance has retained power in Punjab. After Punjab was reorganised in 1966, this is for the first time that an incumbent Government has regained power in the State.

“The credit of victory goes to the people of Punjab,” a beaming Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal said, after the alliance crossed the halfway mark of 59. Badal is set for a fifth term as Chief Minister even though a section of the party gives credit to SAD president and Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal for turning around the fortunes of the party and giving it a brand new look and agenda.

The SAD-BJP alliance got exactly the same number of seats as it did in the 2007 polls — 68. However, tally of SAD increased from 49 last time to 56 while that of the BJP came down from 19 to 12. The Congress increased its tally from 44 to 46.

A major political casualty of the SAD-BJP Punjab hurricane was Manpreet Badal’s Punjab People’s Party, which failed to open its account even though it secured over 5 per cent of votes. Manpreet himself came third in the two seats he contested and his father Gurdas Badal was no match for elder brother Parkash in Lambi.

A meeting of the Akali Dal legislature party would be held in Chandigarh on Thursday in which the new leader will be chosen, Badal said. It will be followed by a meeting of the core committee of the party in the evening in which modalities of the oath-taking ceremony and possible composition of the Cabinet would be decided. There will be a separate meeting of the top leaders of SAD and BJP to discuss Government formation.

On the other hand, Punjab Congress president Captain Amarinder Singh took responsibility for the defeat and congratulated SAD leadership on their victory. The Captain, who was anointed the chief ministerial candidate by Rahul Gandhi, said the party would introspect into its poor showing.

The record turnout of 78.67 per cent on January 30 reposed faith in the development agenda of the SAD-BJP. It has negated the theory that high turnout means anti-incumbency. The Atta-Dal scheme of the State Government, bicycles for girl students, new slabs of power subsidy, building infrastructure like roads and power generation projects and catering to almost all sections of the population in the run-up to the polls, helped its cause. Panthic agenda was kept aside as the entire campaign of SAD focused on positive issues like livelihood, employment, development, infrastructure creation and investment.

The over confidence of Congress also did the party in. In his political rallies, the Captain kept on announcing what he would do after the party is voted to power after March 6 and how the Akalis would be targeted for their "acts of omission and commission". The voters did not like the arrogance and taking them for granted. Probably in Punjabi Culture political swagger has got replaced by humility, which Parkash Singh Badal exuded in plenty during the campaign.

Congress rebels in almost two dozen seats, anti-incumbency of almost eight years of UPA rule at the Centre, over dependence on one leader — Amarinder — too proved to be factors. Aggressive campaigning of Amarinder, something similar to what Rahul Gandhi did in Uttar Pradesh as compared to the suave and humble campaign of the father and son duo of senior Badal and Sukhbir was too apparent for the voters. They judged and then took a call.

In Doaba, having the largest concentration of Dalit population, Congress was expected to do well but the Bahujan Samaj Party managed to cut into its traditional Dalit votes and in several constituencies here, the combined votes of Congress and BSP was more than the SAD-BJP candidates.

The BJP could have come down to 12 seats from 19 it won in the 2007 polls, but it was much better than 3 which it had won in the 2002 polls, indicating that anti-incumbency was not a factor even in the urban areas where the party has its stronghold. BJP, more or less, held on to its strength, particularly in Majha region, and prevented Congress from winning in the urban areas.

In Malwa, where the Congress did remarkably well in 2007 polls due to the direct support extended by the Sirsa-based Dera Sacha Sauda. But this time, the party could not repeat it. The Dera refused to openly support Congress and instead extended support to "good candidates" of both parties and the advantage of Congress was lost so much so that even the son of Capt Amarinder, Raninder Singh lost from Samana. (March 7, 2012)

http://dailypioneer.com/state-editions/chandigarh/48038-anti-cong-mood-engulfs-india.html

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Father-son duo does it for Punjab

PUNJAB RESULTS-2012

Amitabh Shukla / Chandigarh

After the historic win of the SAD-BJP alliance in Punjab, focus has shifted to the father and son duo of Parkash Singh Badal and Sukhbir Badal who made the seemingly impossible task a reality.

While the senior Badal was the calming influence on the Akali leaders and the cadres, Sukhbir used innovative means to woo the voters, shunned the decades old panthic agenda of the party and made good governance and development the only issue for the polls. Both successfully complimented each other in the run up to the polls.

The Akalis hardly raised old issues of discrimination by the Centre, transfer of Chandigarh to Punjab or more share in the river waters. It never referred to the contentious Anandpur Sahib resolution which talked about greater autonomy to the state. Under Sukhbir, they bid adieu to the politics of dharam yudh and morchas, the hallmark of the Akalis not long ago

While Congress had two dozen rebels, the Akalis managed to reduce the number of their rebels to less than half a dozen. Initially, there were around 20 aspirants who had declared to fight the polls as independents. Most of them were under the impression that tickets were denied to them due to Sukhbir. The senior Badal immediately jumped to the rescue of the party and personally went to the houses of the rebels to convince them. Bowled over by the humility of the senior Badal paying them a personal visit, most of the rebels withdrew from the fray, helping the cause of the party.

The senior Badal, a veteran of many a battle, never spoke against his nephew Manpreet Badal, who broke away from SAD and formed PPP. Manpreet was the “biggest rebel” of SAD but failed to cut ice with the voters and it is understood that he dented Congress voters in the urban areas more than the core Akali voters in the rural areas.

Realising that the last year was the most crucial as the memory of the voters is short, a slew of schemes were conceptualised and executed from March 2011 onwards – all meant to simplify governance, make the benefits of the state reach the common people. More so, the Akalis ensured that it registered with the people of the state.

Right to Service was brought in at the behest of Sukhbir so that the people get the services in a time bound manner. SAD-BJP saw that the move had tremendously helped NDA come to power in Bihar and the BJP in Madhya Pradesh. The party went hammers and tongue to publicise this in the run-up to the polls. Another move which Punjab aped from Bihar was the distribution of cycles to the girls studying in high school. Almost every village now had girls riding cycles to school and they had practically become the brand ambassadors of the state government as these cycles had the photos of the CM (Badal) on them.

Though the state government did not bring in police reforms to free it of political influence, it nevertheless opened neighbourhood Saanjh Kendras to de-stigmatize visiting police stations. It was a much needed change as a lot of people avoided going to police stations to lodge routine complaints.

Sukhbir also brought the Kabaddi World Cup to Punjab and all the cities in the state hosted Kabaddi matches with huge audience to watch the matches. It provided perfect platform for SAD to showcase the state and impress the people with the achievements of the state government.

The state may be debt-stressed, but opened its purse for the state government employees, teachers, and the lower level policemen. This may not be a prudent financial move but helped the employees see the government sympathetically when its term was coming to an end.

Badal, four-time chief minister and now sure to get a fifth term, did bring in Panthic agenda but it was more of a historic value than narrow religious issue. The Virasat-e-Khalsa complex at Sri Anandpur Sahib, Chhota Ghalughara Martyrs’ Memorial at Kahnuwan Chamb (Gurdaspur), Wadda Ghalughara Martyrs’ Memorial at Kup Rohira (Sangrur) and Baba Banda Singh Bahadur War Memorial at
Chaparchiri (SAS Nagar) were opened. This endeared SAD to the core vote bank of the party – the Jat Sikhs and the farmers.

No wonder, the Akali Dal bucked anti incumbency, increasing its seats to 56 from 49 in the 2007 polls. The script written by SAD won the approval of the voters, second time in a row. (March 7, 2012)

http://dailypioneer.com/state-editions/chandigarh/48007-father-son-duo-does-it-for-akalis.html

Punjab: The Way Ahead

Not electoral populism but fiscal health of State

The long and excruciating wait would finally get over on Tuesday. Which party will shape the political destiny of Punjab for the next five years would become clear after an election which failed to generate any wave for or against any party even though the polling percentage was the highest ever in the history of the state.

Ask any Congress leader and they will tell you that though the battle is close, they will pip their SAD-BJP rivals and romp home. You will get a similar response from any SAD-BJP leader you talk to. And mind you, this is not public posturing. Even in off the record conversation, both the two formations – Congress on one side and SAD-BJP on the other- admit that the battle of ballot is close and could go either way this time round and the margin would be very small, something like Kerala where four MLAs made the difference between the winning UDF and the losing LDF in the 2011 elections.

My hunch is that in Punjab, the results would be as close as it was in Kerala and until the last vote is counted, it will swing from one side to the other throughout the counting process. The only unpredictable element in the episode is Punjab People’s Party and half a dozen independents. It remains to be seen if they would come in the picture post March 6, in case of an indecisive result. The exit polls of various agencies and media organisations too point to a close contest.

People have made their choice and at this point of time, let us not deliberate where they have voted but what the people of the state want.

The new government in Punjab, whether it is the Akali Dal-BJP combine or the Congress stares at myriad problems which it will have to engage with the first thing after assuming office.

Punjab perhaps holds the dubious distinction of being the most indebted state in the country and the new government will have to decide whether electoral populism is more important than fiscal health and long-term policies for making it the economic power horse of the nation. As next Assembly election would be five years away and even parliamentary polls over two years away, it was time Punjab boosted its economy with the right mix of healthy economic policies with an eye on selective subsidy for the marginalised sections of society.

The state used to have highest per capita income along with being the harbinger of green revolution but gradually the advantage was lost, initially due to militancy throughout the 1980s and early 90s and then due to populism and frittering away the resources to subsidy and excessive expenditure. So much so that the economy is now debt-stressed and it has a debt of Rs 70,000-72,000 crore. It was now among the three states which had been declared debt-stressed states. Despite this, the state government continues to be on an expenditure spree. Punjab’s tax-GSDP ratio is 7.5 per cent against most of states having tax to GSDP ratio of 9.5 per cent. The 13th Finance Commission suggested that Punjab should either contract its expenditure or raise the tax-GSDP ratio.

Manpreet Badal, the estranged nephew of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal pointed out in his manifesto that the monthly security bill and medical expenses of the politicians and their families runs down to close to Rs 100 crores. This is a startling figure. No one knows for sure whether the state is in a financial position to support such extravagant and ugly expenditure any more.

More than half the state’s income goes in paying back debts and its interest, thereby leaving no money for development. It will have to take harsh economic measures and this includes stopping subsidised electricity to rich farmers. Free power should be restricted only to marginal and poor farmers.

Then another important issue awaits the state where agriculture is the mainstay of the economy. Middlemen corner 2.5 per cent of the farmer’s earnings by helping them get their paddy and wheat procured by the government agencies. While the Centre wants to do away with the middlemen and instead has asked the state to draw a strategy where the government directly procures the foodgrains, Punjab says it does not have the requisite infrastructure to do so. The new government should take a call on a priority basis so that farmers are not deprived of their income and the middlemen are done away with.

Agricultural economists and researchers have been warning for years now that the agricultural growth in the state has almost saturated with little or no scope for further increase in yield. Water intensive crops of paddy and wheat have led to an environmental degradation but no one is thinking of the long term measures to be adopted. Farmers now need to be sensitised that the time had come to move away from the wheat-paddy cycle to other cash crops. States like Madhya Pradesh have shown potential in wheat cultivation and new areas should be carved for the national food basket instead of relying on Punjab for the purpose.

Already farmers have faced wheat and paddy glut. This year, it was a potato glut and now the state faces a glut of citrus fruits (kinoo). Successive governments failed to provide cold storage system, any trustworthy transport system, guaranteed markets or processing centres. Congress has promised a lot for the farmers in its manifesto but the past experience does not inspire much confidence.

The state faces poisoned and arid soil due to over use of pesticides and over exploitation of ground water. Environmentalists warn of a disaster ten years down the line if the current practices do not come to an end. Investment in improving irrigation infrastructure, corporate involvement to facilitate better marketing and food processing, endowments for research and facilitating land consolidation will remain an agenda for the new government in such circumstances.

Then there is problem of unemployment. It is estimated that around 30 lakh young Punjabis who want to work are looking for a job. No wonder, the youth keep trying dubious methods and bank on unscrupulous travel agents to go abroad and face discrimination wherever they go due to the menial jobs they do there. Had there been viable economic opportunities in the state, this could have come to an end. The state lost a decade and half to militancy and in the process its momentum was lost. It was time, the new government gave a fresh thought and impetus to FDI in the state.

Health could be another priority area for the government. More so when dreaded cancer has spread its tentacles in the Malwa and Majha region. The groundwater is so contaminated with traces of uranium and overuse of fertilisers that in some villages in the Malwa belt, almost every family has at least one cancer patient. While the state government so far has confined itself to giving doles to such family, the new government will have to explore possibilities of setting up specialised cancer hospitals either in the PPP mode or government owned in every district headquarters. The Akali-BJP government did make some efforts in the direction towards the close of their five-year term but a lot remains to be done in this direction.

People of the state, who voted in such large numbers, would expect a new beginning and they deserve it. (March 4, 2012)

http://dailypioneer.com/state-editions/chandigarh/47350-punjab-the-way-ahead.html