Driving Naari Programme launched in Chandigarh
Chandigarh, A seemingly aggressive Bharatiya Janata Party has started setting rules of the game for theAkali Dal in Punjab after playing second fiddle all these years. The party is in no mood to get dictated by its senior alliance partner in this state after its new found confidence following the unprecedented accomplishment in neighbouring Haryana where the Akali Dal had allied with the incarcerated Om Parkash Chautala’s Indian National Lok Dal to which the saffron partner has refused to compromise. The party has started implementing its design of going alone in the next Assembly election without the heavy baggage of the Akali Dal which is getting heavier day by day as the Congress is performing its disappearance act. The BJP design is to appropriate the space being vacated by the Congress in the political matrix of Punjab.
The strategy that has started unfolding after yesterday’s press conference by the BJP’s state party chief Kamal Sharma, considered to be otherwise a very docile leader. Not that the BJP ministers in the state are free from the stains. They too share the Akali Dal’s baggage. Moreover, till now, they had failed to resist the alliance partner, particularly Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal. TheBJP has started eyeing the portfolios like Home and Excise and Taxation, both of which are with the Deputy Chief Minister. The police officials function under the diktats of the Akali jathedars resulting in total breakdown of the command system with all its negative consequences.
More than a month before the Assembly elections in the two states, information had started leaking out that in case the BJP crossed the 30 mark in Haryana in a House of 90 in the triangular contest, the Akali Dal would be in trouble. It was given out by the sources close to the saffron party that as a first step, the party might withdraw its ministers from the Badal government and extend issue based outside support. The survival of the Badal government is dependent upon the BJP and in that situation, it would be in a better position to dictate terms rather than get lorded over.
The party has already been shown its place by Prime Minister Narendra Modi by cold shouldering Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal. In the campaign in the run up to the Lok Sabha elections, Badal had been selling the dream that Punjab’s problems would get resolved once Modi took over as the Prime Minister. Now New Delhi is becoming too far for the Badals.
The second part of the BJP strategy was to manage a Sikh face to head the party in Punjab, most likely from outside. The Rashtriya Swayam Sewak Sangh has already intensified its activities and it is the role of this organisation of which the BJP is the political front that is all the more important. Modi himself had been a full-timer with the RSS. According to the sources, there is a feeling of unease in the Akali Dalas apprehension continues to deepen. New permutations and combinations may emerge over the period.
What has surprised the political circles is the strategy of theBJP to confront Badal with Rajiv-Longowal accord signed in 1985 to pave the way for normalisation of the situation in the troubled state. It was Badal who had opposed this accord while the BJP had supported it in the Parliament. Badal, who for years did not attend the death anniversary function of Sant Harchand Singh Longowal gunned down for signing this accord, had been blaming the Congress for sabotaging it. The Accord was a step towards the resolution of disputes like transfer of Chandigarh and Punjabi speaking areas and the apportionment of river waters.
It is the BJP in the state which now wants Badal to take the initiative to get the same implemented when the Congress is no more on the scene. It is the BJP which is now ruling both at the centre and in Haryana and Badal would not have any excuse now. It is to be seen as to how he responds to the developing situation.
It may be recalled that although the Akalis had been agitating for years over these issues, it was then chief minister Capt. Amarinder Singh who dared to enact PunjabTermination of Waters Agreements Act to stop the construction of the Satluj Yamuna Canal which was to carry water from Punjab rivers to Haryana. Badal had promised to amend this legislation by dropping Section 5 of this Act which provided statutory guarantee to the waters already flowing to Haryana and Rajasthan. However, he has failed to do so.
It is to be seen as to whether Badal would capitulate to theBJP under the changed scenario or chalks out some other strategy by way of getting the defection of some more Congress MLAs whose resignation from the Assembly would bring Akali Dal to simple majority. Like earlier, they could contest the bye-election on Akali Dal ticket to re-enter the Assembly.
