Skip to main content

Amarinder government: Of the bureaucrats, by the bureaucrats, not for Congressmen

Image result for pics of punjab civil secretariat





Jagtar Singh
Chandigarh: The Congressmen in Punjab are still to identify themselves with the government headed by Capt Amarinder Singh in the state that was formed by the Congress more than two and a half years ago in February 2017 elections. Ironically, Punjab is the only state where the Congress performed well in May 2019 Lok Sabha elections despite the alienation of the Congressmen from their own government.
That it is not their government even after more than two and a half years is reflected in the observation of none other but state Congress chief Sunil Jakhar who has been quoted by the Hindustan Times today whereby he has stated, “Bureaucracy has to be made accountable. They (bureaucrats) have been creating problems from time to time and bringing a bad name to the government. It is high time this is stopped”.
Jakhar has only reinforced the perception at the ground level that this is the government of the bureaucrats and by the bureaucrats who care two hoots for Congressmen but continue to oblige some Akali strongmen.
The general perception in Punjab is that in case of tiff between the minister and the bureaucrat, it is the minister whose portfolio is shifted.
This issue has cropped up every time Capt Amarinder Singh interacted with the Congress Legislature Party. It was due to the dissent building up that he accommodated six of them as his advisers. However, it is too well known that no chief minister in Punjab has ever sought the advice of his own advisers.
The latest provocation is the tiff between the Congress MLAs and some bureaucrats posted in Patiala, the home town of Capt Amarinder Singh. The Congress leaders have gone to the extent of leveling allegations of their phones being tapped. Normally, such allegations are leveled by the opposition.
The problem seems to be rooted in the governance model that he introduced this time. Capt Amarinder Singh is former Maharaja of Patiala and his model is ‘Maharaja Model’. Maharaja used to function normally through one person.
The bureaucrats who had been side-lined during 10-year rule of the Akali Dal were waiting to be rehabilitated but they were ignored again. This is one reason that a section of the bureaucrats continue to accommodate the Akali strongmen.
Navjot Singh Sidhu had to pay the cost when he leveled the allegation of Amarinder-Badals mix up at strategically wrong time on the eve of the Lok Sabha elections and that too in Bathinda. Time and space are important dimensions of political strategy and Sidhu lacked that.
The Congress had made several promises in its election manifesto like checking illegal plying of buses and ending monopoly of cable operations. These are just two examples. Both these operations are dominated by the Akalis.
Jakhar is considered close to Capt Amarinder Singh but despite that, he has voiced the anguish of his party men  who continue to perceive this government to be of the bureaucrats, by the bureaucrats and for a section of the Akalis.
But then Capt Amarinder Singh rarely interacts with his MLAs.
Under the model of governance introduced in Punjab when Parkash Singh Badal was the chief minister, the office of the chief minister in the civil secretariat remains deserted. The chief minister functions from his residence. One more bungalow was added to the chief minister’s residential complex by Capt Amarinder Singh this time. And this is the most fortified area in Chandigarh where even MLAs don’t enter without permission.
There was the time when the chief minister would attend office in the secretariat regularly and interact with people.
Change is the law of nature but this change is anti-people. Can Capt Amarinder Singh tame his bureaucracy even at this stage?
It is perhaps due to this model that the administration is turning transparently corrupt.






Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sinister and deep design to divide Sikhs and Hindus in Canada needs to be exposed

  Sinister and deep design to divide Sikhs and Hindus in Canada needs to be exposed Ground Zero Jagtar Singh Chandigarh: Let us decode deeper design in what apparently seems to be deliberate distortion of facts in case of the so-called Sikh-Hindu clash in Canada to project it as confrontation between the two communities. The Indian media and the establishment gave it out as a communal conflict and attack on a Mandir, the Hindu place of worship. Let us first put the matter straight from the evidence available in the form of videos relating to every dimension of this narrative and the statements. It was neither a Sikh-Hindu clash nor an attack on the Hindu temple per se. It was a protest by the SFJ activists against the Indian consulate organizing a camp there. Such protests have been held against the consulate outside the gurdwaras too as per the record. The saner statement issued by the Hindu Federation of November 4 is very important in the interpretation of this narra...
Post a Comment
Read more

History seems to be ominously repeating itself to drive Punjab into religio-political minefield again

  History ominously repeating itself to drive Punjab into religio-political minefield again Ground Zero Jagtar Singh This headline is not rooted in some sort of pessimism. The signals are loud and clear. The onus to counter such signals is on the Punjab government. History in Punjab seems to be repeating itself to push Punjab into yet another cycle of what can be termed as the avoidable toxic situation. That cycle has now impacted even geo-political relations of India with some countries, especially Canada where the Sikhs are settled in sizeable numbers. In the context of the Sikhs as a globalized people, it is pertinent to mention that even in United Kingdom House of Commons, the representation of the Sikhs is now in double digit after the recent elections. Punjab is still impacted by the tremors of religio-political   dynamics that got triggered in 1978 with the Sikh-Nirankari clash on the Baisakhi on April 13 at Amritsar, the religious capital of the Sikhs. ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Two binaries emerging in Punjab’s multi-polar polls where last 72 hours are always crucial

  Two binaries emerging in Punjab’s multi-polar polls where last 72 hours are always crucial   Ground Zero Jagtar Singh Chandigarh, May 28: The inter-play of socio-political forces in Punjab in the run up to the June 1 Lok Sabha elections is unprecedented. This is besides that established fact that the religio-political dynamics of this state has always been different from the rest of India, even when the boundaries of this country touched the Khyber Pass connecting with Afghanistan. It is for the first time that so many main political players are in the fray independently thereby making the contest multi-polar. Then there are two other eruptions in the electoral matrix making the multi-polar contest all the more interesting, and also important for future dynamics of not only Punjab but also India as the roots of this phenomena are not in too distant a past but in not so recent period of militancy. It is after decades that Punjab is going to the polls without a...
Post a Comment
Read more