Congress ‘High Command’ concedes failure of Strongman Amarinder to deliver, assigns 'home work'

 

Congress ‘High Command’ concedes failure of Strongman Amarinder to deliver

Ground Zero

Jagtar Singh

 

Close to the February 2022 Assembly elections in Punjab, the Congress Party that rules in this border state presents theatre of the absurd. At one level, the situation is comical.

The people of Punjab gave the strongest ever mandate to the Congress in February 2017 to end 10- year rule of the Akali Dal-BJP government headed by Parkash Singh Badal with his son Sukhbir Singh Badal, who later took over as the Deputy Chief Minister, being the de facto Chief Minister.

The Congress captain in this fight against the Akalis was Capt Amarinder Singh.

It is the leadership of Capt Amarinder Singh that has come to be questioned by a strong section of the party and interestingly, that section is not backing any other leader in case the Chief Minister is to be replaced. The basic issue is non-governance that can hit the fortune of the party hard in February 2022.

None else can be blamed for  this state of affairs as Capt Amarinder Singh remained unquestioned leader for four years. The problem is rooted in his model of governance. The trouble started as perception building up that Capt Amarinder Singh has failed to perform on all the crucial fronts that include the sensitive issue of sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib and the related incidents in 2015, drug smuggling, mafia control of transport and sand mining etc. Issues like staggering unemployment are different.

Certain dimensions regarding the persona of Capt Amarinder Singh must be taken into consideration before analysing the current mess.

He is family member of the House of Gandhis and friend of Rajiv Gandhi from the Doon School days. The ties between the Patiala Royals and the House of Gandhi-Nehru rather predates that relationship. Given this background, he never had any problem in meeting Sonia Gandhi.

However, as the Gandhis, including the next generation,  intervened to stem the revolt, Amarinder had to contend himself by present his side of the story to the 3-member panel constituted by Sonia Gandhi. There was a time when he never bothered even for the state incharge of the party appointed by the Congress president.

He returned to Chandigarh yesterday after giving a 3-hour presentation to the panel while Rahul Gandhi himself met several other leaders from Punjab including MLAs.

He was given 18-point assignment and  told to complete the task within a given time frame just like a school teacher who reprimands a student for not performing.

 In the process, the party has conceded that its government in Punjab has failed the people on the performance front.

What better scenario the opposition parties can expect?

But then there is also the question mark even on the opposition parties on the performance front. However, the issue here is the report card of the ruling card and Capt Amarinder Singh.

There is very discernible change in the functioning of Capt Amarinder Singh ever since the lava erupted against him in the cabinet meeting.

He has started functioning from his official residence. He had at one stage shifted to his farm house from the official residence.

Unlike his neighbouring counter-part in Haryana (going by both official residence and office), he does not function from his office in the Punjab civil secretariat, the headquarters of the state government.

The perception among the Congress ministers and MLAs that the party can’t effectively fight back the Akali Dal and the AAP, the two major challengers, under the given situation throws up the all- important question. That question is what next.

The options under discussion also includes working out some arrangement under which the effective command of the February 2022 battle is with some other leader. But then the the present government would have to fulfil at least the  major promises made to the people before February 2017 polls. There can be no excuses and these promises would have to be fulfilled to the satisfaction of the people, not of the Chief Minister.

Going by the massive mandate in February 2017, Punjab was the state from where the Congress could have staged a come-back through model governance.

Now the performance of Capt Amarinder Singh has been questioned by not just a section of his ministers and MLAs by also the ‘High Command’.

This is going to pose lots of problems in the coming months.