Channi and Sidhu represent two distinct approaches to revive Punjab and retain power

 

Pro-Punjab utopian agenda of Navjot Sidhu competes with pro-people actions of Charanjit Singh Channi

 

Ground Zero

Jagtar Singh

 

That Punjab over the years has turned into non-performing asset despite changes in management is undisputable.

The issue is as to how to make this once the most advanced state in the country turn the corner.

However, despite the hyperbolic narrative of Punjab having become laggard state and this dimension is reinforced by the official data too, the living style of people has turned more lavish and the riches of the ruling elite continue to multiply at astonishing rate.

With the  latest change in the management (state government), two distinct approaches have come up. One approach is pro-people in the short run by way of immediate relief especially to the weaker and marginal sections represented by Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi and the other of taking long term measures as advocated by the state Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu who aspire to replace him after February 2022. Nothing wrong in having aspiration.

One is practical and the other is utopian. Of course, there is no contradiction between the two and complement each other.

However, these approaches also signify the parallel race as to who would be entrusted with the responsibility to manage the company that is Punjab after February 2022. These approaches are important in that context.

Sidhu seems to be concerned more as to how Punjab is to be rescued from the so-called crisis rather than rejuvenating the Congress and making it fit for the election arena. Anyway, deciding priorities is the prerogative of the leader concerned.

Years before Navjot Singh Sidhu, the leader who got highly worried about Punjab was Manpreet Singh Badal who is now the finance minister. While launching his own outfit before the February 2012 election, he had taken a pledge with soil of Khatkar Kalan in his hand to revive Punjab at every level. He used to talk about high incidence of debt. Khatkar Kalan is the ancestral village of Shaheed Bhagat Singh but he was not born here.

He must have now realised that the real issue is not debt but mobilisation of resources and efficient management with minimal corruption.

One has to go back to the day when Surjit Singh Barnala was sworn in as the chief minister on September 29, 1985 heading the Akali Dal government. Here is a line from the policy statement that was released by him at the time of taking over, “The government has assumed office at a time when state’s finances are in shambles, its industrial, commercial and economic growth was stagnating and employment opportunities are shrinking…it would be our utmost duty to restore sanity to the state’s finances and rebuild its economic strength by reviving and promoting in a big way, its industry, commerce and agriculture.” (Jagtar Singh, Khalistan Struggle-A Non-movement, p 236).

Not only that.

Shiromani Akali dal president Parkash Singh Badal in the run up to February 1997 election used to sell dreams of turning Punjab into California. He would say a cargo plane would take off from Amritsar international airport for London carrying fresh vegetables and fruits (Every day or every week?). That cargo plane too remained grounded  and never ever approached the runway.

Capt Amarinder Singh too before the 2002 Assembly election had released chargesheet against Badal government focusing on financial mismanagement.

The Congress government faces strong anti-incumbency and the short-term measures of providing relief to the people seem to be part of the strategy to counter it. The long-term measures can be taken up only in case the Congress manages to retain power.

So far as the migration of Punjabi youth to greener pastures abroad, it may be recalled that the Ghadar Party was organised on the soil of the USA in 1913.