ED raids: Punjab polls can set the trend for 2024 Lok Sabha polls and hence February 2022 Assembly election is more crucial
Punjab February
2022 key to 2024 Lok Sabha election and Modi knows it better than Congress
Ground Zero
Jagtar Singh
It is too
well known even to ordinary voter in Punjab that the Bharatiya Janata Party led
alliance can’t form the government here but it is still going ahead full steam.
There has to be some deeper motive.
The BJP in
Punjab has been riding piggy back since 1997 in this state when it joined hands
with the Shiromani Akali Dal although it differed with that party on almost
every key issue that had dominated the political discourse for about two
decades by that time. The Akali Dal had taken the initiative by extending
unconditional support to the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government that lasted just
for 13 days but laid the foundation for this alliance.
Shiromani
Akali Dal walked out the alliance after the three contentious farm bills were
passes that now stand abrogated under pressure from the massive and
unprecedented farm struggle led by Punjab.
Punjab of
February 2022 has the potential to dictate at one level the 2024 Lok Sabha
election and the person who knows it better than the Congress leadership seems
to be Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
This could
be the reason for the BJP to resorting to every tactic to cow down the Congress
that is already faction ridden with the top leaders in Punjab battling over as
to who would be the next chief minister and thereby hurting the party badly.
Punjab is
the state that in 2017 put confidence in the Congress with a massive mandate
despite the baggage of army attack on the Darbar Sahib (Golden Temple) complex
in June 1984 and the Sikh genocide for three days in Delhi and several other
places following the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her two
Sikh security guards. They had killed her
to avenge Operation Bluestar.
Punjab is
the state in the north that stopped the Modi juggernaut in the 2019 Lok Sabha
election.
Punjab is
the state from where Modi returned earlier this month without addressing a
rally although the reason given out was the security lapse as the highway to Ferozepur
from Bathinda on which he was travelling had been blocked by the farmers who
too were headed for Ferozepur to join protest against him.
But the
chairs in the pandal were empty as the BJP had failed to mobilise even a few thousand
people to listen to the Prime Minister.
The security
lapse is being probed by the Supreme Court constituted team.
While
returning to Delhi before boarding the plane at Bathinda, Modi told officials
to convey Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi that he was returning safely.
His comment was highly loaded castigating Punjab as unsafe state.
Channi rebutted
him strongly with his remark of 70,000 chairs versus 700 people to listen to
him.
That is one
importance of Punjab.
Yet a highly
significant dimension of the February Assembly polls in this state is in case the
Congress somehow manages to emerge as the single largest party, it could
establish the leadership of Rahul Gandhi who is now de facto incharge of the
party after submitting his resignation from the presidency.
Rahul Gandhi
is already confronting Modi and the divisive agenda of the BJP besides
attacking the performance of this government sharply.
Congress,
despite having lost space in almost every state, still retains the character of
all India party and its base can be revived by charismatic leadership, even if
that leadership is repackaged Rahul Gandhi.
West Bengal
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has of late been trying to cobble up a joint
front but her TMC too had earlier tied up with the BJP. Strong united
opposition to BJP is not possible without the Congress but for that, this party
would have to rejuvenate itself. Punjab could provide the elixir.
The raids by
the Enforcement Directorate on Channi’s relatives and seizure of cash close to
the election has a context.
It is a
different matter that the ruling class stinks with corruption, not only in
Punjab but almost in every state.
ED had
carried out raids in West Bengal too before the election but Mamata Banerjee
hit back at the political level by defeating the BJP.
Corruption
must be eradicated from the system but the ED and CBI should not be used as
political weapon by the ruling party at the centre.
The situation
calls for fundamental changes in the system to make it more democratic and
transparent by shifting from the colonial era governance system.
The Congress
has approached the Election Commission on this issue recalling a 2019 verdict
on ED raids close to the elections.
The warring Congress
leaders in Punjab are already working hard for the defeat of the party thereby
helping the BJP agenda by default.
The target
in Punjab is not just Channi but Rahul Gandhi.
AAP that has the art of creating hype is fearing the farmer factor.
The other
main contender in the race is the Shiromani Akali Dal that is already
campaigning intensively.
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