AAP victory in Jalandhar Lok Sabha bypoll heralds major change in Punjab's traditional political dynamics
Jalandhar Lok Sabha result: AAP has arrived, BJP
on way to Punjab
Ground Zero
Jagtar Singh
Chandigarh: Aam Aadmi Party has finally arrived. This
comment might seem odd after 92-seat massive mandate in February 2022 Assembly elections.
It is not.
Another signal that the Jalandhar Lok Sabha election
result emanates is that the Bharatiya Janata Party is on way to Punjab. This Hindutva outfit was
a junior partner in alliance with once Panthic party that is Shiromani Akali Dal
since 1997 Assembly elections.
In Jalandhar, AAP has succeeded in capturing the very
seat that the Congress had held in the last three successive Lok Sabha
elections and that too with a huge margin.
The death of Chaudhary Santokh Singh necessitated this
by-election and the Congress had fielded his wife Karamjit Kaur, a retired
educationist.
Shiromani Akali Dal has once again failed to show any
sign of revival after having hit the rock bottom in its history of more than a
century. It is the second oldest party in India after the Congress.
The Punjab political dynamics for the last several
decades has been equated with
wheat-paddy rotation that characterized the state beginning with green
revolution in farm sector that coincided with re-organisation of Punjab in 1966
leading to emergence, for the first time in history, of a Sikh majority region.
The Sikhs have been rulers of this land that is known as the Land of the Sikhs
with major part now in Pakistan but this community was the third population
dimension.
AAP succeeded in adding third dimension to this traditional
bipolar polity in 2022. Earlier in 2017, this party had managed to replace Akali
Dal as the main Opposition in the Assembly but the party seemed to be tottering,
facing one bottleneck after the others.
However, the situation took a dramatic turn in
February 2022 when the people of Punjab decided to decisively marginalize the
Akali Dal and the Congress. The Akali Dal-BJP alliance ended in 2020 during
farmers’ struggle as the Akalis came under strong pressure.
The party that had been given massive mandate by the
people faced unexpected humiliation in the face of rejection by the people
within four months in Sangrur Lok Sabha byelection. The humiliation was all the
more deeper as the seat had been vacated by chief minister Bhagwant Mann
himself.
It is in this context that AAP has now finally
arrived, thereby making the political discourse multi-polar. The party has
succeeded in re-capturing the imagination of the people.
This far-reaching transformation has also to be
studied in the context of the fact that the political discourse in Punjab both
traditionally and historically has been driven by the Sikh religio-political
discourse.
AAP seems to be alive to this fact of Sikh
religio-political discourse dictating state’s political discourse that in turn
impacts the election discourse. The effort to push the cases associated with
what is known as Bargari sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib towards the logical
conclusion signals that awareness.
Of course, there are governance issues too but most
important is the engine that drives the discourse.
Another significant and interesting dimension is the ground gained by
the BJP as it is for the first time since 1997 that this party entered the election
arena in this strategic state without its traditional partner and achieved
partial success in the sense that this party managed to capture two Assembly
segments out of nine with the seven
others going to AAP.
Akali Dal was in the field in alliance with the
Bahujan Samaj Party. BSP has strong pockets in this region. This alliance just
managed to save security deposit.
It is clear the Akali Dal has to go for major course
correction to recapture its eroded base. The party has been facing crisis since
desertion of senior leaders started in 2017 and that trend has continued. The leaders
who are still with the party are known to be in a dilemma. The leadership must
be reminded that winning elections is not the only objective of this party.
The problem with the Sikh religio-political matrix is
that the effective alternative leadership is not emerging.
The present leadership has failed to understand the
Sikh psyche. It is the Panthic psyche that has always been the force driving
the Akali Dal but the party leadership distanced itself from this dimension in
1996. The result is the present disaster. Bargari tragedy too is rooted in this
distancing and subsequent looking for alternatives.
Strategically located Punjab dominated by an
aggressive and dynamic minority is the only state in the country whose religio-political
dynamics is different from all other states. Sikh religion is humanistic,
non-discriminatory and ideologically progressive. The practice might have
witnessed certain distortions under influence of what is known as the Hindu
value system. It is this state that is perceived to have the capacity to confront
Hindutva, despite BJP’s earlier alliance with the Akalis. Here distinction has
to be made between Shiromani Akali Dal that supported Hindutva agenda including
scrapping of Article 370 and the Sikh religio-political discourse. It is this
discourse that counters Hindutva march.
BJP has been designing its strategy to expand at its own in this state and facilitating
emergence of alternative Sikh leadership too of late. It might become all the
more imperative here after decisive defeat of Hindutva agenda in Karnataka.
The alternative Sikh leadership can emerge only if
election is held to the general house of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak
Committee which has been overdue. The
choice has to be made by the BJP leadership. The SGPC is a statutory body under
the Sikh Gurdwara Act 1925.
It is in this context that the Jalandhar Lok Sabha
by-election result has potential to transform Punjab’s discourse permanently.
At the time when Punjab’s political dynamics is
undergoing major transformation, the state needs a new agenda in tune with the
modern times, not just the traditional federalism and the like.
Economies are now driven by the market forces and the
agendas too evolve accordingly.
Comments
Post a Comment