Punjab enters domain of politics of confrontation close to elections Jagtar Singh Ground Zero May 17: Developments in Punjab are moving at a rapid pace. The land of the Gurus is entering domain of confrontational politics. It cannot be ruled out that both the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which governs Punjab, and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which rules at the Centre, stand to gain politically from the escalating confrontations that began last month with the defection of seven AAP Rajya Sabha members to the BJP. At the same time, the Bhagwant Mann government has entered into direct confrontation with the Akal Takht, the supreme temporal institution of the Sikhs, over the sacrilege law enacted by the state government on April 13. The narrative emerging from these confrontations is reshaping electoral equations at a time when the Assembly elections are only months away. At least one of these developments is unprecedented and did not receive the attention it deserved: the...