Assembly elections in Punjab are just a few days away. More than being mere Punjab elections, it has become a war of nerves where various political parties have taken their boxing gloves off and are busy hitting each other below the belt, not a news thing if we take the Indian political scene as such, but for punjab it is a matter of concern because these accusations and counter allegations have raised the bogey of "bhaiyya" politics once again. The only time, this issue had come up during the days of militancy and terrorism when a sustained and blood stained champaign was in evidence against the "migratory' population.
No doubt that was a different scenario, but how the unmindful use of any word or phrase can create a massive political controversy, has come to the fore with an "off the cuff" statement attributed to the Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi. It is reported that in a certain electoral rally, he willy nilly raised the "insider - outsider" issue. He is reported to have urged the Punjabis to "get united" stating that Priyanka Gandhi is the daughter in law of Punjab ( perhaps attributing to the part Punjabi blood of Robert Vadra) and not to permit "bhaiyyas" of UP, Bihar and Delhi" to enter Punjab with a view to "rule". (Charanjeet Singh Channi had reportedly stated that," पंजाब की बहू हैं प्रियंका गांधी... पंजाबन हैं, पंजाबियों की बहू हैं, पूरी ताकत के साथ एक तरफ हो जाओ पंजाबियो... यूपी के, बिहार के, दिल्ली के भइया जो पंजाब में आकर राज करना चाहते हैं उन्हें घुसने नहीं देंगे)
Ostensibly this statement refered to the Aam Aadmi Party, leadership of Delhi, but all the same it has created reverberations amongst the migrant labour working in strength in industrial city of Ludhiana and in similar industrial belts of a number of other cities like Jalandhar, Amritsar, Batala, Phagwara and for that matter, almost all over Punjab. Most of these migratory workers have been staying all over Punjab and have their voters cards as well. Normally speaking the use of this word ,"Bhaiyya" would not possibly have evoked such a adverse reaction because often it is not used in a derogatory sense. This word literally means "brother" and indicates "brotherhood" but given in a political climate and that too, in the presence of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, it is assuming a different colour all together. It is being interpreted as an anti migratory labour sentiment against Congress party and is being exploited as such. And not only in Punjab but in certain other poll bound states like UP as well.
This development will certainly have an adverse inpact on the electoral prospects of the ruling elite in Punjab because a good chunk of this migratory labour has been a vote bank of the Congress party. As to the exact swing, only a post electoral analysis will show.
