PUNJAB AT
CROSS-ROADS: 2017 (Part 6)
Birth of a
baby, Awaaz-e-Punjab
After hell of a long time, Navjot Singh Sidhu has thrown the
dice at last, but man!
what a dice! because numbers thereof are not clear. No one
exactly knows what the numbers are but yes, one thing is clear; that good old game of ’Chaucer’ is all set to be
played a few months hence.
The Game of ‘Chaucer’
Four corners, four players;
Grandmother of most of political parties, The Congress
Not so old but Master of the Game, The SAD / BJP
The Thunderous AAP, whose thunder is on the wane even in the ‘Sultanate
of Delhi’
And
Awaaz-e-Punjab, the newly born Ivanhoe of Punjab
Game is all set, but the question is who is going to be the ‘Shakuni
Mama’ in this game. Chaucer is not a simpletons ka khel. It is a curious mixture
of one’s Luck and of intrigue, deceit, facade, cold blooded planning and of
anticipation. It is a game where a player’s hand does the juggling of dice.
Remember the story of Mahabharata?
So kisi ko nahi maloom, bilkul nahi maloom; if it is going to
be ‘fixed’ or will it only be played with all Machiavellian expertise as the
times come.
Coming to Grandmother, the Congress, it is generally playing the
‘Prashant Kishore way’, at least till now. Image building of Capt Amarinder
Singh is to be followed by image building, though on a lesser scale, of
regional satraps, district presidents and of probable candidates. His team is
busy identifying pressure groups, besides trying to identify local issues which
can be manipulated. Surprisingly, till now it has not done anything which could have given it some solid credibility; that is taking up Punjab centric issues including
drugs, and exploitation of natural resources of Punjab including waters, electricity
and all. That is perhaps kept in reserve to be utilised in meaningless rhetoric
once elections are announced. It certainly is not a very wise move. They could at
least have created a facade that they are concerned about Punjab. Exact working
during elections is to be left for individual candidates. They will have to use
their money, muscle and ‘medicine power’ as per their need and themselves
The Master of the game is, till now playing the game quietly with cold calculation and shrewd anticipation. Intelligence wings both of Government of India and of Punjab police have to be
working overtime collecting, collating, projecting and to some extent even juggling
the figures for BJP in Delhi and for Sukhbir in Punjab. Latter is taking keen
interest naturally because somehow Punjab does not matter much for the former. But
the future of Sukhbir Badal is at stake in Punjab. He has to win this election
this way or that. He has no other option. If my previous experience in the
Central and Punjab governments is correct, then lists of ‘important local level
persons who have good vote bank’ and of ‘acupressure experts’ must be ready by
now. Calculation for the ‘economic and medicinal criterion’ also must have been worked out.
AAP, has lost much of its steam by now because of its high
headedness and ego. Leaders entrusted with responsibility in Punjab have been living
in their ivory towers, enjoying 'hospitality' of Punjabi populace. They had a good
chance to prove themselves by combating drugs in Delhi which is as much, if not
more ravaged than Punjab. On this, I had advised Arvind and his area commanders’
long time back but perhaps they were not listening. Had they taken up this
single issue in the right earnest, they would have earned unshakeable and
indelible adoration of Punjabi populace in Punjab and even abroad. Their wrong
calculation in ‘kicking out’ Chotepur, back fired like crazy. Their old
volunteer force is on rampage and will work against them during elections. If attempts
of AAP-Punjab to rope in all disillusioned old volunteers succeed, AAP-Delhi is
going to suffer badly. Last but not the least; they have adopted a wrong criterion
in choosing party candidates. They are sadly mistaken if they think that just
any one can win in name of Arvind. And to make the matter still worse, a number
of their candidates have a dubious past and some of its leaders have the image
of being ‘unstable’.
And now coming to newly born Ivanhoe of Punjab, the Awaaz-e-Punjab.
Its formation yesterday, September 2, had created an earth quake in Punjab. Rumblings of its birth was heard all over Punjab, Delhi and even abroad. Punjabi ‘diaspora’
in Delhi and abroad were taken by surprise and debates started about the future
course of action, that is both moral and monetary to AAP, Delhi. Navjot Sidhu
might be criticised and dubbed as a ‘non serious’ man, by his adversaries, on
account of his association with humorous episodes and all but he has
significant following all over Punjab. His wife Navjot has also created a niche
for herself in Amritsar particularly. Some parts of her constituency are cut up
on account of some of her ‘hangers on’ but still they all support her
sincerely. Pargat only has a local base in some pockets of Jalandhar and in
some of his sporty fans. Bains brothers have done a lot in Ludhiana and have created
an iconic niche for themselves there. But that is about it. New born baby has
to struggle for its survival. It needs structure, immense funds and wooing all
those, political or non political souls, who have a face and reputation in Punjab.
People have to be convinced that the Baby will be able to stand for, stand by
and live for Punjab and its issues; may be drugs, waters, land, agricultural yield
and sale thereof, electricity, usurped natural / public / private resources by some,
unemployment, law & order, corruption, general high handedness, rein-less bureaucracy
and police, to name only a very few. Like AAP, it can’t and should not sit quietly
and start counting eggs hoping only to thrive and en-cash upon the strong incumbency
against the Master of the Game. It will have to work hard.
Let’s see how all four Chaucer players play and what the
ultimate result is.
Whether it is going to be a fair contest between four of
them or it turns out to be a tie only between the Grandmother and the Master of
the Game, remains to be seen…
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