In Punjab, Pehle AAP, Phir Mann
The coronation of Bhagwant Mann as the 17th Chief Minister of Punjab has finally happened, and hopefully, Punjab will follow a new trajectory of development as far as its society and economy is concerned.
The spectacular electoral victory that AAP registered in the recently-held elections for Punjab assembly has brought about a tectonic shift in the political landscape of the country.
Apart from handing over the AAP its first electoral victory outside of Delhi, it has catapulted it to the status of a national party where it is being seen as a national alternative to the present ruling dispensation BJP, displacing Congress from the role of the main opposition party.
The space of the main opposition party till now was primarily being held by the Congress, but things seem to be slipping from its clutches. AAP is the new game in town and the toast of political commentators.
The critics of the BJP government see AAP as a viable alternative to BJP notwithstanding its lack of experience and skeptics who doubt its ability to provide governance to the whole country. AAP is being seen as a political start-up that has become a unicorn with this victory.
The broom, the political symbol of AAP, has made a clean sweep across Punjab giving AAP an unprecedented 92 out of 117 seats in the Punjab assembly. The historic victory that AAP got in Punjab has taken everybody by surprise, including AAP itself.
They themselves never expected this kind of a landslide victory. Most exit polls predicted a comfortable majority for AAP, but even they could not predict the tsunami that was witnessed on the counting day.
Ever since, different theories are being propounded to explain the unexpected result.
Political analysts have interpreted this mandate as a yearning for a complete systemic overhaul. People were fed up with the rampant corruption that they encountered in their daily life starting from getting little things done to being a mute spectator to machinations of the sand mafia.
They desperately wanted a change. The huge mandate for AAP is seen as a ventilation of the cumulative frustration accumulated over decades of mis-governance and maladministration by both the Akali Dal as well as the Congress, the two dominant political parties in Punjab.
Both the Akali Dal and the Congress have been decimated in this election. Political commentators have already written the obituary for the Akali Dal. The Congress, they expect, may last another election after which it will be the end of the road for Congress in Punjab. The reasons are not far to be seen.
The drug menace had become pandemic under the rule of the Akali Dal. Most people in Punjab saw the Akali Dal members as colluding with the drug peddlers and giving them political patronage.
The liquor menace and the sacrilege incident were also not addressed to the satisfaction of the people. As a result, the people voted the Akali Dal out of office in 2017 and gave the Congress, under the leadership of Captain Amarinder Singh, a chance to clean up the mess.
The Captain too failed miserably in this and was perceived to be a benefactor and comrade in arms of the Badal clan, the family that runs the Akali Dal.
This infuriated people to such an extent that they completely discarded the two parties at the hustings this time, and gave AAP a chance to prove their mettle as a political party that can provide governance that is in sync with the need of the times.
Both Prakash Singh Badal, the patriarch of the Akali Dal, as well as his son, Sukhbir Singh Badal lost the elections from their respective constituencies as did Bikram Singh Majithia, the son-in-law of the Badal family accused of being the kingpin of the drug mafia and running the drug racket from his residence.
Another factor that contributed significantly to this erratic outcome was the complete farce put up by the Congress in the name of governance. They made a mockery of democracy. Captain Amarinder Singh after winning the election in 2017 became incommunicado not just to his party colleagues but also to the citizenry.
The pandemic exacerbated this alienation, and he became completely unaware of ground realities, and the problems people were facing in their day-to-day living. The youth of Punjab were fleeing to Canada for a better future, and nothing was able to stop this exodus. There was rampant drug abuse among the youth in Punjab, and the situation got exacerbated by huge unemployment.
Amarinder Singh relied on a coterie of bureaucrats to govern, and they were calling the shots and were oblivious of people’s suffering and lacked the common touch. This created a lot of resentment among the people.
Sensing the mood of the people and the dreadful prospect of losing the next election, after a lot of dithering, the Congress tried to bring about a change in leadership, but unseating Captian Amarinder Singh proved to a Herculean task.
Navjot Singh Sidhu, the former cricketer-turned-stand-up comic-turned politician was roped in as PPCC chief. He started taking pot shots at Captain’s government, and finally embarrassed by this daily humiliation, Captian resigned from the post of CM. Charanjit Singh Channi was brought in the last moment as the Chief Minister, around four months before the elections.
But this proved to the proverbial jump from frying pan to the fire. After ED found unaccounted wealth from the homes of Charanjit Singh Channi’s relatives, and the fact that he was involved with the sand mafia proved him to be a hypocrite before people. They lost faith in him too.
All this while the internal bickering for the coveted CM post between Charanjit Channi and PPCC president Navjot Singh Sidhu further dampened the poll prospects of Congress as it created the image of a house divided.
All this led to the drastic result in the election with all three contenders for the CM post, Charanjit Singh Channi, Captain Amarinder Singh as well as Navjot Singh Siddhu, losing election from their respective constituencies. People have completely discarded the Congress party in this election.
The Congress received a severe drubbing in all the other state elections held simultaneously losing Goa, Uttarakhand, Manipur as well as putting up a poor show in Uttar Pradesh.
All this has put a question mark on the future of the Congress party, and many believe it is on the verge of being wiped off the political firmament of the country.
This has cleared the runway for the AAP to take off as a national party, and its founder and head, Arvind Kejriwal, is being seen as the challenger and alternative to Prime Minister Modi in the 2024 elections.
The AAP is on a swing, singing and dancing Balle, Balle. Let us hope they come up to the expectations of the people of Punjab and start a new chapter in the history of Indian politics.
The coronation of Bhagwant Mann as the 17th Chief Minister of Punjab has finally happened, and hopefully, Punjab will follow a new trajectory of development as far as its society and economy is concerned.
The spectacular electoral victory that AAP registered in the recently-held elections for Punjab assembly has brought about a tectonic shift in the political landscape of the country.
Apart from handing over the AAP its first electoral victory outside of Delhi, it has catapulted it to the status of a national party where it is being seen as a national alternative to the present ruling dispensation BJP, displacing Congress from the role of the main opposition party.
The space of the main opposition party till now was primarily being held by the Congress, but things seem to be slipping from its clutches. AAP is the new game in town and the toast of political commentators.
The critics of the BJP government see AAP as a viable alternative to BJP notwithstanding its lack of experience and skeptics who doubt its ability to provide governance to the whole country. AAP is being seen as a political start-up that has become a unicorn with this victory.
The broom, the political symbol of AAP, has made a clean sweep across Punjab giving AAP an unprecedented 92 out of 117 seats in the Punjab assembly.
The historic victory that AAP got in Punjab has taken everybody by surprise, including AAP itself.
They themselves never expected this kind of a landslide victory. Most exit polls predicted a comfortable majority for AAP, but even they could not predict the tsunami that was witnessed on the counting day. Ever since, different theories are being propounded to explain the unexpected result.
Political analysts have interpreted this mandate as a yearning for a complete systemic overhaul. People were fed up with the rampant corruption that they encountered in their daily life starting from getting little things done to being a mute spectator to machinations of the sand mafia.
They desperately wanted a change. The huge mandate for AAP is seen as a ventilation of the cumulative frustration accumulated over decades of mis-governance and maladministration by both the Akali Dal as well as the Congress, the two dominant political parties in Punjab.
Both the Akali Dal and the Congress have been decimated in this election. Political commentators have already written the obituary for the Akali Dal. The Congress, they expect, may last another election after which it will be the end of the road for Congress in Punjab. The reasons are not far to be seen.
The drug menace had become pandemic under the rule of the Akali Dal. Most people in Punjab saw the Akali Dal members as colluding with the drug peddlers and giving them political patronage.
The liquor menace and the sacrilege incident were also not addressed to the satisfaction of the people. As a result, the people voted the Akali Dal out of office in 2017 and gave the Congress, under the leadership of Captain Amarinder Singh, a chance to clean up the mess.
The Captain too failed miserably in this and was perceived to be a benefactor and comrade in arms of the Badal clan, the family that runs the Akali Dal.
This infuriated people to such an extent that they completely discarded the two parties at the hustings this time, and gave AAP a chance to prove their mettle as a political party that can provide governance that is in sync with the need of the times.
Both Prakash Singh Badal, the patriarch of the Akali Dal, as well as his son, Sukhbir Singh Badal lost the elections from their respective constituencies as did Bikram Singh Majithia, the son-in-law of the Badal family accused of being the kingpin of the drug mafia and running the drug racket from his residence.
Another factor that contributed significantly to this erratic outcome was the complete farce put up by the Congress in the name of governance. They made a mockery of democracy.
Captain Amarinder Singh after winning the election in 2017 became incommunicado not just to his party colleagues but also to the citizenry. The pandemic exacerbated this alienation, and he became completely unaware of ground realities, and the problems people were facing in their day-to-day living.
The youth of Punjab were fleeing to Canada for a better future, and nothing was able to stop this exodus. There was rampant drug abuse among the youth in Punjab, and the situation got exacerbated by huge unemployment.
Amarinder Singh relied on a coterie of bureaucrats to govern, and they were calling the shots and were oblivious of people’s suffering and lacked the common touch. This created a lot of resentment among the people.
Sensing the mood of the people and the dreadful prospect of losing the next election, after a lot of dithering, the Congress tried to bring about a change in leadership, but unseating Captian Amarinder Singh proved to a Herculean task.
Navjot Singh Sidhu, the former cricketer-turned-stand-up comic-turned politician was roped in as PPCC chief. He started taking pot shots at Captain’s government, and finally embarrassed by this daily humiliation, Captian resigned from the post of CM. Charanjit Singh Channi was brought in the last moment as the Chief Minister, around four months before the elections.
But this proved to the proverbial jump from frying pan to the fire. After ED found unaccounted wealth from the homes of Charanjit Singh Channi’s relatives, and the fact that he was involved with the sand mafia proved him to be a hypocrite before people. They lost faith in him too.
All this while the internal bickering for the coveted CM post between Charanjit Channi and PPCC president Navjot Singh Sidhu further dampened the poll prospects of Congress as it created the image of a house divided.
All this led to the drastic result in the election with all three contenders for the CM post, Charanjit Singh Channi, Captain Amarinder Singh as well as Navjot Singh Siddhu, losing election from their respective constituencies.
People have completely discarded the Congress party in this election. The Congress received a severe drubbing in all the other state elections held simultaneously losing Goa, Uttarakhand, Manipur as well as putting up a poor show in Uttar Pradesh.
All this has put a question mark on the future of the Congress party, and many believe it is on the verge of being wiped off the political firmament of the country.
This has cleared the runway for the AAP to take off as a national party, and its founder and head, Arvind Kejriwal, is being seen as the challenger and alternative to Prime Minister Modi in the 2024 elections.
The AAP is on a swing, singing and dancing Balle, Balle. Let us hope they come up to the expectations of the people of Punjab and start a new chapter in the history of Indian politics.
edited and proofread by nikita sharma
