The ruling leadership's most important New Year Resolution is Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal's declaration that 2010 would be a “year of governance reforms”. The declaration is virtual admission of the fact that the Akali-BJP government's governance during the past three years has been poor. Badal has, however, made no New Year Resolution on some crucial political and governance related issues confronting the state. For example, there is no mention of how the leadership plans to meet the growing activities of Sikh religious extremists who have also the potential of creating a situation conducive for reviving terrorism as had happened in the late 1970s and early 1980s. It has also skipped the issue of how it intends to bridge the widening gulf between the Akali Dal and its junior ally BJP. Besides, there is no New Year Resolution on how the government intends to overcome the acute financial crisis which, if continues, would jeopardise its ambitious development plans and accelerate Punjab's downhill slide.

The activities of Sikh religious extremists have been on the rise as was evident in the recent violent incidents following their protests against the holding of congregations by some religious bodies, particularly by the Deras. The incidents include the violence in Jalandhar in last May after Dera Sachkhand followers went on the rampage to protest against the killing of their spiritual leader in Vienna. This was followed by Sikh radicals violent agitation against the congregation of Ashutosh Maharaj of the Divya Jyoti Jagran Sansthan in Ludhiana leading to the killing of one parson and generating communal tension. Such happenings put the Akali leadership in a dilemma. They cannot oppose the religious extremists protests on Sikhism issues fearing its adverse fallout on their Sikh vote bank. And they cannot support the protests as the step could have an adverse impact on the non-Sikhs apart from widening the wedge in its relations with the BJP. Such situations also amount to denial of freedom of religions propagation.

The Akali leadership has been forced to adopt a tightrope walk policy on such issues which has not only affected governance but has also further strained its relations with the BJP. The Akali-BJP relations have been developing strains on issues which inter alia included the appointment of a BJP nominee as Deputy Chief Minister -the claim was later given up by BJP- and the latest issue of subsidising power for business, industrial and domestic consumers as is the case for agricultural sector. While the farming community is the backbone of Akali vote bank, the BJP has its main support base among the business class and urbanites.

No doubt, the Akali Dal and BJP are “inseparable twins” as often claimed by the leaders of the two parties. They depend on each other for riding to power and retaining it. But when a strong anti-incumbency sentiment prevails and the ruling partners clashing interests start eroding their support bases, their relations are bound to be adversely affected. Because of these factors the BJP, which had won 19 seats in the 2007 Assembly elections, had lost 17 of the 19 segments in last year's Parliament poll.

Crystal gazing can be hazardous. But if the wedge between the Akali Dal and BJP continues widening and the anti-incumbency sentiment continues to haunt the ruling Akali leadership, the possibility of the “inseparable twins” parting company before the 2012 elections could not be ruled out.

The Chief Minister's claim of 2009 being a year of “unprecedented achievements” as the government was able to get important central projects for the state is in conflict with his of-repeated charge against the Centre for discriminating against Punjab in sanctioning projects and giving financial assistance. The government has no answer to the charge that large amounts of central grants given to Punjab for various schemes have remained unutilised. Mr. Badal has also claimed that “never in the history of post-Independence has the state seen such path-breaking and ambitious development activity” as under the Akali-BJP's rule. The claim is not supported by ground realities. Some of the “path-breaking and ambitious development activity” represents continuance of the works launched by the previous governments. No doubt, the present Akali-BJP has stolen a lead over its predecessor governments in announcing ambitious and grandiose schemes which, if implemented, can change Punjab's face. But many such schemes are still on the drawing boards or are awaiting implementation or witnessing slow progress. The promise of completing some of the big projects particularly in the power sector within three years of the ministry's assuming office is nowhere near fulfillment. The work on them, except two, has not even started yet.

Most of these problems have been plagued by the fiscal crisis and the government's failure to mobilise additional resources, an issue which has become a dilemma for the government and has strained Akali-BJP relations.

To overcome such gigantic problems, Punjab needs visionary leaders. It had one in Capt. Kanwaljit Singh who was killed in a road accident last year. The other, Manpreet Singh Badal, Finance Minister and Chief Minister's nephew, finds himself restrained by the dominant ruling leadership's diktats to stop demanding scrapping of subsidies and Punjab becoming self-reliant in solving its problems.

The ruling alliance perhaps believes in what Albert Einstein had said, though in a different context: “Never think of the future -it comes so soon enough”. (IPA Service)