While the compulsions of retaining power have been pulling back the ruling allies from the brink of governance-induced crises, the Congress is scoring self-goals in power games.

Although the Congress perennially suffers from factionalism and infighting, the party in Punjab has become their worst victim. The party's rival camps headed by PCC President Mohinder Singh Kaypee-CLP leader Rajinder Kaur Bhattal duo and the former Chief Minister Capt. Amarinder Singh are at loggerheads. The two groups organize separate functions boycotting each other's public meetings with their leaders even publicly criticising each other. Despite the party high command's efforts, their differences have widened.

The immediate root cause of their rivalry is PCC Presidentship. The party's central leadership has been considering appointment of a regular PCC President in place of Kaypee who is holding the charge of the post. But its failure to do so has given a fillip to the infighting.

There is no doubt that Capt. Amarinder Singh enjoys the support of majority of the Congress MLAs and most party activists many of whom are facing prosecutions launched by the Badal government. The support the Captain enjoys can be attributed mainly to the widely held belief that among Punjab's present Congress leaders he is the only one who can effectively fight the Akalis. His opponents in the party, however, charge him with not being accessible to party workers, an allegation which was often levelled against him when he was Chief Minister. Besides, his personal life, particularly his friendship with a Pakistani journalist Aroosa Alam, has also been used as a handle to beat him with.

On the other hand, Bhattal's image of having been soft towards Akalis cost her politically in the past. Adoption of aggressive postures by her towards the Akalis during the last Assembly session was obviously an attempt to erase that image and project herself as capable of leading the fight against the Akalis.

The Congress infighting will harm the party's prospects of returning to power though a conducive situation is being created by a number of factors. The factors are: Strains building up between the relations of the ruling allies mainly because of their failure to reconcile the conflicting interests of their respective rural and urban vote banks. The latest instance was the issue of power tariff hike rollback for BJP's urban constituency. The hike strained the relations between the ruling allies.

After prolonged resistance, Akali leadership, however, partially acquiesced to the BJP demand thus averting a parting of ways by the ruling allies. 2) Further deterioration of the government's fiscal health and in the level of governance. This is giving a fillip to the anti-incumbency sentiment as reflected in the growing public protests by various sections of the population.

The ruling coalition's deteriorating performance on governance and fiscal fronts has been substantiated by a number of factors. Among these are sharp decline in the law and order situation, frauds running into huge amounts in the implementation of various government schemes. The schemes include the Chief Minister's much-touted Shagun Scheme under which eligible Scheduled Caste girls are given Rs.15000 on their marriage. Besides, a recent survey has reported that Punjab tops the list of the northern region states where the Centre's much celebrated National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme has virtually flopped because of the embezzlement of large amounts. No doubt, there is some weight in Punjab government's argument that the main reason for the scheme's failure is the low level of wages paid under the scheme as compared to those prevalent in Punjab and that the Centre should make necessary amendments in the scheme. But this does not absolve the government of its failure to check frauds in the scheme's implementation.

And what about the Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal's lament that his budget exercise has been delayed because of the failure to take a decision on rationalising various subsidies and mobilising additional resources to bridge the yawning budgetary gap? The two-member committee comprising Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal and Industries Minister Manoranjan Kalia formed for recommending measures, which was to submit its report on the issues within 15 days, has not done so even after three months. If the government fails to mobilise additional resources -a stupendous task- during the current fiscal, it would be committing electoral hara-kiri to mobilise them in 2011-12, the year of Assembly poll.

It has been such failures of successive governments, particularly the former and the present Akali-BJP Governments, which have pushed Punjab from its being the highest GDP growth state down to the third from the bottom with only 5.91 per cent GDP growth in the last five years. Even Haryana and Himachal Pradesh have performed much better with their GDP touching 9.92 and 8.47 per cent respectively during the period.

Another indication of the snowballing anti-incumbency sentiment is provided by the unprecedented increase in the Congress membership in Punjab which ended last week. Nearly 32 lakh members -a record- were enrolled as compared to nearly 15 lakh members last time. No doubt, the history of the Congress is replete with enrolling bogus members. There may have been some bogus enrolment this time also. But the possibility must have been minimised as passport-size photographs and mobile phone numbers of members were made mandatory on the form. It is the popular resentment against the government of the day which pushes the people in the lap of the opposition in the hope that it would save them from the rulers misgoverning and non-performance.

A wise man had once said: “The price of inaction is far greater than the cost of making a mistake”. The Akali leadership should take a cue from the advice. IPA Service)