The crisis between the ruling allies was caused by the BJP leaders charge against the Akali Dal for diverting government funds to the constituencies held by the Akalis while ignoring the ones with the BJP. Even the senior most BJP Minister Manoranjan Kalia accused the senior partner consistently ignoring the BJP on important matters.

The crisis was ostensibly 'resolved' with the intervention of central BJP leadership and Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal's assurance to release adequate funds for the development of urban constituencies. The main reason for the patch-up, like in earlier confrontations, however, is the dependence of the ruling allies on each other for capturing and retaining power.

The crisis in Akali Dal was sparked by the Finance Minister and Chief Minister's nephew Manpreet Singh Badal's announcement that the Centre is willing to waive Rs.35,000 crore out of Punjab's Rs.71,000 crore debt and also reschedule the loan repayments on conditions aimed at introducing fiscal discipline in the state. He also said that he is yet to see the results of his cousin Deputy Chief Minister's corporate style of functioning.

The Akali Dal's crisis has exposed the top ruling Akali leadership's doublespeak on certain crucial issues including the Centre's attitude towards Punjab and the acute financial crisis the once most prosperous and economically sound Punjab has been facing. It has also the potential of triggering succession war in Akali Dal.

Both the Chief Minister and his Deputy Chief Minister and Akali Dal President son have been charging the Centre, when under Congress-led rule, with always discriminating against Punjab, particularly in granting financial help and allocating big projects. But this charge is not repeated whenever there are non-Congress governments at the Centre, particularly in which Akali Dal has also been a partner. The Akali leadership has seldom enumerated any, if at all, special consideration shown towards Punjab by such regimes. Interestingly, the Punjab BJP leaders who are votaries of a strong Centre also parrot, though in less strident tone, their senior ally's protesting voices against the Centre.

But Finance Minister's profuse praise for New Delhi's offering to waive nearly half of the Punjab's huge debt has knocked the bottom out of his party leadership's charge that the Centre is discriminating against Punjab. Manpreet Singh said that he had met Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee 'who understood our problem and made a generous offer to waive the militancy period debt and reschedule our loan repayments. All this adds up to Rs. 35,000 crore. The Centre could not have been more magnanimous to pull us out of fiscal morass. The conditions that the Centre is proposing are very reasonable. They do not impinge on our sovereign right or pride. The subsidies have to go sooner or later. They do not fetch votes but have dragged us into revenue deficit'. Manpreet's words could not be music to the father-son duo's ears. But experts and well-meaning politicians have supported his stand on the issue.

The thrust of the terms listed by the Centre for state debt bailout is: levying of fresh taxes and cutting of subsidies. Sukbhir, however, has described the conditions 'laid down by the Congress-led UPA government' as stringent and impractical. These conditions are obviously considered stringent by Akali bosses as these include phasing out of the power subsidy running to Rs. 3,l00 crore a year in the next five years. The Akali leadership has been understandably keeping mum on experts suggestion that power subsidy be provided only to small farmers and not to the rich farmers who are the main beneficiaries of free power.

No doubt, the successive Congress and Akali governments have been responsible for the state's present financial mess. The present Akali-BJP government, however, has been mainly guilty for having pushed the state to the brink of bankruptcy. The 12th Finance Commission had recommended fiscal reforms requiring the states to enact a Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act, incorporating measurable targets for balancing the revenue account. To avail of the incentive available under the Rs.32,000 crore corpus set up by the Centre, a number of states including Punjab enacted the fiscal responsibility law and also signed a MOU with the Centre undertaking to achieve measurable targets of fiscal improvement. As a result, for the first time since 1984-85, Punjab achieved a revenue surplus of Rs.2,000 crore including a grant of Rs.3,772 crore from the Centre in lieu of loan waiver. But since 2006-2007 when the present Akali-BJP government took over. Punjab has landed itself in a morass bigger than ever before with its burgeoned revenue deficit. With the Assembly elections due in early 2012, the financial crisis is going to worsen as the government cannot afford to impose fresh taxes and scrap subsidies during the election year.

Now about the war of succession in Akali Dal.

Sukhbir Singh is set to succeed his father despite the latter's using the fig leaf that it is the Party which will choose his successor. Who does not know that Parkash Singh Badal is Akali Dal and no one dare defy his wish. In the past, Akali leaders who could pose challenge to Sukhbir's ascendance to Chief Ministership were sidelined in the party. Sukhbir tried to erode the mass base of Capt. Kanwaljit Singh, the visionary, clear-headed and popular minister. He, however, died in a car accident.

Now another no-nonsense, visionary and ideologically sound minister Manpreet Singh has the merits of inheriting Badal's legacy. He has the advantage of being a Badal family's scion. Although there are as yet no indication of his emerging as Sukhbir's rival for the highest office, efforts are apparently on to cut him to size in the party.

The turbulence in the ruling Akali Dal over the state's financial crisis and the succession issue is going to make Punjab's pre-election political scenario livelier. It is too premature to predict its outcome. (IPA Service)