The development raises many questions. Why did the party direct its ministers to quit the ministry? Was the decision based on political considerations or taken on moral grounds? Why did the party decide to re-induct two of the five pulled out ministers? What is likely to be the impact of the resignations on BJP’s political fortunes and on the electoral prospects of the Akali-BJP alliance?

The party’s central core committee’s decision to force all its Punjab ministers and Chief Parliamentary Secretaries to quit was obviously designed to project the BJP as a party cleaner than the Congress which has been hit by a number of mega scams including 2G and Commonwealth Games. The BJP leadership must have realized that its tirade against the Congress on corruption issue would lose its sting if it did not take action against its own ministers in Punjab while the Congress has acted against its leaders involved in scandals.

Indian politicians, somebody had said, are the biggest hypocrites who excel in the art of double-speak. The BJP has said that it had pulled out its five ministers from the government on “moral grounds”. But the party had allowed its Karnataka Chief Minister to retain his Chief Ministerial ‘gaddi’ despite his involvement in the massive land allotment scandal as the party President Nitin Gadkari thought that “Yeddyurappa’s land deals are not illegal but immoral”. If even after committing an immoral act Yeddurappa was retained as the Chief Minister, pulling out its Punjab ministers on moral ground was sheer hypocrisy and double standard. Why the senior most minister Manoranjan Kalia and other ministers as also Chief Parliamentary Secretaries were pulled out from the coalition ministry when there was no incriminating evidence against them in the Rs.1.5 crore bribery case?

Lastly, why the two of the five ministers who had resigned were re-inducted into the ministry? If it is on the ground that their image is clean, does it mean that the pulled-out Ministers and the Chief Parliamentary Secretaries had soiled image?

If the intention of the BJP high command was to show that its image was cleaner than the Congress, the resignations of its ministers on unsubstantiated charges amounts to a tacit acceptance of corruption in the Akali-BJP coalition.

Those who think that the resignations would improve the party’s political fortunes are living in a make-believe world. The BJP’s image in the state has been on the decline. After winning a record number of 19 of the 23 seats it contested in the 2007 Assembly elections, the party lost 17 of the 19 segments in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections. If one is to go by the reports coming from the districts, the BJP’s image has been showing signs of further decline.

Obviously, it is the poor state of Punjab BJP which is said to have prompted the Akali leadership to seek closeness to the BSP. This does not mean that the Akali and BJP would part ways. They need each other for ascending to power.

The Akali Dal is also bogged down with problems. To meet the challenges posed by his nephew former Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal’s exit from the party and the ministry and Capt. Amarinder Singh’s appointment as Punjab Congress President, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal took over the command of the Akali Dal’s election campaign in his own hands. He obviously thought that his son Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal would not be able to meet the twin challenges. Sukhbir’s expected coronation as Chief Minister before the 2012 Assembly elections was also deferred as such a step would have widened the fissures in the party swelling the ranks of dissenters.

The soft-spoken Chief Minister’s image of a gentleman politician, a mass leader and his hectic campaigning and announcements of large development grants during his ‘sangat darshan’ meetings in the last few weeks was apparently having a positive impact on the party’s political fortunes. But the corruption cases against some Akali and BJP leaders have pushed into the background the development issue. This has neutralized the favourable atmosphere being created by the Chief Minister’s campaigning.

The ruling alliance can find some solace in the prevailing state of the Punjab Congress. The euphoria and enthusiasm generated among Congress ranks by Capt. Amarinder Singh’s appointment as PCC Chief shows signs of abatement mainly because of the revival of factional squabbles due to non-inclusion of some senior leaders in the party’s new organizational set-up. Although Capt.Amarinder Singh is trying to get some of the left out leaders accommodated in the PCC, it is yet to be seen whether the party’s reconstituted set-up will become cohesive to enable it to recapture power in the elections eight months away.

Corruption cases and poor governance coupled with the anti-incumbency sentiment as reflected by the frequent demonstrations by different sections of the people are sullying the alliance’s image. This offers a golden opportunity for the opposition to ride back to power. But the question is given its present unenviable state, will the opposition be able to make use of this opportunity is a billion rupee question. (IPA Service)