Second is the state Congress chief and former Chief Minister Capt. Amarinder Singh’s decision to abandon Panthic agenda he had adopted during his 2002-2007 rule for fighting the party’s 2007 electoral battle which, however, failed to fetch it victory.
The third and the most significant change is that, perhaps for the first time in Punjab’s recent history, the elections would witness a newly floated political party lending an ideological content to the elections. The credit for this goes to the rebel Akali leader Manpreet Singh Badal who has declared his newly formed Punjab Peoples Party would use ideological plank for its political and electoral conduct.

Some of the steps being undertaken by the Akali leadership are not abnormal as almost all political parties have been resorting to these in the past. But three factors lend significance to Akali Dal’s moves. The most important is its decision to seek an alliance with other political parties even if they have been losing ground or have not yet been able to fully establish themselves. This indicates the jittery Akali bosses realization that an alliance with the BJP alone would not bring it an electoral victory as the saffron party has lost considerable ground in its traditional urban strongholds in the past five years.

Although it would not part company with the BJP, the Akali leadership has sounded the BSP to join hand for fighting the elections despite the fact that the Dalit outfit has been losing ground particularly in its Doaba stronghold. The state BSP leaders have, however, said the party would not have an alliance with any party and would go it alone in the elections. The Akali leadership has not given up its efforts.

In order to appease Dalits the state Government banned the screening of Parkash Jha’s “Aarakshan” movie arguing that “it hurts the sentiments of a community (Dalits)”. The government’s expert committee, after seeing the movie which deals with the issue of reservations, has, however, praised the movie and recommended lifting of the ban after deleting some dialogues. It is primarily the Akali Dal’s vote politics which prompted the government to ban the movie despite its having been cleared by Censor Board of Film Certification. The disturbing aspect of the ban is that it infringes the right of freedom and free expression.

Ironically, to promote their vested political interests, politicians instigate their followers to agitate against the screening of movies the latter had not seen, banning books they had never read and forcing renowned artists to migrate from their motherland without seeing their creative paintings.

It is not only seeking the support of other parties, the Akali leadership is also desperately trying to mend fences with those it had expelled from the party and the party’s disgruntled elements by offering allurements of party and government offices.

The most important among the first category is Manpreet Singh Badal who was expelled from the Akali Dal and the ministry. After winning over some of his estranged nephew’s supporters, Parkash Singh Badal, who had been criticizing Manpreet, has now appealed to him to return to his parent party. Badal has also wooed some of the Simranjit Singh Mann-led Akali Dal (Amritsar) functionaries. Although the immediate purpose of winning over the detractors and disgruntled elements is to mobilize support for the SGPC’s September 18 elections, the real objective is to enlist their support for the Assembly elections.

Another interesting aspect of the on-going wooing game is the claims being made by both the Akali Dal and the Congress about each other’s supporters crossing the floor to join the rival party.

Capt. Amarinder Singh’s declaration that the Congress would not use the Akalis Panthic (religious) agenda in the coming elections is significant for two reasons. Firstly, during his 2002-2007 regime he usurped the Akalis religious agenda for using it against the Akalis in the 2007 elections. But he failed. The Congress, however, inflicted a crushing defeat on the Akalis in their traditional stronghold of Malwa not because of its use of Panthic agenda but due to the massive support extended by the Dera Sacha Sauda followers to the party. The adoption of the Panthic agenda, in fact, proved counter-productive as it alienated the urban Hindus, especially in the Congress’s Doaba stronghold, which mainly contributed to the party’s failure to return to power in the 2007 elections.

As the BJP has lost its substantial Hindu support base, the Congress does not want to again alienate the Hindus by adopting the Panthic Agenda for 2012 polls.

The Congress’s tragedy is that despite calling itself a secular party, some of its Chief Ministers including Partap Singh Kairon, Giani Zail Singh, Beant Singh and Capt. Amrinder Singh had, like the Akalis, been making use of religious platform for isolating the Akalis among the Sikhs to the advantage of the Congress. But these attempts did not yield the desired results.

Backed by some central Congress leaders, especially Sanjay Gandhi, Giani Zail Singh even promoted Sikh fundamentalists who not only later became Frankenstein but also fanned religious fundamentalism and Khalistan demand. Supported by Pakistan and CIA, the separatist and terrorist forces unleashed the over a decade long terrorist violence killing thousand of innocent Hindus and Sikhs.

In the backdrop of the on-going competitive race between the Akali Dal and the Congress for winning over each other’s activists, the outcome of the 2012 elections may lead to political realignments in Punjab. One hopes that it would not trigger an inhibited phase of defection politics in Punjab.

How Punjab politics unfolds itself in the pre-election months will have to be watched with fingers crossed. (IPA Service)