It will be a repetition to describe the alliance government’s performance in some of the vital sectors like the state’s financial health, social welfare services particularly education and health as dismal. This is also true in the case of non-fulfillment of most of the tall promises it had made in the beginning of its first 2007-2012 term and on the eve of the January 2012 elections. The most disappointing failure has been Sukhbir Singh’s commitment made soon after the coalition government assumed power in 2007 to make Punjab a power surplus state within three years. It does not need an astrologer to predict that Punjab becoming a power surplus state is still a dream.

“There are no new sins; the old ones just get more publicity.” The saying by a wise man applies to the functioning of the coalition government though with a difference. While the rulers old sins are rightly getting more publicity, they are also committing new sins. For instance, the state of law and order and also governance and politicization of the police and civil administration have lately worsened. There have been increasing instances of the goons of the Youth Akali Dal headed by the Revenue Minister and Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh’s brother-in-law Bikram Singh Majithia attacking even police men.

It is not only such a situation which has pushed the levels of governance to new lows affecting the credibility of the government, the happenings during the last session of the state Assembly have also lowered standards of public behaviour and morality.

The country’s legislatures are increasingly getting crowded with members having criminal record. Some of the Assemblies are even witnessing members resorting to violence in the House during Assembly’s sittings. Not to lag behind, Punjab Assembly’s functioning has also slumped to new low when its last session witnessed Bikram Singh Majithia being caught live on TV cameras using expletives against a Congress member. The Speaker Charanjit Singh Atwal, however, did not take any action against the Revenue Minister arguing that he had not heard the abuses. But he later ordered expunction of what Majithia had said despite his not hearing the abuses as earlier claimed by him. He also threatened action against those who publicly displayed the CDs showing the minister hurling Punjabi style abuses against the Congress member. Atwal later went to Delhi to seek guidance from the Constitutional experts on how to deal with the tricky situation. It is not known what advice he got from New Delhi.

It was in this background that the chief minister Parkash Singh Badal made sarcastic comments against Majithia who is also NRI affairs incharge, at the Pravasi Punjabi Sammelan held in the first week of January. Badal said “Have you (Majithia) ever been to jail? You have got ministry’s post on a platter. Now you are looking to grab my chair too”. He asked Majithia “not to be so glad that the NRI function has gone off well. Work hard. NRIs alone won’t elect the next government; we’ll have to look after common people as well”.

Badal also did not spare his son Sukhbir who had left the venue before his father had concluded his remarks. Correcting his son’s statement, Badal said “development isn’t the only factor (as Sukhbir had earlier claimed), the confidence of all castes and religions also matters. They have to trust our secular credentials.”

Though Badal obviously under pressure from his son said a day later that he had made the comments in a lighter vein, those who for years have watched Badal’s style of functioning knew that his comments made in “lighter vein” usually reflect his inner state of mind.

The standards of political morality touched unfathomable depth when in a joint statement an Akali minister and two Chief Parliamentary Secretaries made below-the-belt remarks against the PCC president Capt. Amarinder Singh who had defied the Assembly Speakers gag orders by publicly screening the CDs of Majithia’s expletives at the Maghi mela in Badals’ home district, Muktsar. The statement which was released by the Majithia controlled Public Relations Department said “Amarinder thinks, talks and even dreams about Majithia these days. Captain’s Pakistani friend (journalist Aroosa Alam) is very upset with him as she has started feeling that Majithia is getting her share of Amarinder’s attention”.

These developments need to be seen amidst the reports that militants plan to revive their activities. Facing the criticism about the fast deteriorating law and order in the state, Punjab DGP Sumedh Singh Saini had said some days ago that it was the militants attempts to revive militancy than the state’s crime situation that posed real threat to Punjab. Though Saini’s immediate objective then seemed to be to divert public attention from the deteriorating law and order situation, what he said was not without basis. In fact, the central agencies had already warned Punjab to be more vigilant about radical elements attempts to revive militancy. The experience of the eighties terrorism years tells that poor law and order is one of the main factors that contributes to creating the environment conducive for eruption of militancy.

In the light of the foregoing happenings, it is imperative for the Badal-led Akali-BJP government to introspect and take remedial steps to stem the rot that has set in the state’s governance and the coalition government’s functioning.

The rulers should not believe in the dictum “The nicest thing about the future is that it always starts tomorrow.” (IPA Service)