The ruling leadership is finding itself in the dock on both political and governance fronts. Will it be able to emerge unscathed out of the controversies hitting it and the alliance partners? An attempt can be made to answer the question by dwelling on some of the problems whose gravity makes them look insurmountable.

Two controversies are presently haunting the Akali leadership. One is the Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal’s brother-in-law Revenue Minister Bikram Singh Majithia’s alleged links with drug smugglers. Second is deteriorating relations between the Akali Dal and the BJP.

Media reports say that the Enforcement Directorate investigating the Rs.6,000 crore Jagdish Bhola drug racket case has filed charge sheet in a Patiala court containing “confessional statements” of one of the drug case accused Jagjit Chahal alleging that he had paid Rs. 35 lakh election fund to Majithia. Majithia has, however, denied the charge claiming his opponents and some Enforcement Directorate’s “vested interests” have hatched a controversy to launch a smear campaign against him through selective “leaks”.

The issue has taken a serious turn with the Congress Legislature Party leader Sunil Jakhar alleging that “Majithia had misled the House in the last Assembly session by claiming that he had been summoned by the Directorate as a witness and not accused”. Though the BJP, at one stage, had also sought Majithia’s sack from the cabinet, it has lately adopted a ‘wait and watch’ attitude on the issue.

What turn the Majithia case takes in the coming days may give new dimension to volatile Punjab politics. For maintaining probity in public life, the Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal should ask Majithia to resign on moral grounds. He can again induct him into his cabinet if he is absolved of the charges made against him in the drug scam case.

The second controversy is over the virtual demise of bonhomie between what the chief minister Parkash Singh Badal often describes the Akali Dal and the BJP as “life-long allies”. During the recently held civic body elections there were intra-party and inter-party violent clashes between the allies at many places. These clashes also involved some ministers of both the parties. The differences between the ruling partners further widened when the BJP last week abstained from a joint meeting called to work out the strategy for the ongoing Vidhan Sabha session. The saffron party’s grouse was that it has been humiliated by the senior partner on several issues.

Notwithstanding their squabbles, a factor which can provide some solace to the ruling allies is the pitiable state of the Congress created by the infighting and factionalism. Indications now are that the party high command will take stringent measures at its session to be held in April to galvanise the party’s central and state-level organizational set-ups. If it is able to bring unity between Punjab’s squabbling factions, the party may be able to pose a serious challenge to the ruling alliance in the 2017 elections.

The situation needs to be seen in the backdrop of the strong anti-incumbency sentiment generated by the Akali-BJP government’s gravely faulty governance.

More than the inter-party and intra-party bickering in the ruling alliance what should be more worrying for the dominant ruling Akali leadership is the indifferent attitude of the Modi-led government towards the problems confronting Punjab, particularly on the fiscal front. The party leadership had expected the Centre to bail the state government out of its acute financial crisis by granting the special fiscal package. Instead of providing the package, the Centre has been pressing the state government for accountability of the grants given by the UPA government. The Punjab government finds it difficult to fulfill the condition since many of the grants given for specified schemes had either been diverted for non-specified purposes or have been partially utilized because of the state’s failure to contribute its matching share, a pre-condition for utilising the central allocations.

Ironically, the ruling Akali leadership has often eulogized the Modi-led NDA government despite its failure to bail Punjab out of the serious problems it is facing. This is in sharp contrast to the charge it used to level against the Manmohan Singh-led UPA government for allegedly “discriminating” against Punjab in providing help for solving its financial and other problems.

More than the Punjab’s government’s worsened fiscal worries what is contributing to the growing anti-incumbency sentiment is the faulty or, what the critics describe, as non-governance by the ruling coalition. The situation can be gauged from the fact that different sections of the people have been holding protests against the government’s failure to fulfill the election promises. Employees have also been holding demonstrations against the delays in payment of their salaries. Educational and health infrastructures are in a dilapidated state and face staff shortages. Except in the constituencies of influential leaders, most government dispensaries are starved of required medicines and the needed health staff.

Law and order situation has also deteriorated as indicated by the growing incidence of crimes particularly rapes, snatchings, and robberies –the latest being the Rs.1.34 crore Axis Bank robbery case. The police has virtually become a political arm of the Akali leaders.

If the ruling alliance fails to improve governance, the people will act on what a wise man had said “Politicians and drapers should be changed often and for the same reason”.(IPA Service)