Issue 29 Vol II, December 15, 2006

E D I T O R I A L

Emerging Political Dynasties

WITH emphasis on big rallies, politics in Punjab has degenerated from ideas to crowds and samosas. Ruling Congress and Akal opposition Akali Dal a few months away from the assembly polls are trying to beat each other with big public rallies all around the state. If Akalis led a big crowd at Chandigarh last month, the Congress responded with even a bigger one at Ludhiana later. And on December 8 the two parties went into a big spin, organised political mustering of crowds to establish their hold on the dumb driven masses. It cost something like Rs 60 crores plus huge wastage of manpower and transport for a day long tamasha. No counting the cost of policing the whole show. Who funds for thousands of trucks, buses and taxis besides food for half a million people and other arrangements   need no guess. The Akalis at Moga and the Congress at Lambi, the ancestral village of Badals, left nothing to chance to demonstrate as who rules the hearts and minds of the people of Punjab. Earlier, chief minister Amarinder singh had matched Badal’s Sangat Darshan five years back with his new Vikas Yatra all across the Punjab. Badal lost badly and one does know the fate of Amarinder at the hustings.

Leaders from the Akali Dal Badal gleefully assert that they distributed five lakh samosas and another five lakh pockets of quality food at their Moga rally where its supreme leader Parkash Singh Badal  was presented a cheque of Rs five crore   to mark his 80th birthday. His son and heir apparent to the Akali throne, Sukhbir Singh Badal wished to present five helicopters for the old leader, but could not do so. But is that how a leader’s worth who has spent better part of his life fighting battles and visiting jail as often as he could to create what he claims an autonomous and prosperous Punjab measured. Senior leaders of the Dal vied with each other to eulogize Sukhbir Singh Badal, the young heir than praise the aged stalwart. It was sycophancy at its best. It was also the birth of a new political dynasty in Punjab. Baba Kharag Singh, Master Tara Singh, Sant Fateh Singh, Sant Chanan Singh, Sant Harchand Singh Longowal and  to some extent the late Gurcharan Singh Tohra   anointed no political heirs. For decades Akalis have been critical of the Congress and its culture of dynastic rule and now without a demur gleefully promoted it.

For weeks leaders from all levels, particularly the aspirants for the coming assembly elections and who so ever mattered were busy forcing transporters to provide trucks and buses, taxis and tractor trailers. They were collecting funds and buying supporters with cash and liquor to add to the crowds. If the ruling party depended upon officials, the Akalis had the huge resources of the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee at its disposal. If the party in power cares little in misusing tax payer’s money, the Akalis are shameless in wasting the money of the faithful intended for religious purposes and charity. One cheats the public and the other does not spare even God. For the first time the Akali Dal officially celebrated the birth of its leader which is prohibited under the established Sikh tenets.

Increasingly the political culture is becoming more akin to a private limited company, collecting huge funds, adopting modern management and public relations techniques and dispensing favours and enriching leaders. Media too is making a fast buck in the process as advertisements worth crores are on display. It is more of a family business. There are scores of political dynasties; Badals, Amarinders, Dullos, Ranas, Bajwas, Sandhus and Chaudhrys poaching all the political parties. It is plutocracy at its worst in Punjab.

How do these rallies that Punjabis would be witnessing more and more as the elections draw near help the political debate on certain basic issues. The Punjabis shall have to look elsewhere than the political class to understand the reasons and solution for agrarian crisis, drug addiction, ever rising unemployment and high cost of living and the rising crime graph including corruption.  Meanwhile, they would have endless tamashas; ironically it does not come free.

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