Political wisdom a must to solve Punjab’s problems

PUNJAB goes to the polls tomorrow, with four major parties in the fray. The BJP and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) are in power at the Centre and in the state, respectively. In the past three decades or so, the Congress and the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD)-BJP alliance have ruled the state for 15 years each.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, interviewed by this newspaper, is promoting the BJP’s vision and record of good governance. Farmers sitting in the searing heat at the Shambhu border would disagree. He has argued that the SAD-BJP alliance ended due to a “series of electoral routs” and the ally’s inability to ‘reform’ and move “with the times”. He has concluded that Punjab is ‘disgusted’ with AAP, ‘disillusioned’ with the Congress and ‘disappointed’ with the SAD.

He is partly right on all counts. The SAD was founded in 1920 after the Jallianwala Bagh massacre to wrest control of Darbar Sahib and other gurdwaras from the British or their nominee mahants. Thereafter, the Akali leadership and the Congress were mostly in alignment during the freedom struggle. However, before attending the 1929 Lahore Congress session, the Akalis sought a commitment that no constitutional arrangement would be concluded without Sikh concurrence. This was reiterated before Independence. Although upset over the Partition on communal lines, the Sikh leadership rejected negotiations with Muhammad Ali Jinnah for an autonomous Sikh province within Pakistan.

But neither the Congress in the past nor the BJP now has understood the Sikhs’ fears over the perceived threat to their language, religion and identity. This has surfaced periodically and been mishandled each time. The States’ Reorganisation Act, 1956, reformed the boundaries of states on a linguistic basis, except those of Punjab. The Akali Dal’s Punjabi Suba agitation persisted till the demand was conceded a decade later, albeit with many issues left unsettled or conditionally resolved.

The decade-long militancy, Operation Blue Star and the PM’s assassination by her Sikh bodyguards shaped the Sikh angst. The 1984 mass killings of Sikhs, especially in Delhi, scarred the Sikh psyche. The SAD, under Parkash Singh Badal, by aligning with the BJP, managed to bridge the communal divide. After his demise in 2023, the SAD has been reduced to a family enterprise with a Panthic veneer. The wooing of Dera Sacha Sauda head Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh by getting the Sikh clergy to pardon his blasphemous conduct was the last straw. The BJP, too, is pampering him in Haryana, with parole being granted leniently. Electoral benefit, not Sikh sentiments, takes precedence.

The SAD-BJP romance ended mainly over differences regarding the handling of the farmers’ agitation in protest against the three Central farm laws. The BJP, instead of addressing the rural distress and the farming crisis in Punjab and Haryana, is adopting a divide-and-win policy.

It began with former CM Capt Amarinder Singh and the Dhindsa family being lured by the BJP. While the Dhindsas reversed course, Congress leaders like Manpreet Singh Badal and Sunil Jakhar joined the BJP. Their collective influence, the BJP’s urban Hindu support and the dera-guided Dalit vote were expected to enhance the BJP’s political prospects in Punjab.

The latest entrant is former diplomat Taranjit Singh Sandhu as the BJP’s Amritsar candidate. The BJP hopes to capitalise on the legacy of his grandfather Teja Singh Samundri, who died in custody in 1926, resisting British interference in Sikh gurdwara management. Historically, Punjab has memorialised martyrs like Samundri, but punished those collaborating with perceived oppressors.

Amritpal Singh’s sudden ascendance, followed by his arrest and now his candidature from Khadoor Sahib seat lead to the question: Is he the inheritor of the Samundri legacy or is it the grandson?

Punjab’s problems are self-evident, but no party is comprehensively discussing solutions. They range from debt-caused rural distress, unsustainable farming, fragmented landholdings, joblessness, massive youth migration, lack of inbound investment in sustainable manufacturing, environmental stress and drug addiction. The export of agricultural or horticultural produce is a recurrent proposal. However, no system exists to facilitate it. The talk of reviving trade routes to Central Asia ignores the BJP’s aggressive policy on Pakistan.

Simply bringing private entrepreneurs to lift the produce will create imbalanced profiteering by some in select districts. I have known MA Yusuff Ali of the LuLu Group since his pre-billionaire days in the late 1990s. He is a shrewd trader, now aiding the BJP electorally by promising procurement from Punjab.

Punjab needs a cooperative network for food procurement and export, like the Anand dairy cooperative which procures, processes and markets produce. They introduce modern techniques and deliver services that individual members can neither afford nor manage. The Abu Dhabi proposal for the India-UAE Food Sector Corridor was announced in February 2022, with an outlay of $7 billion. India amended the Essential Commodities Act to allow ‘contract farming’ and supply chains for export. The UAE budgeted $2 billion for a food park to supply onions, rice and bananas. But the first big investment is going to Gujarat, with Madhya Pradesh also a beneficiary. Why have the northern states been ignored?

This proposal assumes the collaboration of the US and Israel under the four-nation I2U2 format. But Israel’s Gaza misadventure degrades its viability as a partner. The same factors also threaten the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor.

The perils of dependence on individual businessmen or a single export destination are demonstrated by the fate of Himachal Pradesh’s apple growers. ‘Contract farming’ needs guidelines and oversight to protect farmers. Punjab requires the political wisdom of Partap Singh Kairon. During his eight-year tenure, he established Punjab Agricultural University ahead of the Green Revolution, anticipating a demand for trained agricultural scientists.

Punjabis must introspect before voting. Outside the Hindi-belt states, regional parties have flourished. The SAD once performed that role. Historically, Punjabis resist autocracy and reject communalism. Let their instincts again guide them. This election is to save India, as envisaged by its founding fathers. Saving Punjab is a project for after June 4.