PUNJAB CONGRESS DISPLAYS ITS EXPERTISE AT SELF-GOAL ONCE AGAIN

Here is a party in Punjab that is not taken seriously and that too by its own leaders. During the last few years, the Congress in the state has acquired the expertise at self-goal and this was again at full display as a party delegation met President Pranab Mukherjee to submit him a memorandum demanding the dismissal of Parkash Singh Badal in Punjab on various counts with focus on none.
However, what made news about this ill-planned move was not the content of the memorandum the party submitted to the President but the composition of the delegation itself. The composition exhibited vertical division in the party and that too when Rahul Gandhi is trying hard to rejuvenate the demoralised Congress rank and file. What characterised the delegation was complete boycott by the faction, mainly comprising majority of the MLAs, associated with former chief minister Capt. Amarinder Singh. This faction has consistently been pressing Rahul for change in state party leadership. In the process it is the party that is getting vanquished from the state as Rahul has so far failed to take any decisive action despite having interaction with all the MLAs and other leaders.
The delegation included AICC general secretaries Shakeel Ahmed who is also incharge of Punjab affairs in Delhi and Ambika Soni whose name frequently crops up as alternative to state party chief Partap Singh Bajwa. The only other senior leader from Punjab who reached Delhi yesterday was former chief minister Rajinder Kaur Bhattal who is also ambitious of getting another chance.
Going by the present situation, the Congress is in an utterly hopeless situation in which it can’t even put up a semblance of fight. In case Shiromani Akali Dal chief and Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal does not commit some big blunder, the field is open to his party as there is no adversary. However, a leader once he becomes all powerful also gets prone to committing bloomers, particularly if once shuts himself or herself to grassroots reality. Unfiltered information becomes a casualty in the process. But then it is for the leader to exercise his or her choice of style of functioning.
Sukhbir has the reputation of being a strategist despite the fact he failed to assess the situation in the last Lok Sabha election and that too in Bathinda from where his wife Harsimrat Kaur Badal was seeking a second term, forget Amritsar. But then it was again his strategy that saved the situation. To the close observers of the situation in the state, indications are already available that he is unlikely to take any chance and has already started implementing his plan of action.
The level of anti-incumbency is very high but then this is what he is already taking care of.Sanjay Singh, who is looking after the affairs of the Aam Aadmi Party in the state and is presently leading awareness campaign, today claimed that the party would repeat Delhi in Punjab. However, the party lacks any functional organisational set up which, he said, would be put in place within the next three months. AAP in Punjab is afflicted by the same virus as the Congress. There are too many chief ministerial candidates, each projecting himself as an autonomous unit. A section of the state executive committee recently recommended to Arvind Kejriwal to replace Sucha Singh Chhotepur as the state convenor as he is not cut out for such a big responsibility.AAP suffers from the lack of an effective state level leader and even its MPs have failed to have any impact. The people now feel cheated.The Badal government yesterday decided to burden the people with additional tax burden of about Rs 1400 crore including 5 per cent cess on power bills which would hit the people across the board. The problem with the Akali Dal is that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has failed to come to the rescue of the Badal government. Whatever criticism was there was at the level of issuing a routine statement.Sukhbir is talking of transforming Punjab into California. However, this was the slogan that his father and Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal gave in the run up to the Assembly elections in 1997. To refresh his memory, it can be mentioned that the refrain used to be that a plane load of fresh vegetables would take off daily from Amritsar international airport for European markets and such initiatives would change the face of the state which had suffered much during militancy. The people trusted him but he failed them. The plane did not approach even the runway, what to talk of taking off.Sukhbir says he is a dreamer and it is good to be a dreamer but these dreams have to be translated into realty. He should not make a fresh start from where his father left-California dream.He seems to be lucky as at present, there is no challenge to him. It is to be seen as how effective organisational set up AAP comes up with. The Congress has written itself off.