Notes on Punjab Politics

 

The events at the Red Fort and other parts of Delhi in the guise of farmer protests have brought the spotlight back on to the politics as it exists in Punjab. There is no doubt, a rising clamour for the arrest and crackdown of the farmer’s movements or at least the movement that is going on in the name of farm laws. The protest leaders might be busy disowning the actions at the Red Fort but cannot absolve themselves of the responsibility of their actions which led to this fracas. The protestors might have the backing of the media and the opposition parties, each wanting to hit back at the Modi government for their own reasons, but their agenda seems to be suffering a setback. However, the setback might not be visible in Punjab as it would be perhaps in Haryana or Rajasthan or Uttar Pradesh. There is very distinct Sikh identity to the current protests and thus the events would reinforce the perception that Sikh and Khalistani agenda in specific was the real agenda of the protest groups. While all might not be in favour of Khalistan, whose romance is more in Western countries like Canada or UK, there is a small vocal section that wants it to come back to the mainstream agenda. The support among the younger age groups especially the Jat Sikh radicals seems more pronounced. The younger generation has not seen the violence that engulfed Punjab and the disaster it created whose aftereffects last even today and therefore they perhaps find it more appealing.

 

The crackdown is what they anticipate and their agenda at the Delhi border is to provoke police firing and carrying back the dead bodies home to Punjab. This agenda is not very different from that seen in the early part of the 1980s. Punjab Sikh radicals are obstinate and given the support of the clergy, it is very difficult to crack them down. Yet, to the farm groups, it is virtually the bridges have been burned. They cannot turn back unless they are ready to face irrelevancy besides humiliation. They would seemingly want to avoid the fate of Master Tara Singh who started a hunger strike demanding a separate Punjabi subah, later compromised with PM Nehru and found himself unwanted back home in Punjab. He died a broken man in obscurity. In the early 1980s, there were constant talks with Akalis. Yet at every moment, when there seemed to be a breakthrough, the Haryana interests came prominent and the talks failed. Each of these breakdowns in talks gave Bhindranwale an opportunity to taunt the Akalis. To Bhindranwale, these demonstrated the attitude of what he called Indians towards the Sikh interests. He castigated the Akali leadership as pawns of Delhi ecosystem led by Indira Gandhi. This made Akalis more and more weak and made them walk directly into the trap laid by Bhindranwale.

 

Yet at every moment in history, the backlash from Punjab has to be countered from someone their own. To Modi, the difficulty lies in the government at the state being of the Congress. Furthermore, there is hardly any leader within the BJP who could set the narrative within the state or at least counter the narrative putting the ball back into the court of the Sikh clergy and the farm protest groups. There is no doubt, wide sections who are unhappy with dominance of certain caste groups within the state, yet the stranglehold of the clergy and agro-intermediaries make them powerless. The rise of Christian missionary activities as also the popularity of the Deras in some ways could be linked to the power calculus within the social networks and the subsequent impact on the political ecosystem.

 

The current political set up is a fight between the Congress and the Akalis with AAP being the third party that is seeking to make a headway. Each of these forces need the support of the agro-interests and thus would want to play to their gallery. Furthermore, they have their own interests in the sector which is going to be disrupted by the new laws. therefore, to many in these parties, it is something driven by self-interest than anything else. There is apparently strong constituency especially in the Malwa belt looking for the third option and this was where AAP made a headway in the elections of 2014 and 2016. Interestingly, it was the fear of Khalistani resurgence, thanks to AAP flirting with them, that made Congress get Hindu vote as also the moderate Sikh vote. The Akali regime was drowned in corruption, nepotism and discredited. While some ground might have been regained, they still are far way off. The AAP flirting with the Khalistani vote would prove to be a dampner to their interests in the Doab and Majha regions. There is a good possibility, that farm groups if they form a political force might actually gain votes at the expense of the AAP as also Akalis. The Congress under Captain can afford to run with hares while hunting with the hounds since they are likely to get the Hindu vote as also the moderate Sikh and non-Jat Sikh groups. The BJP is not present barring pockets of urban areas of Doab-Majha region and this is where it hits them badly.

 

Punjab at this moment needs an insurrection against the agro-intermediary interests. It needs some counter movement against the powerful Sikh clergy whose interests do not extend beyond a narrow sectarian groups. They can afford to turn blind eye on Christian missionary activities since they do not consider the Dalit or OBC Sikhs as Sikhs proper. The scenario is very similar as compared to their Islamic counterparts across the border. There was a movement against the vested interests in agriculture in Bengal arising from Naxalbari which engulfed the country and lives till date through naxal activities. Punjab perhaps is awaiting its own moment of overthrowing interests entrenched since the Green Revolution of the late 1960s. Each system spawns a structure that would create a counter-structure. The counter-structure or the anti-structure is what is absent in Punjab today. There might be undercurrents but that remains beneath the surface.

 Punjab politics definitely is yearning for a third force. The success of AAP albeit mixed does portend towards the same. At the same time, the increasing divide between Sikhs and Hindus too is real something amplified post the terror and violence of 1980s. While the conventional wisdom of Sikh Hindu unity does pervade around, the current social structures in the Sikh community revolves around the Abrahamic tenets than its Hindu roots. Yet, there is a clamour for reform. Punjab at this moment needs an unorthodox movement that would break it away from its past. Punjab is steeped in the past, lost industrial base, lacks tourism barring Amritsar, services sector has not taken off even in Chandigarh to the extent expected, agriculture is increasingly subject to diminishing returns, environmental degradation is rampant, health issues like cancer and drugs pervade the society, is driven by remittances who romanticise of an independent Khalistan. The time definitely is of something radical departure being attempted. Someone needs to bite the bullet. Till such time, one has to just await for that bullet.