The Battle For Amritsar

 The Maharaja of Patiala coolly surveys the lands stretching before his SUV. We are in Amritsar city Punjab with the Congress’ Lok Sabha candidate Capt Amarinder Singh, racing down airport road to his next public meeting. Dark clouds gather above as the ex-CM's entourage leaves Radisson hotel. Singh, whose party hasn’t ruled Punjab for seven years, explains how he, a Patiala man, has landed among Ambarsarias.

“So, I was on the phone with Sonia Gandhi six weeks ago. The party had earlier wanted me to campaign everywhere in Punjab, but then she personally asked me to fight from Amritsar,” says he.

“Kaptaan Sa’ab”, as Singh is known in these parts, keeps the idea behind his choice of a seat simple, but there's not an iota of doubt that he's here to put up a big fight against the BJP's candidate Arun Jaitley. Indeed, Amarinder’s leaving Patiala reflects the Gandhi parivar’s anger against Jaitley. To ‘fix’ him they’ve sacrificed Patiala. 

Singh, accordingly, keeps one eye on 2014 while firing relentless salvoes against the Akali-BJP “mismanagement” of Amritsar. He roars against “that Majithia,” a reference to powerful and charismatic state revenue minister Bikram Singh Majithia, known to be Jaitley’s ally in Amritsar. “Majithia’s accused of trafficking drugs. Still they carry on shamelessly,” Singh says. 

The strong anti-incumbency factor will turn in Congress' favour, Singh’s colleagues say. Besides, he's a Jat-Sikh, like over 65 per cent of Amritsar, perhaps another clear advantage. 

When two warlike chieftains clash—and this Hollywood has firmly established—they first shake hands, only then let fly their poison-tipped arrows, as if to say, “It's nothing personal.” But in Amritsar, no such luck. Singh exudes Bollywoodian confidence as he rests one elbow on a plump floral pillow, talking all the while. Admit it he won’t, but as they say, every child in all Amritsar knows the dogged, ambitious, undoubtedly powerful BJP satrap from Delhi is no pushover. "Oh Jaitley doesn't know what's hit him," counters Amarinder, while clouds rumble overhead. 

And no, there is no Modi wave in Amritsar, he claims. "Ever since the BJP announced his candidature, Modi's image has been slipping. In Punjab there's no room for his polarising, communal politics," Singh blasts on. There's no AAP wave either, not even a wavelet. The murmurs of "silent" or "underground" support for AAP, if true, will only "split the BJP-Akali vote bank". 

Just then the drive is over, the convoy halts at a large-ish makeshift stage. It is just 6 PM, but much darker, as clouds and lightening rumble overhead. A large crowd has gathered which jostles, pushes, cheers and waves constantly. Just as the leaders finish their descent up the stairs, the heavens open. The tent tears off its moorings, everybody is drenched. The Maharaja is forced to retreat. 

Arun Jaitely

The BJP camp in Amritsar, 2014 is ground zero for Jaitley’s new aspiration: being an elected leader. It isn't immediately clear why he's been sent here by the BJP either; other than the fact that he's a Punjabi. His party landed him the ticket after Navjot Siddhu was denied one, amidst rumblings of some kind of despair settling upon his relations with the Akalis. It's Jaitley's first shot at Lok Sabha elections and he's confronting an unfortunate rivulet of Siddhu-remorse: the people of Amritsar may not have propelled the cricketer-politician to victory, but they feel sorry for him now that he's been denied. Jaitley says that isn't so. "Everybody in the party stands by my candidature," he says, exuding some of the "now or never" air that has been the hallmark of BJP's election campaign for the last seven-odd months. It’s now or never. Now or never, BJP's billboards in Amritsar seem to declare. The BJP’s campaign is definitely more visible than the Congress’ or Amarinder, who rued he couldn't even have the party flag fluttering on his own SUV. So strict are the election commission's rules that the campaign here is decidedly low key, hurting the challengers a little more than the incumbent. 

Besides, from the BJP's billboards looms Narendra Modi, the party’s PM candidate, whose larger than life presence is the talk of the town everywhere, though not in Amritsar. On the 25th, Jaitley's last day of campaigning, Modi will address Amritsar, presumably to change the mood in favour of #AbkibaarModisarkaar. 
In short, against Kaptaan's icy darts and 'thet Punjabiyat', Jaitley is marching the party’s biggest gun into Amritsar, as an ally and partner. 

"Oh there is a Modi wave in Punjab, you'll see it everywhere soon," Jaitley tells me the following day, which has turned out to be bright and sunny. "The Modi-Jaitley combination is going to see a massive surge in coming days," he says. His aides tell me the party is doing well in Amritsar's villages but not so great—yet—in the city. "It'll pick up very soon there too," one says, confidently. 

Jaitley is fielding tough lobs from the Congress, a not-so-enjoyable part of being a mass leader. "I have such a discourteous rival. This Amarinder's really a vicious man," Jaitley says. To his credit, Jaitley’s own barbs are directed against the Congress' lacklustre performance. "They've given us nothing but corruption, fraud," he tells a gathering of mostly women. 

So far, Amarinder has accused Jaitley of many things—being "cold", an "outsider", a "pseudo-Punjabi", a "convent girl", whose Punjabi isn't that great, who brought supporters from outside Amritsar, whom "nobody knows ". Incredibly, Singh attacked Jaitley for involving famous personalities in his campaign the very day cricketer Bishen Singh Bedi sat next to the Maharaja, pledging support to his candidature. "I'm here to extend my support to Kaptaan Sa'ab. He's a good man who will lead Amritsar well," Bedi said. 

Jaitley takes most of this on the chin. Indeed, who doesn't get family and friends to rally around during an election, he counters. At least, this is how one friend of Jaitley sees it. "We're not best friends or anything but we've known each other as lawyers for many years. This time he needs us and we're here," says Sangram Patnaik, managing partner at a law firm in Lajpat Nagar, Delhi. This is Patnaik's second visit to Amritsar since Jaitley's candidature. He's accompanied by several others, including one who whispers about why Jaitley’s previous meeting had many women attendees. "They were wives of addicts and daily-wage labourers. They've taken charge of affairs in this area as the husbands cannot," he says, the BJP’s lotus blooming on his shirt. 

A star cast has indeed rolled out for Jaitley in Amritsar, including Gautam Ghambir the cricketer, Chandigarh BJP candidate Kirron Kher and her husband Anupam, the actor, Suhel Seth (who's been tweeting), senior advocate Maninder Singh and party members Meenakshi Lekhi, and the new Muslim face of the BJP, national spokesperson MJ Akbar. The last was, incidentally, grilled all over again by the local media over his past criticism of the BJP and Sangh parivar. "Yes but I have criticised many others. My support for the BJP is support for the idea that Muslims must progress along with all others, not get left behind," he says. 

"Our party's candidate from Muzaffarnagar, Sanjiv Baliyan, is also in Amritsar campaigning for me," says Jaitley. 

No doubt the line-up is an undoubted sign of Jaitley's own clout and significance within the BJP, his closeness with Modi no secret. But in Amritsar, this is a double-edged sword. The ennui and frustration North Indians display towards the UPA, is also targeted at the the CM of Punjab Parkash Singh Badal and his son Sukhbir, the deputy CM, face in Punjab.

A Sikh businessman, who described himself as a "hard-core Akali" said in his next breath that he wishes the "BJP loses". The angst is palpable. In a market opposite the Jallianwala Bagh, another Sikh dry-fruit trader, Sahib Singh, says he thinks there is a "Congress wave in Amritsar." His helper, a young Hindu man, pipes up too. "Oh it's not like they (BJP) built the temple either," he says, referring to the BJP's assurance of a Ram Mandir at Ayodhya's disputed Babri masjid site. The trader gently shoos his help away at this point. "Go away, we don't talk like this here," he says. Sahib Singh and his family moved to Amritsar in the wake of 1984 violence against Sikhs, from Banaras. The irony of the #AbkibaarModisarkaar campaign in his new adoptive town isn't lost on him, while Modi himself campaigns in the Hindu holy city. 

Many youngsters of Amritsar say they'd rather not vote for the "leader who is throwing out Sikh farmers from Gujarat." They do, however, want "change", only they can't say what it will change for them. The resounding verdict seems to be in favour of more jobs, industrialisation and better education. 

One young Muslim who makes and sells musical instruments near the city's walled centre says there is a Modi wave which will work in Jaitley's favour. "What can I say? Yeh kalyug hai. Log kehte kuch hain, karte kuch aur hain. They'll all vote for Modi here," he says. 

Stranger still, people in the city and neighbouring villages of Amritsar constantly hint about the "terror" they fear if they vote against Akalis. "God only knows who will be arrested on what charges when," says the young Akali businessman. His line of work, "flex" advertising banners, has steadily gone into the hands of “real” Badal supporters, he claims. “Everything is so much under the Badal clan’s control that hardly any business comes my way. The EC's anti-advertising directives are making things worse," he says. 

This “fear” is something Amarinder Singh is quick to latch on to. He promises to withdraw a recent change in Punjab laws, which made the police accountable to the political class. "Of course they politicised the forces. The Akalis will pay a price for it in 2017, the BJP right now in 2014. People live in constant fear of arrest," he says. 

The sight of young men being led into thaanaas and prisons isn't unusual at all in Amritsar, or maybe Friday was just a bad day for many. Those arrested are, of course, often drug addicts or dealers: arrests are a big part of how Punjab is dealing with the crisis. 

But Jaitley, too, promises "change". And it’s not just Modi but a combination of his native Punjabiyat, plus the added advantage of having a BJP-ruled centre that he's wooing voters with. "Don't take one bag of wheat to give your vote. One bag won't last five years. Vote to make me the voice of Amritsar in Delhi. I'll make sure your projects are approved through my term," he assures people in a steady but urgent manner. 

The Jaitley campaign is indeed star-studded, but the real attraction for Amritsar folks is what the leaders will do about the property tax imposed by the Badal rule. Till now, people here paid none and Jaitley's promising a severe re-draft, so that it won’t hurt any more. It’s yet to become the rallying cry behind his campaign though. 

Arvind Kejriwal campaigning for Dr Daljit Singh

In Jhandiala, a large village right next to Amritsar, which falls in the Khadur Sahib constituency, there's more signs of discontent brewing against the Badal regime and the UPA's misgovernance at the centre. Here, on a blistering hot Sunday morning, "Bhai" Baldeep Singh, the local AAP candidate is holding a rally. "For the first time, a party is not saying the country is its personal property. We are here saying, vote with your hands on your heart. Don't be afraid. Vote for the broom," he says into a microphone. Daljit, a young boy wearing an AAP cap says he "loves" AAP but he'll vote for whoever his parents ask him to. 

As the rally passes through Valmiki chowk, a gaggle of labourers waiting to be picked up join the flurry of the cheering broom-wielding crowd. There are fewer than 100 marching, so we stop to ask the workers, who don’t join in, if they plan to "vote for the broom". "How can we decide whom to vote for, especially a new party," says Harjit Singh. "You need a full stomach before you can speak up," says Karm Singh. The workers complain they haven't found work for weeks, since the building and construction has all but halted. "It's the Badal regime—they stopped people from digging land below 2 feet. Now there's no sand or it’s so expensive we can't find enough work. Nor can we repair our homes," says Balwinder Singh. 

The situation is partly a result of rulings against illegal mining, but, locals say, it has hurt the poorest most. "Earlier, the wealthy would just give us bags of sand. Now they too treat it like gold," says Vikka Singh. 

The combined effect of policing with a heavy hand, increased drug trafficking over the last seven-odd years and poor employment options has got both BJP and Congress against the wall—people are really talking, in whispers, about AAP. 

AAP's Amritsar candidate is Dr Daljit Singh, who, at 80, suddenly confronted the vast disparity in his city. He is not hoping to "win", he says—“just give a very big fight”. He has the reputation of being a nice man, but also a wealthy doctor who "never gave discounts" through his illustrious career. It's a charge he doesn't deny. "I never looked outside my own world until I joined Kejriwal a few weeks ago," he admits in his Amritsar home, a more-than-comfortable bungalow in a colony off Company Bagh. He says people are afraid to voice support for AAP openly—they fear they might propel the BJP to victory if the AAP takes away Congress’ voters. He says there is a "silent support" that will show up only when people find themselves safely alone in polling booths. 

We find one silent supporter, a government employee, who can obviously not speak out openly in any party's favour. "I'm a big, big supporter of AAP though they made a big mistake by quitting government in Delhi," he tells me. He gathered donations for the party here a few weeks ago—Rs.11,500.

Ramakant, an electrician from UP, with a vote in Amritsar city, says he, too, is part of AAP's silent supporters. His grouse is the economic policies followed by the centre and state. "I work 24 hours, on three shifts just to make ends meet. How long will this continue," he says. He has prior experience with elections and once even tried contesting in UP. He, too, resists declaring his liking for AAP. 

I ask Jaitley what he thinks of the allegations against BJP's alliance partner, especially Majithia. "It's nothing," he says. He doesn't think the charges are valid as it’s a national election, being fought on the development plank. 

Indeed, both the BJP and Congress know they stand a good chance among their core voters. There are plenty in the countryside who swear allegiance to either side. The AAP, both Amarinder and Jaitley say, will spoil the other's vote share, not their own. 

Indeed, the People's Party of Punjab ( PPP) had floated itself as an alternative to the Akali Dal, but that only propelled the incumbents back to power. Now, the Congress has PPP on its side, BJP is roping in religious and Sikh sects, and both claim Christians are with them. But the new AAP factor is pushing at their seams from outside Amritsar. AAP itself estimates “surprise” verdicts in Sangrur, Gurdaspur, Anantpur Sahib, Firozpur in its favour. Amritsar, though not on that list of surprises, is still a mystery and a tight match: It's anybody's guess which way the "floating" voters of Amritsar will go, and who'll command this big, diverse district, filled with unrest in equal measure.