In The Saddle, Once Again

PARKASH Singh Badal (71) is a man in a hurry, no doubt. As a 10-man cabinet— eight Akali Dal, two B J P— was being sworn in at the Mohali cricket stadium on Febru a ry 12, Badal moved in to mingle with the crowd even as the national anthem played. His critics called it a case of "morning showing the day", an act that brought back afresh the image of Badal burning the Constitution years ago. But a cross-section of opinion calls his coming the triumph of moderate politics in Punjab after the bitter phase of terrorism and communal splits.

The Akali-BJP alliance got an unprecedented 93 seats in the 117-member state assembly— 75 Akali and 18 BJP, with a combined 46 per cent vote. The Congress, which got a walk-over in the 1992 assembly polls because of an Akali boycott, saw its share trimmed to 14 seats. And, it managed only 26.44 per cent votes, as against the 35.12 per cent it polled in the Lok Sabha election just 10 months ago. Such a scenario was largely guaranteed by the outgoing regime’s unpopularity and the lack of credible alliances among the non BJP-Akali parties.

"Badal’s ‘walking off in a huff’ when the national anthem was being played was at best an act of mindless impatience, it was certainly not intended to show disrespect," says a cabinet  colleague. He recalls that Badal had even refused to refer to the Anandpur Sahib resolution during this campaign, barring a couple of times when prompted by the media. "Badal has been restored to power constitutionally, and he respects that constitution." After he was sworn in as chief minister after a gap of 17 years, his first words were emphatic: " We’ll work to restore civil liberties and rule of law. "

In the first phase of his cabinet-making, Badal has chosen those with known administrative skills and avoided the tainted ones. Further proof of his moderate politics: six of his Akali ministers are broadly classified as "moderates", the only "hardliner" is Sardar Prakash Singh Majitha.

Also, despite the Akalis notching up two-third majority on their own, Badal accommodated the BJP as per the pre-poll understanding. When the cabinet is expanded to its full strength (Badal says he’ll keep it at 25), the BJP will have at least five of its nominees there. The only surprise is that state party chief Balramji Das Tandon has not been made deputy chief minister, as announced by Akali leader G.S. Tohra.

"We are not going to make it an issue. It’s the chief minister’s prerogative to decide his cabinet," says BJP Vice President Madan Lal Khurana. The BJP has reason to feel obliged: 18 out of its 22 candidates won, giving it a vote-share of 8.39 per cent.

The alliance was helped by a division in its opponents’ vote when the Congress-Bahujan Samaj Party alignment bid came unstuck. Consequently, it was also proved that the BSP can’t take its vote-bank for granted (see box). The BJP-Akali alliance, which has the Hindu traders and the Jat Sikh farmers as its natural constituency, seemed to have won over a sizeable Dalit chunk.

"A reasonable seat-sharing tie-up would have given the Congress and the BSP an additional 18 seats," says Pramod Kumar, director, Institute of Development and Communication. The BSP, the main opposition party in the last assembly, ended up with a lone seat.

THE Akali Dal rode on a populist approach, promising to waive off farm loans and supply power free to farmers," says Kewal Kishan, finance minister in the outgoing regime. If fulfilled, the cost to the state exchequer will be around Rs 500 crore, he points out. Plus, there will be similar demands from other sectors.

"Yes, we were not quite prepared for the poll. I took over as the PCC chief on December 7, and the poll was announced on December 22," says S.S. Randhawa. Some partymen accuse Chief Election Commissioner M.S. Gill of having "favoured the Akalis" by announcing the poll before Rajinder Kaur Bhattal had a chance to buoy her chances with any kind of programme. "Badal and Gill are old friends. Gill was Badal’s principal secretary when he became chief minister in 1977," they add.

However, the Congress allegation looks more like an excuse than a serious postmortem, or a credible plan for the future. Kishan says the Congress needs to take the initiative for a broader and secular front that includes the Left if the ruling equation—" largely communal in nature"— has to be combated.

With a weak government at the Centre, the alliance need not fear any repeat of Indira Gandhi’s tactics in the ’80s. Much depends on whether the Akali regime can minimise SGPC interference. "On our part, we’ll be sincere in protecting the alliance. Our main effort will be to tell people that the Hindu-Sikh rift of the last decade was an aberration," says Tandon.

There were murmurs of a different sort in the lower echelons of the BJP and the RSS. "The Hindu population is on the decline. From 47 per cent in 1966, it’s down to 35 now. The Sikh population has gone up to 66 per cent from 52 in the same period, largely due to conversions during the terrorism phase," points out a leader.

However, the coming together of the BJP and the Akalis might be a positive factor, socially speaking. "The two contested as Punjabis— not as Sikhs and Hindus," says Pramod Kumar. In these polarisationprone days, that’s the area where the alliance will face its true test: maintenance of law and order and social harmony, not short-term populist schemes.