Poll Pourri

Tytler V/s Varun Gandhi in Punjab

In Punjab, Sikh sentiments rule supreme, and no political party can afford to upset this proud, if somewhat prickly, votebank. This time around, both the Congress, and the ruling Akali Dal- BJP combine have got an ‘anti Sikh tag’ to whip each other with. If the BJP has the albatross of Varun Gandhi round its neck, the Congress is no less unburdened after having given tickets inDelhi to Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar, accused in the 1984 Sikh riots. Just as Varun was belting out his controversial speech in Pilibhit where he reportedly made derogatory remarks aboutMuslims and Sikhs in the same breath, murmurings began in Punjab about the allotment of tickets to Tytler and Sajjan Kumar.

Former Congress chief Amarinder Singh was first off the blocks with his open letter to the incumbent chief minister Prakash Singh Badal of the Akali Dal. Amarinderwants Badal to clarify his party’s stand on the issue, since Varun is from the Akali Dal’s alliance partner, the BJP. "They, (the Akalis) must know that silence means consent and they must therefore clarify as to where they stand on the issue", says he. Some radical Sikh organizations too have condemned Varun’s speech and demanded an apology. Publicly,Akali leaders are defending the BJP, taking refuge behind the argument that the CD put out by the Congress is doctored, but in private there is much unease. Note that Varun is half Sikh, as his mother Maneka Gandhi belongs to a Sikh family. His Sikh lineage could well bail him out in Punjab, because, as his mother Maneka has pointed out, "Varun cannot make any anti-Sikh remark." 

But the Congress has a more tricky problem to resolve. Justifying allotment of tickets to Tytler and Sajjan kumar, both hated figures in Punjab, islike defending the indefensible. It is an emotive issue, which can well provide thebeleaguered Akalis a potent poll plank. Tytler was forced to resign from the union cabinet following his indictment by the Nanawati Commission and the CBI court is currently recording statements of witnesses against him. The manner in which the accused in the anti Sikh riots are still running free, 25 years afterDelhi carnage of 1984, is a sore issue even with Sikhs of moderate inclinations.

Why not, Manmohan Singh from Amritsar ?

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who till about two years ago was derogatorily referred to the most"un-Sikh leader" that Punjab has exported to New Delhi, is today the darling of the electorates not only in his hometown of Amritsar but elsewhere in Punjab too. A stark change from the assembly election of February 2007, when he was forced to addresssparse crowds at Congress rallies. Today, the goodwill which the modest Sardar has earned inPunjab is so palpable that even Akali Dal supremo Prakash Singh Badal has been using Manmohan Singh’s Sikh credentials to find a way into his dwindling core Sikh vote bank. Just about a month ago, when the PM was in hospital for a heart surgery, Badal ordered ‘akhand path’ (recital of the Guru Granth Sahib) from the Golden temple and two other prominentGurudwaras of Punjab. If there is anyone who would have won hands down from the Amritsar parliamentary constituency which Navjot Singh Sidhu of the BJP, currently lords over, it is Manmohan Singh, because both Badal and Sidhu would have found it difficult to oppose him. Yet, curiously, despite Congress election managers ofPunjab asking the party’s central leadership to field him from Amritsar, Manmohan Singh has turned down the offer. If this ‘stateless politician’ who has never won a popular election in his life and prefers to sit in the Rajya Sabha, had a chance to wipe off that tag and finally become a mass leader, it was this time.Will we ever know why he declined?

The Return of Amarinder Singh

It’s a victory that most saw as inevitable. Former Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh returns to the election scene inPunjab with a bang, after a hiatus of two years. Two years spent in virtual political hibernation, shunned as he was by his party colleagues both in Punjab and the Centre. His trusted aides lost no time in ditching him as soon as the Congress lost the 2007 assembly election, and Amarinder Singh was dumped in the doghouse, given neither the appointment of PCC chief, nor leader of the opposition. But, the straight-talkingroyal knows his politics too. Come the Lok sabha elections and it is most of his chosen candidates who have been given tickets from Punjab. His rivals like Rajinder kaur Bhattal and Mohinder Singh Kaypee the new PCC chief, have both been denied the tickets they wanted badly. Bhattal for her son from Sangrur, and Kaypee from Jalandhar. Amarinder, on the other hand has managed to get oneeach for his wife from Patiala and son Raninder Singh from Bhatinda.

Incidentally, Raninder Singh will face Harsimrat Kaur, wife of deputy chief minister Sukhbir Badal. Both are first time contestants and the contest between the two leading political families of Punjab shall be bitter and hard fought.

Fiza in search of political moorings

After being dumped by her husband, Chand Mohammed aka former Haryana deputy chiefminister Chander Mohan, Fiza, who was Anuradha Bali before she and Chander Mohan converted to Islam to marry, is scouting for a suitable political outfit to take her battle with the Bhajan Lal clan to the people. Flanked by Samajwadi Party’s Haryana unit vice president Mahender Singh, at a press conference in Gurgaon, the jilted lady claimed that several political parties have offered her a ticket and that she is weighing her options. Though Chand Mohammed was known for his non performance as a minister in the Haryana Government, and had made it to the assembly only because of his father Bhajan Lal’s political influence, one wonders if his estranged second wife Fiza will be more successful in politics.

And, the monkey menace...

For the last few years, monkeys and elections have gone hand in hand in Himachal Pradesh. Led by a very vocal Kheti Bachao Sangharsh Samiti, farmers want political parties to give them a firm assurance that the huge money menace in the state will be dealt with. Around 3 lakh monkeys in the hill state destroy crores worth of standing crops of ginger, garlic and tomatoes. Shooting them down, sterilising them, and even shifting them from urban areas have all failed. Conscious of the anger of farmers in rural agricultural belts, in the 2007 assembly polls, most political parties had included the issue in their election manifestoes. But none of the methods employed by the state government to check the menace have been successful. At one time thousands of monkeys from Shimla were rounded up and released in the lower districts of Hamirpur and Sirmaur. Not only did this anger the farmers of those areas, but Shimla’s monkey population soon multiplied and regained its former numbers. The issue is once again on the radar of HP politicos. No monkeying around with this issue, this time, say the farmers.