From B.K. Chum in Chandigarh
The downslide in governance continues in Punjab. It started within a fortnight of the Akali-BJP government’s assuming power when the ruling Akali leaders and the clergy launched a campaign for staying the execution of Balwant Singh Rajoana, killer of former Chief Minister Beant Singh. Their utterances whipped up religious and communal tensions and turned the terrorism issue into a religious and political issue.
The downslide was then reflected by the award of five years rigorous imprisonment by Special CBI court to former SGPC chief Bibi Jagir Kaur for the illegal confinement and forcible abortion of her daughter Harpreet Kaur. It forced her to resign from the cabinet but she was given the VVIP treatment in the jail.
The latest dip in governance is in the politico-legislative arena with the government violating the Constitutional provision of limiting the size of ministry to 15 per cent of the strength of the House and appointing 21 Chief Parliamentary Secretaries. Of the 68 ruling coalition’s MLAs – 56 Akalis and 12 BJP – 18 have been adjusted as ministers and 21 as Chief Parliamentary Secretaries. The roused ambitions of the remaining 29 unadjusted MLAs may force the ruling leadership to appoint most, if not all of them, as Chairmen of Boards and Corporations of the Public Sector Undertakings numbering 66.
The adage that “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely” is perhaps not applicable to the decision to provide ministerial berths to 57 per cent of the ruling coalition’s MLAs. But the appointment of 21 Chief Parliamentary Secretaries is nothing but the needless extension of the ruling leadership’s favourite populism of sops to the legislative field as the government neither faces any challenge from the opposition nor is there any likelihood, in the foreseeable future, of a revolt in the ruling coalition parties.
The alliance partners should, in fact, feel happy at the ailing state of the Congress after its debacle in the Assembly elections. The defeat has sharpened the factional fight in the opposition party and united the PCC president Capt. Amarinder Singh opponents. They are demanding his sack from party presidentship. The last few days goings on, however, indicate that Amarinder’s adversaries demand may not find favour with the party high command for understandable reasons.
A General has to suffer the ignominy for his army’s defeat. Amarinder Singh, therefore, must accept the moral responsibility for the party’s electoral debacle. There is now virtual unanimity on the reasons for the defeat. These include Amarinder Singh’s faulty style of functioning, his inaccessibility and dependence on a small coterie of advisers, wrong distribution of tickets, presence of large number of rebels who were said to have been financed by the Akali Dal President and Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh, some allegedly through a recently promoted high police officer, and finally the leadership’s complacency as it was over-confident of winning the elections.
Despite these defaults, there are, however, factors that may help Amarinder Singh to continue as PCC president. The most important is that unlike him none of those demanding his ouster enjoys state-wide mass support. Nor do they have the PCC Chief’s fighting capabilities to take on the Akalis. They are in a microscopic minority. On the other hand, the past few days developments have shown that these qualities have helped Amarinder Singh to get support of an overwhelming majority of the party’s MLAs and its district units. More importantly, he seems to still enjoy the backing of the central leadership. Rahul Gandhi last week told his detractors that for the party’s defeat the state leadership was collectively responsible. If for Rahul Gandhi “Peace is the skillful management of conflict”, Amarinder Singh should follow Disraeli’s advice that “There is no education like adversity.”
Besides the downslide in political governance, the Akali-BJP government faces major challenge of economic governance.
Once the country’s most prosperous state, Punjab is now virtually on the brink of bankruptcy first because of the adverse effects of the 15 year long terrorism and then the policies of freebies and sops followed by successive governments, particularly the Parkash Singh Badal-led Akali Dal-BJP government.
The state’s treasury is now empty. The Finance Minister admitted in the Assembly that over Rs.1000 crore bills are pending in the state treasury. The subsidy bill for free power to farmers was likely to touch Rs. 6,000 crore in 2012-2013. The scope of atta-dal, old age pension and shagun scheme too had been enlarged which would put additional huge burden on the exchequer. The state government agencies which procure wheat and pulses for the atta-dal scheme have expressed their inability to continue procurement due to an outstanding debt of Rs.1,400 crore which the government has failed to reimburse.
No doubt, the states, particularly Punjab which had faced the brunt of terrorism need to be provided more central funds and greater share in the taxes collected by the centre from the states. But the ruling leadership in Punjab had no answer to the charge that the state had failed to utilize large amounts of the central funds mainly because it failed to utilize most of them and for not contributing its own share to the central schemes. The government also did not mobilize additional resources to improve the state’s financial health. The strategy adopted by the Akali leadership has been to fight its electoral battles by granting sops and freebies without mobilizing additional resources but blaming the Centre for discriminating against the state in providing funds.
How the Akali-BJP government functions reminds one of what an Urdu poet had once said “Kuchh Na Samjhe Khuda Kare Koi.” (IPA Service)
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