‘Time to pass baton to younger leadership in Punjab’

Saturday, 11/08/2012

http://epaper.dailypostindia.com/Details.aspx?id=44771&boxid=58049&uid=&dat=2012-08-11

Chandigarh: Time has come for the Congress to pass the baton to younger leadership in Punjab. Inaccessible political captains and feuding leaders won’t do as restless party cadres anxiously await direction.

The Congress has lost connect with the masses and needs to reconnect. Captain Amarinder Singh alone cannot be blamed for the party’s debacle. He can still pull the party out of the present situation but he has to come out and be with the masses. And Punjab Congress leaders must close ranks and put up a united face.

This constitutes the refrain of what most top state leaders said when Daily Post spoke to them on Friday to feel their pulse. They wanted the high command to decide and act fast and get things going. Talks have been doing the rounds since the party’s debacle in the Assembly elections that Punjab Congress chief Capt Amarinder Singh may be replaced. With Congress President Sonia Gandhi expected to take a call on the leadership issue after the monsoon session of Parliament, some names have already started doing the rounds.

The most vocal among the leaders Daily Post spoke to was Gurdaspur MP Partap Singh Bajwa, whose name figures in the list of probables which goes on and on. In a free-wheeling chat, Bajwa asserted, “Time has come for the Congress to pass the baton to younger leadership, to a person who has connect with the masses at the grassroots level, who is accessible, has a public face, and is known to the cadres. Traditional old leadership should be shifted. No mainline Congress leader has gone to the masses for the last 10 to 12 years,” he said.

This opinion finds a ready echo right from the block to the state level in the Congress. Even those believed to be close to Capt Amarinder Singh feel and say that the veteran leaders need to come out of his closet and be among the masses.

Dhuri legislator Arvind Khanna said that Capt Amarinder could not be blamed for the party’s debacle. “The Congress worker is ready to fight, but he needs someone to stand behind him and in front of him,” he added.

Khanna feels the Congress made the mistake of not driving home the message that much of the money to Punjab flows from the 13 flagship programmes run by the Centre. “That does not mean we can hold Captain responsible (for the poll debacle). There are 236 block presidents; everyone from there to every MLA, is responsible. Capt Amarinder is still the tallest leader and highly respected.” Like many others, he too accepts that state leaders should bury the hatchet.

Concurs Vijay Inder Singla, Congress MP from Sangrur. “All big Punjab Congress leaders will have to sink their differences; this is the most important thing. The party workers are feeling demoralized. Their morale needs to be strengthened. This can happen only if big leaders put up a united front.”

Another leader, who did not wish to be identified, said, “At a recent PCC meeting, there were 16 office-bearers and none of them saw eye to eye on any single issue. What do you expect from the party cadres?”

Former Congress MP Rana Gurjit Singh echoes similar views. “In my view, Capt Amarinder should be allowed to continue as party chief. I can’t see anyone of his stature who can pull the party through. But he has to come out in the public and be with the masses. There are a number of issues against the Akali Government. Everyday, they are imposing some tax or the other. There is rampant misuse of the police. Sukhbir promises and talks a lot, but there is hardly anything on the ground. The morale of the Congress cadres is picking up and Sukhbir’s graph is going down. We just need to prepare well.”

Most leaders share the view that Congress leaders have lost connect with the masses. “In the last few years, the distance between senior Congress leaders and the public has increased. The people of Punjab cannot tolerate leaders who are inaccessible. This applies to party workers as well,” argues Mohinder Singh Kaypee, sitting MP from Jalandhar.

Bajwa thus sums up: “The Congress must consolidate traditional votes of Scheduled Castes and Hindus to compete with the Akalis. We have lost direction and alienated our traditional votebank. That’s why we have come down. We need to take up public issues; and there is no dearth of them”, he added.