Anandpur Sahib; Manish Tewari has an edge
Saturday, 18/05/2019
https://www.brightpunjabexpress.com/index.php/2019/05/17/anandpur-sahib-manish-tewari-has-an-edge/
Anandpur Sahib : Anandpur Sahib parliamentary constituency is unique in itself. Named after the place of the birth of Khalsa, one of the five ‘Takhats’ (religious seats), Shri Keshgarh Sahib is situated here. Another religiously important constituency, Chamkaur Sahib, where the Tenth Master’s two sons, Sahibzada Ajit Singh and Sahibzada Jujhar Singh laid down their young lives fighting the mighty Mughals, also falls within this parliamentary constituency. That makes it religiously very important and as Akali Dal candidate Prem Singh Chandumajra asserts, “panthic”. Still the constituency may in all likelihood elect, whom Chandumajra would describe as a non-panthic candidate, Manish Tewari, who though claims that his DNA is as panthic as anybody else’s. However, the demographics suggest a different story, as there are more Hindus/non-Sikhs in the parliamentary constituency than the Sikhs. Congress candidate Manish Tewari maintains a distance from the issue, asserting that all the 13 constituencies or “panthic” in Punjab. “Each one of us is an adherent follower of the panthic principles irrespective of our religious identities and my DNA is as panthic as anybody’s else”, he says, while asserting, “from Mr Chandumajra’s point of view, I am the best candidate suited for the constituency as my mother was a Jat Sikh and my father was a Hindu and an acknowledged Punjabi scholar”.
Chandumajra started targeting Tewari as an “outsider”. However, after Tewari countered saying, he (Chandumajra) was himself from Patiala, while he was from Chandigarh, the Akali candidate changed the track and started emphasizing and asserting his “panthic” identity. He has been candidly saying that since Anandpur Sahib is a panthic constituency, Tewari (a Hindu) did not have any right to contest from here. Exclusive panthic narrative is not finding much resonance for the Akali candidate in the constituency. It may not yield the required dividends for Chandumajra also for the reason that Tewari’s four top campaigners are Sikhs only. They include Balbir Singh Sidhu, Jagmohan Singh Kang, Charanjit Singh Channi and Birinder Dhillon. Tewari initially tried to build up his campaign narrative on development and he claims that he is still sticking to it. “But if someone tries to create the imaginary binaries like panthic and non-panthic one is bound to respond”, he defends himself after referring to Chandumajra’s past. The Congress candidate alleged that Chandumajra had an extremist past and was jailed under terrorist laws in 1987 immediately after the dismissal of the Barnala government in which he was a minister. “It is not the fight between panthic and non-panthic, rather it is a fight between someone who was jailed for terrorism and someone who is a victim of terrorism as my father was assassinated in April 1984”, Tewari says.
Given the wide demographic diversity, probably unique to this constituency, Tewari has managed well to connect with the people here, who belong to the as diverse communities as the Gujjars, the Sainis, the Ravi Dasias, the Mazhabi Sikhs, Hindu and Sikh Rajputs, Jatt Sikhs and upper caste Hindus. While Chandumajra tried to build up the panthic narrative, Tewari mostly stuck to the development promising to bring in Rs 50,000 crores during the coming five years which will lead to creation of five lakh jobs. That has got him a decisive edge over his ‘panthic’ rival.
