BADALS’ ‘BLUNDERS’ HAVE HELPED ME COME BACK: BAJWA
Tuesday, 05/05/2015
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From a Punjab Congress chief on the defensive as his own party MLAs and leaders led by Capt Amarinder Singh revolted against him, Partap Singh Bajwa has bounced back streetfighting the ruling Badals. He credits it partly to the ‘blunders’ being committed by the Badals. From a Punjab Congress president who was on the defensive as his own party MLAs and leaders led by former Punjab chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh openly revolted against him, Partap Singh Bajwa has bounced back street-fighting the ruling Badals. Be it joining ranks with Congress Legislature Party leader Sunil Jakhar for a dharna outside the CM’s house or with Aam Aadmi Party for the protests in Moga against the death of a 13-year-old girl, Bajwa seems to have got a new lease of life. He credits it as much to the party high command backing him, as to the “blunders” being committed by the Badals. Excerpts of an interview with HT assistant editor Sukhdeep Kaur on Monday:
Do you think the Moga incident reflected the rising anger against the Punjab government? The Akalis came to power on the promise of good governance but people are feeling cheated as they have divided Punjab into fiefdoms. A couple of departments are with the CM, the rest with other members of the family. They have betrayed the mandate by outsourcing all illegal businesses to
their rogue elements. Every section of the state is feeling the heat. Procurement of foodgrains in Punjab was regimented. It is not the first time that untimely rains have hit the crop. The wheat is piled up in the mandis owing to the sheer callousness of the chief minister’s son-in-law Adaish Partap Singh Kairon, the state’s food and civil supplies minister.
Same is the case with other departments. Revenue minister Bikram Singh Majithia has control over sand mining in the state. They have made a joint venture with the police to run their illegal businesses. But there is a tsunami brewing against the Akalis. They will be swept away in the wave of public anger. Even CM Badal won’t be able to win his seat. If their graph is going down, why that of the Congress is not going up? They have mastered
the art of winning byelections. You just can’t compete with them. They get database on each and every villager. Promotions and transfers are fast-tracked and long-pending applications for tubewell connections and electricity poles and wires are cleared. For one month, the whole government and state machinery sits there.
You have 40-plus MLAs, which is a formidable number. Yet your party has not been able to put them on the defensive and get people’s support. Most of the people are terrified by them. They have turned the state into a police state. You have seen how they have edged the cable operators and transporters out of business. Their high-handedness has intimidated Punjabis. They should have come out to the streets after such a horrific incident but they are not willing to come out even if they support you sitting at home. The reason is there are no jobs in Punjab. The youth are all vying to go abroad. Their pet way to intimidate them is to slap false cases against them and withhold passports at police stations. The things have come to such a pass that even farmers sitting in mandis for over 15 days were scared to talk to us lest they should be captured on the camera.
The government says Bajwa is politicising the issue. What do they expect me to do? I am a political leader. Should I take a sheet, switch on the airconditioner and go to sleep? We are doing what a political party is supposed to do. What has Badal been doing in the past? Had we not protested against the lawlessness they have unleashed in the state, would they come around? Look at their audacity. The bus of the ruling family kills the girl and they wanted to pay compensation through the taxpayer’s money. It was the pressure created by us in the media that they decided that Orbit (the bus company of Sukhbir) would pay it.
But the Congress is still looking divided. Is the party putting its best foot forward? Things are changing since Rahul Gandhi visited Punjab. We got him to visit the state’s mandis within a day’s time. Things are going to change and everything will soon fall into place. Everybody has started to feel that we will have to work together.
Still a majority of MLAs do not accept you as their leader. They have never rallied behind you. Even Akali leaders take a dig at your “unpopularity” among your own MLAs.
It takes time. Many of these MLAs were given tickets, made ministers and chairmen of boards and corporations when the Congress was in power. I have no such beneficiaries. Who have they been allowed to rally around? Were they allowed to rally around any of the PCC presidents -- be it Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, Shamsher Singh Dullo, Mohinder Singh Kaypee or HS Hanspal? As for Akali leaders, does their claim that I do not enjoy the support of my partymen absolve them of their sins?
When things are hotting up in Punjab, should the high command not clear the air on your leadership? If some vested interests try to create confusion, what can the high command do? Where is the confusion? How many times has Congress general secretary in-charge of Punjab, Shakeel Ahmed, clarified that I am here to say. I am firmly in the saddle and am fit enough to lead the Congress in Punjab. People have been writing me off every month.
The AAP was equally aggressive on the Moga issue. Are they eating into the opposition space? AAP had the experience of leading a campaign in the Nirbhaya movement in Delhi. They latched on to it to show the victim as Punjab’s Nirbhaya.
But you joined hands with AAP during the agitation? Is it a precursor to a possible alliance in the 2017 elections? We had joined hands against the goondaraj of the government. In future too, we will take all political parties along for a common cause. Had the opposition been divided, do you think the government would have gone on the backfoot? As for AAP, it has no credentials in governance. Kejriwal is now asking for trial of the media. The same media helped him win elections. AAP candidates lost their deposits in the bypolls in Talwandi Sabo and Patiala. They sent Bhagwant Mann to Moga. You don’t crack jokes during a solemn occasion to gather a crowd. The AAP has no one to project as its leader. It will make no impact in the 2017 elections.
What is your future strategy? We will fight the Badals tooth and nail. We will take our fight to the streets. I have great hope and faith in our judiciary. If the owners of Ansals can be booked during the Uphaar tragedy, those of the Uber cabs in the rape case and of Union Carbide for the Bhopal gas tragedy, why can’t the owners of Orbit buses? In a state where the DGP is so scared that he says he does not know who are the owners of Orbit buses, what bravado do we expect from SHOs and DSPs? We will give Akalis a run for their money.
So all the recent agitations have helped you bounce back. It is the blunders of the Badals which have brought me to the centre-stage. The CM did not dare come out of the Circuit House in Moga. Like Dhritrashtra, he is blinded by the love for his son. It seems Punjab has become a banana republic. The police win elections. They resolve disputes and cremate people at the point of a gun. Their company’s bus first killed the girl and the cremation was done after 8pm against Hindu and Sikh rites and rituals and against the wishes of the family and the villagers. The police kept the victim’s brother and father almost a hostage. The media has turned hostile against them. There was a blackout by Fastway when all DTH service providers were telecasting the cremation. The whole village was resounding with anti-Badal slogans during the cremation. Is this what Badal means by his slogan — Raj nai, Sewa?
