People's Democracy

THE Punjab assembly polls are going to take place at a time when all sections of the people are fed up with the Akali-BJP rule. Thousands of factories have closed down, lakhs of workers rendered jobless. Agriculture is in a bad shape; more than 600 farmers have committed suicide. The government heaped heavy burdens on the people in the last five years. Fees for education and health services were hiked; the government did not enhance its own allocation for these services. Corruption crossed all limits and the chief minister’s family members auctioned jobs. Lawlessness is prevailing. The chief minister stopped to talk about his promises regarding river water distribution, Chandigarh and territorial issue.

On top of that, the jingoistic atmosphere created by the BJP-led central government after December 13 gripped the people of this border state in a fresh wave of anxiety.

It is in such a situation that voting is going to take place for 116 out of 117 seats, with 918 candidates in the fray. The Akali Dal has allotted 23 seats to the BJP and 2 to the Bahujan Samaj Morcha. The Congress has left 11 seats for the CPI and is contesting the rest. The Panthak Morcha of G S Tohra and S S Mann is contesting all the seats and the Bahujan Samaj Party, 80. The CPI(M) is contesting 13 seats. Some smaller parties, independents and rebels are also in the fray.

Yet, as there is no Left and democratic alternative in the state, the main contest is between the Congress and Akali-BJP combine. It appears that while the BSP is eating into the Congress votes, the Panthak Morcha is going to harm the ruling combine. However, it is clear that the people of Punjab want a change. At the moment, it appears that all other burning issues have been relegated to the background and the whole election has got centred on the issue of Sutlej-Yamuna link canal.

After coming to power in 1997, the Akali-BJP combine said it would give awards to honest officers every year. But it appears it did not find a single honest officer in the last 5 years. On the contrary, a number of corruption cases have surfaced and some of them have reached the courts. Government jobs are openly being auctioned; the talk is that a peon post is being sold for Rs 2.5 lakh.

The Badal government had promised a job for one person in each family. But in the last budget it announced that no new job would be created, no vacancy filled up, and 10 per cent of the existing personnel would be slashed. On the other hand, thousands of factories have closed down from Rajpura to Batala.

The government had a debt of Rs 13,000 crore when it assumed office; today it stands at Rs 36,000. As much as 39 per cent of the budget is going for debt servicing. The tenth Finance Commission had allotted 33.5 per cent of the central tax revenue to Punjab; the 11th Finance Commission reduced it to 29 per cent. This is causing the state a loss of Rs 1,557 crore per year.

The farmers feel cheated and there id an alarming spate of suicides. The centre has withdrawn from the purchase of agricultural produce and is not fixing their minimum support prices. It is to be noted that in the last season the farmers compelled the government to purchase their produce by lying down on railway tracks.

The state government had announced that it will give free power to the farmers’ tube wells to the tune of Rs 2,500 crore every year. But the fertiliser prices were hiked 3 times, imposing a burden of Rs 280 crore per annum. The hike in diesel prices has similarly imposed a burden of Rs 2,305 crore per annum on the farmers.

Inhuman treatment with Dalits continued. Police excesses against them and other weaker sections and women increased.

Yet it appears that, following the Supreme Court order to the state government to complete the Sutlej-Yamuna link canal in one year, this has become the central issue in the elections. It is well known that the issue is a sensitive one. Punjab is currently allowing the river water to flow into Pakistan but is not prepared to give a drop of water to Haryana. If a party tries to talk reason and favours giving water to Haryana or Delhi, it would most likely seal its fate. It is on this issue that the Congress has gone on offensive. It is asking what the Akali Dal did to move the central government, of which it is a part, to get the issues of dispute solved. The Panthak Morcha too is trying to corner the ruling combine on the same question. Badal’s question as to what the Congress did about these issues when it was itself in power, has so far failed to cut any ice.

In the 1997 assembly polls the Akali Dal had contested 92 seats and won 75, while the BJP won 18 seats out of the 22 it contested. The Akali-BJP combine thus got a big majority in a house of 117. It cornered 46.76 per cent of the votes polled. The Congress, then ruling the state, received only 29.87 per cent vote, and won only 14 seats. The BSP contested 67 seats but won only one. But in the Lok Sabha polls held in 1999, the Congress won 8 out of the total 13 seats and took a lead in 68 assembly segments. It is this performance that is the basis of Congress optimism. However, out of the 6 assembly bypolls held since 1997, it could win only 2.

But the Akali-BJP combine has its own share of problems. The Election Commission had to intervene several times because of the misuse of government machinery. It ordered action against the police chiefs in Kila Raipur and Batala. The commission also ordered removal of signboards showing the chief minister Badal’s ‘achievements.’ In Ferozepur, on January 17, a large quantity of illicit liquor was captured from a brick kiln belonging to an Akali MLA. Cases of import of large caches of illegal arms from neighbouring states have surfaced. A judicial magistrate issued summons against the chief minister and his son. Criminal cases have been launched against Badal and a minister in a land case.

Several times the Akali Dal has been accused of extending help to the extremists, and this is perhaps why the BJP is trying to demarcate itself from the former. In a press conference held in the Press Club, Chandigarh, the state BJP president had to accept that the state government had failed to check corruption.

The BJP is itself in no less trouble. Several of its important leaders have crossed over to the Congress. All its district units are plagued with severe infighting that has, at places, spilled out into open street fighting. BJP councillor Sunil Mehra openly charged that a BJP MP, Lala Lajpat Rai, had demanded Rs 30 lakh for giving him party ticket from Ludhiana (North). He accused the RSS and BJP men of involvement in the racket and demanded Rai’s resignation.

Compared to the Akali Dal and BJP, the Congress can of course boast of being a secular party. But it is no doubt a bourgeois-landlord party. This is the party that initiated the ruinous economic policies in 1991, and is not yet prepared to get rid of the legacy. Though it was the main opposition party in the state, it did nothing to fight the anti-people steps the Akali-BJP combine took in the last five years. It is in fact banking upon the so-called "anti-incumbency factor." The Congress too is facing severe infighting.

The CPI(M), that is contesting 13 seats in the state, has urged the people to give a decisive defeat to the Akali-BJP combine so that the state may have communal peace, freedom from joblessness and corruption, an administration responsible to law and responsive to the people, democracy and prosperity.

Without aligning with the Congress, the CPI(M) is trying to ensure that a division of secular votes is avoided. Hence its appeal that in the seats where CPI(M) candidates are not in the fray, the people must vote for the secular candidates who are in a winning position.

The CPI(M) has a proud record in the state. It has always been in the forefront to defend the interests of the toiling masses. It has been waging independent and joint struggles against the ruinous economic policies of the central and state governments, and has made some gains, as on peasant issues. It has been fighting against communalism and separatism. The party has been highlighting the need of a democratic solution to the Punjab issue. The CPI(M) has been working for evolving a third alternative in the state though, unfortunately, the CPI has joined hands with the Congress. For these elections, the CPI(M) has put forward a 13-point programme based on the interests of various sections on the toiling people.