Kejriwal should quit Delhi to pull Punjab out of crisis

There was a time the endless green and mustard fields of Punjab flourished as though just waiting for Bollywood actors to break into a jig in their midst, houses all around were proudly saving money and sending their sons abroad. Those who stayed back lived comfortably and played some hockey in their free time.

Today, in the same state, vegetables are sprayed with pesticides and the sons of several houses are languishing around, more often than not waiting to get their next drug dose. Gone are the glorious days of Sansarpur that produced a chain of Olympians, instead interest in sports has fallen dramatically with the youth being drawn into other things.

Even the the Army complains that not enough Punjabis now come forward for recruitment.

Into this complex canvass, with all jhadus blazing, is entering the Aam Aadmi Party, promising to take the state out of the abyss. But the people of Punjab may not really need much convincing. Until now, it was either the Congress or the Akali-BJP combine. If one failed them, they resignedly waited for the other to do the same, a reality of the bipolar politics across the country.

But today, they have been so badly burnt by the Badals, that they have painted Amarinder Singh with the same brush. Not that the Maharaja is fooling too many by waking up early for once, Prashant Kishor may be a master strategist but it is unlikely that he is also a magician. Recently, while addressing Punjabis in California, shoes and bottles were thrown at the former chief minister.

But nothing quite destroyed the state as the rule of the Akalis for the last nine years. Punjab is in a drug induced haze and it begins right at the top. There have been serious allegations against top politicians in a synthetic drug scam involving no less than 700 crores. As the state comes closer to polls, the drug mafia will work overtime. Campaign money allegedly comes from the sale of narcotics, which is also a key way to buy votes.

As far back as 2009, a submission to the Punjab and Haryana High Court by the department of social security, women and child development stated that families in rural Punjab had at least one drug addict amongst them. Sukhbir Badal has always denied this, saying drugs are only smuggled from across the border.

This was contradicted a couple of years later by a UN report which mentioned India as the largest consumer of heroin in South Asia and contradicted that Punjab was just a transit point for drugs coming in from Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Sacrilege of Sikh scriptures over the last few months and the inability of the government to curb that insult alienated another section of loyalists, the crucial Panthic or the religious vote bank that traditionally sided with the Akalis. Their losing grip on the state was further emphasised when the Badal government failed to control the ensuing violence.

Nothing though has been going right in the state. The economy is in shambles and industry has taken flight, in fact the growth rate in the state is so dismal that it even lags behind Bihar and if nothing else the people of the state are simply fed up of the blatant corruption and the one family rule of the Badals.

Trying to take advantage of all this, AAP volunteers are literally going from house to house, targeting especially the rural votes and the dalits. They almost succeeded in making Navjot Singh Sidhu their face in Punjab, but nothing works wonders like a bribe in politics and Sidhu is now a BJP Rajya Sabha MP.

AAP may no longer be called a political novice after it's landslide victory in Delhi. The traditional rivals, the Akalis and the Congress are both rattled and for once are on the same platform, their speeches more focused on "topiwala" Kejriwal than each other.

But AAP seems euphoric, convinced that this is their time. The buzz is that there will be a repeat of Delhi and AAP will sweep Punjab.

But Punjab is a little more complicated and sensitive a state than just dealing with pollution. Two attacks in the last few months, one in Gurdaspur and the other at the Pathankot Air Force Station have once again highlighted that the state with its past history will always be a trigger away from turmoil.

In a huge indictment the parliamentary committee has said that the role of the Punjab police during the Pathankot attack was questionable and suspicious. This is the same police force that under KPS Gill valiantly fought against terrorism, probably the only force that defeated militancy. But today, political interference has made it a sad reflection of its past glory. AAP may have a lot more on its plate that it envisages.

Kejriwal's latest odd even experiment in Delhi has been an unmitigated flop, yet people are still keeping the faith and consider his party the least of the evils. There are several other states equally frustrated and inching towards anti-incumbency yet nowhere else has AAP made inroads the way it has here. It maybe because Punjabis are more open to taking risks or then again they really have nothing left to lose.

But in its enthusiasm for Punjab, sometimes it seems AAP has forgotten it already has another state to rule. Delhi though is patiently watching and wondering if it will get its chief minister back. In the absence of a big face in Punjab, will Kejriwal shift allegiance and as time comes leave all pretentions and Delhi's top job and become the chief ministerial face of the party in Punjab?

The state is hungry for change, but it all depends on how well AAP can capitalise on it. Much though will ultimately depend on who their leader is but their very rise in Punjab is a big lesson for our political parties who have long taken the voter for granted. If the people are pushed beyond all limits, they create their own alternatives out of nothing. AAP would be foolish to let such an opportunity slip away.

For now, it seems to be doing something right or maybe it is just at the right place at the right time.