Winds of change blowing in Khemkaran

Vishav Bharti & Manmeet Singh Gill

Tribune News Service

KhemKaran (Amritsar), Jan 28

As one approaches Asal Uttar on the narrow Amritsar-Khemkaran road, a Patton tank on the right welcomes you. It's Param Vir Chakra Abdul Hamid’s memorial. On a plaque is inscribed "unmatched and unbeatable.” For long the word “unbeatable” has been identified with the local Akalis too. But now the Akali Dal seems to be losing its hold with every second person mentioning "najaiz parchas (false cases), nashe (drugs) and goondagardi (breakdown of law and order)".

Not too long ago, to cast their vote, women would walk barefoot to the polling booths for “the sewa of the Panth.” All that has changed. Campaigning has hit a new low and vulgar machoism is at display. Akali candidate Virsa Singh Valtoha’s son publicly proclaims he will make Congress candidate Sukhpal Singh Bhullar pee in his pants. Bhullar, son of former Congress MLA Gurchet Singh Bhullar vows to teach Valtoha a lesson. “We will hang him upside down like a dead crow. He will be kicked like a football from one place to another," he says, even as he challenges Valtoha to a “wrestling match."

Surrounded by a couple of supporters in Khemkaran, SAD's election office in-charge Gagandeep Singh acknowledges that they are midst a tough battle."After initial hiccups, Valthoa saab is back in the winning position, " he claims, blaming the winter chill and wedding season for the thin crowds.

Azad Singh Raja, a former sarpanch of Dibbipura village and Valtoha's classmate, says he spent three months in Patti jail after he was booked in a false case by the police in "connivance" with political leaders. He is openly supporting the Congress. A group of villagers squatting on the road say they will support the Congress too because of the "najaiz parcha" against Azad Singh.

Posters of AAP candidate Bikramjeet Singh Pahuwindia, an eminent social worker, dot the town's streets. He claims there is a wave in favour of AAP which will help him sail through. A "parbandhak" at Baba Deep Singh's shrine and convener of AAP's ex-servicemen wing in Punjab, he heads a charitable trust, propagating education and healthcare. The trust provides free education to Dalit students. Pahuwindia enjoys immense goodwill, but pitted against stalwarts, it will not be an easy ride for him.

Daljit Singh of the Revolutionary Marxist Party of India reminds crowds of the struggle that communists waged under the CPI for the people of the border area. That is why, perhaps, several villages along the road have raised buildings in memory of the communists which remind one of the era gone by.