A governance agenda for the Channi govt

Former Union Minister of Law and Justice

The installation of the Charanjit Singh Channi-led Congress government is a defining moment in Punjab’s contemporary political history. It signals the advent of new power structures and a welcome recognition of the ascendant social forces.

For the present, the new government is beset with daunting challenges. It must navigate the many pulls and pressures inherent in the fragile compromise assiduously stitched together by the party high command. Considering the circumstances that have catapulted Channi to the high office, he would need to tread with care, honouring, humouring and cajoling his temperamental colleagues to pull together in a direction that best serves the interests of the state.

He must, at the same time, uphold the dignity of his office. His unassuming manner and self-effacing humility could be his principal assets to secure a delicate arrangement necessitated by political necessity. His humility will hopefully enable him to enlist the willing allegiance of his colleagues.

Having been provided a historic opportunity, the Chief Minister must, notwithstanding the paucity of time, give to the state a vision of hope in its future by focusing on such fundamental issues as the necessity of crop diversification in view of the state’s falling water table and the urgency to provide income security to farmers.

He must ensure transparent governance and initiate credible measures to promote mega-private sector investment in the state for employment generation and skill development, with a special focus on women’s empowerment.

A massive expansion of the state’s health infrastructure cannot be delayed any further nor can the state lower its guard with regard to Covid management.

As an immediate measure, the government needs to find legally sustainable ways to ensure a substantial reduction in electricity tariff and a temporary waiver of power bills across the board.

At the political level, the Chief Minister, along with the state party president, will need to engage with the farmers’ groups in a continuing show of solidarity and support for their cause.

The foremost challenge, however, for the Channi government will be to maintain law and order, apart from social and religious harmony in the state. The persistent demand for bringing to justice those responsible for the be-adbi (sacrilege) of the holy scriptures and the ‘kingpins’ of drug trafficking will need to be addressed within the framework of legal options circumscribed by a series of binding judgments and judicial orders.

The Chief Minister’s sagacity in addressing a highly emotive issue consistent with the imperatives of constitutional governance is on test.

The choices he must make are difficult, indeed. He must recognise the sensitivities of people, consistent with his oath of office to uphold the Constitution. His government cannot be seen as vindictive or captive to its own rhetoric.

A sobering lesson in constitutional governance is that those who live under the law are bound by its command, independently of their own will. Clearly, a government bound by the discipline of law must defer to the constitutional constraints on the exercise of the state’s coercive power against political rivals, who cannot be treated as personal enemies to be tamed or decimated at will. In the final analysis, justice to foes and friends alike must not only be done but should also be seen to be done.

This is the enduring raj dharma, the observance of which will ensure the legitimacy of governance by the new administration. And only a just exercise of political power can ensure tranquility in the state that will enable the government to commit itself to the urgent tasks at hand.

Less than 100 days before the announcement of elections, the Chief Minister and his colleagues cannot afford to be distracted by the Opposition’s agitational agenda, fuelled by religious sensitivities and possibly impregnated with casteist connotations that can result in a devastating communal and social divide. Having borne the brunt of terrorism and extremism to secure the integrity of the nation, the state can ill-afford yet another period of conflict and its accompanying pains.

Indeed, the maintenance of peace, social solidarity and communal harmony must remain the first charge on the resources of the state and skills of political management.

At another fundamental level, the new dispensation, which has sworn to uphold democracy and inclusion in the state, must remind itself that a truly vibrant democracy is not only about periodic elections. It is about the contestation of ideas in freedom and without fear. It is not about the ‘conceit of the clever’ but about the wholesomeness of the human condition, anchored in the ideal of dignity and driven by compassion for the marginalised. We cannot forget that democratic governance is about public reasoning around the ‘moral questions of justice’. It is about the necessity to address issues of power in an ethical frame of reference.

In making tough choices, the Chief Minister is expected to move in a direction that will assure all Punjabis, over time, the possibility of a better life and future that is theirs to uphold and shape.

Finally, while traversing the bends and turns of politics, he needs to beware of the feeble loyalties of friends and the compulsive animosity of rivals — the stuff of everyday politics.

Over to you, Mr Chief Minister, with my felicitations and best wishes.

Views are personal