Two reversals and a missed opportunity

TWICE, over the last month, the BJP-ruled Centre has been forced to withdraw one notification — proposing key changes in the governance of Panjab University located in Chandigarh — and one Bill, proposing changes in the governance of Chandigarh itself, that it intended to bring in the coming winter session of Parliament.

The two astonishing reversals have book-ended Prime Minister Modi’s journey, on Gurpurb, to Ayodhya and Kurukshetra — except, imagine if his end-destination had been Anandpur Sahib, where thousands of people showed up at the historic site to commemorate the 350th anniversary of the martyrdom of the ninth Guru, Tegh Bahadur, earlier this week.

Imagine the headline in The Tribune. From Ayodhya to Anandpur Sahib, Modi Stitches the Faiths Together. The PM’s journey would have both underlined and evoked the incredible message of the Guru’s martyrdom back in 1675, when he gave his life to defend the right of a man to follow a different faith, a Hindu. Instead, as The Tribune’s editorial, A Symbolic Slip, noted, the PM chose to go to Kurukshetra in BJP-ruled Haryana nearby, donned saffron headgear and repeatedly spoke in glowing terms of the Guru’s sacrifice.

So why didn’t the PM come to Anandpur Sahib, and say what he had to say from the holy land?

The irony is that Modi knows both Punjab and Punjabis well. During the Emergency years, as an underground activist in Gujarat, he evaded arrest by sometimes disguising himself as a turbaned Sikh. In the mid-1990s, as the party’s national secretary, he was in charge of Haryana and Himachal Pradesh, based in Panchkula, and travelled across Punjab. As PM in 2019, he visited Gurdwara Ber Sahib in Sultanpur Lodhi, sat in perfect vajrasana and prayed at the shrine dedicated to the first Guru, Nanak, en route to inaugurating the Kartarpur Sahib corridor. Modi put aside his distaste for Pakistan — earlier that February, the IAF had launched airstrikes in Balakot — and made sure the road and all special facilities were on stream to connect Dera Baba Nanak with Kartarpur Sahib, so that Sikh devotees could pray at the gurdwara associated with the last 18 years of Guru Nanak’s life.

In 2022, Modi told a Sikh delegation which came to see him, “Going to gurdwaras, spending time in service, getting langar, staying at the homes of Sikh families has been a part of my life…”

Earlier this week at Anandpur Sahib, the AAP-organised event jostled with the Akali Dal-cum-SGPC commemoration of the Guru’s martyrdom. Much news time was spent parsing why and whether the parallel events threw a spanner in the overall devotion that Punjabis feel towards their Guru — the answer is a resounding No.

Modi’s presence, if he had gone, would have only added to the intimate chaos that only Indians understand and revel in. It seems the Punjab CM wasn’t given time to invite the PM, but if the PM had shown up, imagine the boost it would have given the leaderless Punjab BJP today.

Perhaps the PM realised the mood in Punjab is sombre, if not difficult. The physical and emotional damage from the floods lingers. The sudden notification on Panjab University as well as the Chandigarh Bill, both made without discussion or debate — just like the imposition of the farm laws back in 2020 — was so drastic and bewildering that all the political parties in the state rose up as one and defied Delhi. Even the Punjab BJP was embarrassed. The Centre had united them all against it.

Just like with the farm laws, the Centre’s actions this past month have smacked either of a complete lack of understanding about Punjab or a wilful disregard. Once again this month, the backlash was immediate, fierce. A surprised Centre was forced to fall in line.

The interesting thing is that Modi knows this. He understands that with only 13 seats in the Lok Sabha, Punjab doesn’t carry the electoral weight that large states like Bihar or West Bengal do. But because it is a border state with Pakistan, Punjab has special needs and it is the Centre’s duty to understand them — whether or not Punjabis vote the party into power or not.

The surprising thing is that exactly the opposite is happening on the ground. Punjab is the second most debt-ridden state in the country, second only to Arunachal Pradesh, with its debt-to-GSDP ratio at 46.6% (Tamil Nadu’s is 26.43%, Maharashtra’s is 14.64%); the water-table is depleting by about one metre every year; drug addiction is rampant; industry fled during the terrorism years and hesitates to return.

The healing touch that Punjab so desperately needs from the Centre is missing. What is worse is that for the second time in two weeks, Khadoor Sahib MP Amritpal Singh, who is in a jail in Assam on charges of sedition, has applied for parole to attend the winter session of Parliament that begins on December 1. The big question on everyone’s lips is, will he be released?

The bigger question is whether a master puppeteer is shifting around the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle even as we speak — and why. Both on PU as well as on Chandigarh, it’s not as if the status quo had been written in stone; certainly, reforms must accompany both time and tide. Equally, Punjabis have the right to ask why Chandigarh was not given to Punjab as was promised by the 1985 Rajiv-Longowal accord — the deadline for handover was January 26, 1986.

What boggles the mind is why the Punjab BJP — both senior leaders like Sunil Jakhar as well as its poster boy Ravneet Singh Bittu — had no clue that the Chandigarh Bill was being brought to Parliament. The local party unit, which makes up with energy and enthusiasm what it lacks in Assembly presence, seems shaken today. Back in the 2024 Lok Sabha election, the BJP won a credible 18.3 per cent of the vote — in last week’s Tarn Taran byelection, the party candidate lost his deposit.

In any case, the story has moved on. The PM is now inaugurating a statue of Lord Ram in Goa. In the BJP’s worldview, it seems, Punjab will have to wait.