They Akalis have indulged in vendetta politics. We wont do anything like that. Our focus is Punjab

Capt Amarinder Singh: I rate our chances very high. The party is upbeat and our own indications are that we are winning with a good margin. We put ourselves at 70-plus seats just now.

Rajni Chopra: Will you be open to tie-ups with other parties? How do you think the PPP Peoples Party of Punjab will perform?

Capt Amarinder Singh: No,I dont think that will happen. Speculation that we may tie-up with Manpreet Badals Peoples Party of Punjab is not correct. Thats not going to be the case. I think we are heading for a clear win. We dont think PPP will win any seat. He Manpreet may push through in a particular place due to infighting,but otherwise I do not place him anywhere. In the beginning,he had an agenda but over the months,he has petered out. His own cadres,his senior people have fallen out. They say he is very arrogant,hes very opinionated,he doesnt listen to anyone. So I dont foresee him winning anything but he will help us win some.

Harpreet Bajwa: If you come to power,what will be your agenda?

Capt Amarinder Singh: We have spent a lot of time on the manifesto and have made it a two-part manifesto. One is to show the point Punjab has reached and from that baseline how do we go forward. Resources are scarce,we are bankruptin this scenario,we have to see how we can get things moving. Secondly,we have social obligations and so we have a section on how we will look after the economically weaker sections.

Harpreet Bajwa: What about schemes like Atta-Dal and free power?

Capt Amarinder Singh: They will remain. Economists might say it is bad thing to have so many subsidies but we do have a social obligation to our people who are literally starving. From 13 lakh BPL Below Poverty Line we have gone up to 20 lakh. People talk about free power for farmers,but they do not talk about the farmers committing suicide. We have to make efforts to change cropping patterns into high-value cash crops. Every year,pesticide,diesel,labour costs go up. Our unemployment is at a staggering figure of 47 lakh,out of which 27 lakh are youngsters and another 20 lakh are people living in Punjab. In the urban sectors,you have to bring in industry: 900 units have moved out of Punjab. Even the bicycle industry has shifted to Bihar. We need to have a very innovative policy of investment in the state.

Chitleen Sethi: How are you tackling the rebel factor in the party that seems to be undermining your chances in the polls?

Capt Amarinder Singh: It is good to have rebels. The obvious reason for this is that people think we will be forming the next government and they want to be part of the government. So they all filled in their forms. A large number of them have withdrawn their nominations. This time we had delimitation of constituencies. This has changed the configuration of seats,many have disappeared. For instance,Kila Raipur has gone,SC seats have increased and general seats have gone down. It does render some of our people jobless. We had 1,550 candidates applying for 117 seats. So we had to have a reaction.

Rakesh Rocky: What is the reason that the state has not received any package for agriculture?

Capt Amarinder Singh: There are certain things that I want. FDI was ideal for Punjab. This was the reason why we started the Field to Fork programme with Reliance in the last government. The object was to change the cropping pattern. In all of our 12,500 villages,they would bring in new seeds,ways to manage crop,they would have purchasing centres,shipping centres. Reliance has 100,000 outlets in the country where only produce from Punjab would have been sold. These people Akali government shut it down.

Vipin Pubby: Are you going to revive the plan?

Capt Amarinder Singh: Certainly. I am going to take it up with the Ambanis. Farmers are dumping potatoes on the road. They are not being able to recover even harvesting costs. The big farmers who have not been able to sell stocks are throwing it away.

Chitleen Sethi: You have been out of power for five years. What do you think you will do and not do if you come to power?

Capt Amarinder Singh: I dont know what I wont do,but I certainly know what I will do. Last time I had come in with very little experience. I had only six months experience in government in 1985 as a minister. It took us a little time to get used to thingshow to get around crafty bureaucrats. By the time two years passed and we got down to doing things,the time had passed. This time,we will start from day one.

Varinder Bhatia: Do you think that your brother joining the Akali Dal will have an impact?

Capt Amarinder Singh: He left the party on his ownhe had made up his mind a long time ago. He had even met the PPP but it did not work out. Good luck to him. But he has not been in active politics,he was there in a supporting role. He has never fought an election.

Varinder Bhatia: How do you see Akali Dal’s future after Parkash Singh Badal?

Capt Amarinder Singh: Even now they are projecting Parkash Singh Badal as chief minister. They know he is not fit enough to be chief minister,he will not be made chief minister but Sukhbir is not pulling in votes. So you make senior Badal the face and make Sukhbir the CM when the time comesif the time comes. That is their strategy. Once Parkash Singh Badal goes,unless this man Sukhbir drastically changes his style,the Akali Dal wont accept him. The rank and file of the Akali Dal is not accepting him. Maybe its his style of functioning,his abrasiveness.

Chitleen Sethi: Have the Akalis indulged in vendetta politics?

Capt Amarinder Singh: It is obvious they have indulged in vendetta politics. When we came in,there was a big hue and cry in the press about corruption by the Badal government. We made it a part of our manifesto that we will investigate the Badals and we investigated them. During those five years,cases were going on. Unfortunately,our legal system is so slow,when they came back to power,they got all the witnesses to resile37 witnesses resiled. What could the judge do?

We are not going to do anything like that. Our target is very clearPunjab is our number one issue. We will put all our energies into getting Punjab on the move again. It is not only the economy that is affecting employment,Maoism has spread all over the state. When I was CM,we had it in two districtsTarn Taran and Bathinda. Now the whole of Punjab is affected. If anything comes up for investigation in any department,we will look into it. They have been thoroughly corruptthe entire mining is in their hands,the entire liquor industry is in their hands,the TV channels of Fastway and all the transport are in their hands. The cable system Fastway alone gives them a crore a day. It’s a big scam. But let them come up for investigation in a routine manner,we are not going to target anything.

Harpreet Bajwa: The Akalis scrapped the Vigilance Commission when they came to power. Do you plan to restart it?

Capt Amarinder Singh: We will ensure two things: a very strong Lokpal which will have the jurisdiction from the Chief Minister downwards. We will bring it in the Assembly and have very stringent measures in it for any sort of hocus pocus that people may want to do in the state. The Lokpal will have all that it wishes. In this government,they have had only an ASI for investigations for two years. There was nobody else. Second,we will have a Vigilance Commission. It has to be at every level. The Commission will be headed by a judge and whatever the parliamentary guidelines are for this,we will implement those.

Rajni Chopra: How is it that while Punjab is bankrupt,the politicians’ assets seem to be increasing by leaps and bounds?

Capt Amarinder Singh: I dont know how these chaps grow by leaps and bounds. I havent grown by leaps and bounds. There is an increase in my sons assets. A house in Delhi was left by his grandfather for a Trust. Now he is 40-odd years old,so my mother and I decided to wind up the Trust and put the money in his name. Thats why his assets went up. When I was CM,my assets went down by Rs 7 crore.

Raghvendra Rao: Could you explain the mathematics for the 70 plus seats that you say your party will win?

Capt Amarinder Singh: When I took over the party in 1997,we had only 14 candidates. I brought it to 63. There is a perceptible anti-incumbency working and that is pushing things in the right direction for us. Last time we won three seats in Majha,this time we will move up to 15 seats. Doaba we will sweep,in Malwa we will be holding our position34 seats last time. In urban areas we only had three seats. Now,I think we would get all our urban seatsone or two may go.

Sukhdeep Kaur: How did the perception,that your wife Preneet Kaur is in race for CM,start?

Capt Amarinder Singh: In our party,it is for the Congress president to decide and I think this will be decided after the election.

Chitleen Sethi: During your last tenure you were considered inaccessible and accused of having a coterie.

Capt Amarinder Singh: I think I can be very pleased that the only thing the Akalis can pick on about me is inaccessibility. Coteries are close groups of people who are supporting you. It is just a word used to discredit people. You may have a Cabinet,but it is only a small group you interact with. You have to have confidence in some people.

Srinath Rao EXIMS: Is the BSP a threat in these elections?

Capt Amarinder Singh: It would have been a greater threat if the BSP had joined with a local party. Had it been part of the Badal group or Manpreet group,the effect would have been more. But just fighting 117 seats has not been taken seriously though she Mayawati will take a lot of votes. She is increasing her vote bank. I think she is working towards something bigger than Punjab.

Harpreet Bajwa: What do you foresee for the BJP?

Capt Amarinder Singh: At the moment,we have put them at one or two seats. This is what cost us our job last time. The perception was that we were focussing more on rural Punjab and less on urban Punjab. Secondly,it was said we were concentrating on holding religious functions. But I didn’t ask for the 500th year of Guru Angad Dev in my tenure or the 400th year of the Guru Granth Sahib or the 350th year of Guru Gobind Singh. We had to celebrate these occasions. The perception was that we were on a panthic agenda,but it was not our agenda.

Chitleen Sethi: Will the Anna Hazare factor matter in the elections?

Capt Amarinder Singh: The entire rationale of his campaign was corruption. Here we have masters of corruption. I do not think he can ever come and campaign for them. How can he oppose us by supporting Badal? Four BJP ministers were dropped for corruption. One BJP minister is accused by his own department of corruption and he is now their leader.

Charanjit Ahuja: Your image builders have projected you as dabang. Are you really one?

Capt Amarinder Singh: This is because I had to put the morale back into my party. When I started going around there were 50,000 cases against Congressmen. Many people had been taken to police stations and hammered black and blue. People were scared. In my 41-day tour of Punjab,I had to keep the danda with me,telling workers,agar woh ek danda lagayenge,tum do lagao. That is probably why I got the image. I had to put confidence back into the workers.

Srinath Rao EXIMS: 2011 has not been a great year for the Congress. Has the opinion rating of Indias first Sikh PM dipped?

Capt Amarinder Singh: Dr Manmohan Singh is a very fine administrator. He has done his job well. We are one of the few countries that has not collapsed under the international economic recession. We have to give him credit for that. On 2G and CWG,if someone has let him down,one cant directly blame him.

Majid Jahangir: What are your views on AFSPA?

Capt Amarinder Singh: A soldier is not trained for this kind of internal conflict. Here,a soldier doesnt know where the bullet is coming from. Sometimes in the heat of the moment,innocents get shot. Unfortunately,such things do happen. It happened with my battalion in Nagaland.

Soldiers also are human beings so there has to be some protection for them. If every time someone makes a mistake and you crucify him,no soldier will function in such a scenario.

Raghvendra Rao: Is the BJP going to play a spoiler for the Akalis?

Capt Amarinder Singh: Akalis will not get a very high figure. My feeling is that they will end up getting around 30 seats and BJP maybe one or two. Some Independents may come in.

Harpreet Bajwa: What are you going to do about the TV operators,Fastway and PTC?

Capt Amarinder Singh: We are going to shut it down. Fastway channel has no business to monitor media. How can they say you are going to see only a particular channel and not others? You cannot regulate the system to show what you want. Thats like the time of Stalin or Hitler. I did some interviews in Delhi. All were cut out on Fastway channels. Fastway is totally theirs Akalis. PTC only plays Badals and people are fed up of it just as they got fed up with us when we had Punjab Today.

Transcribed by Khushboo Sandhu For the longer version,visit https://indianexpress.com,Student of Express Institute of Media Studies