Opinion The price of vendetta

Amarinder,however,was not amused by the offer of a truce. He did not react immediately,but said later that the charges against the Badals were foolproof and that the prosecution had deliberately lost the case just because the Badals were in power. He held that the investigating officer as well as his supervisory officer,both of the Indian Police Service,had taken a U-turn and gone back on their statements. He has already made his intention to take on the Badals clear,especially if his party wrests back power in the assembly elections due in a year-and-a-half’s time.

Such has been the animosity and bitterness between the Badals and Amarinder that they have not lost any occasion to lash out at each other. For some observers,their perpetual showdowns are reminiscent of a Tom and Jerry cartoon. Perhaps unwittingly,they too play to the caricatures,often using graphic imagery while calling each other names.

It is obvious to everyone following the progress of the vigilance cases against the Badals that they had degenerated into a farce: even the judge used that expression. Almost all witnesses,including the complainant,had turned hostile. The public prosecutor appeared to be pleading the case of the accused,almost. Everybody simply appeared to be waiting for an inevitable acquittal. Little wonder then that Special Judge Rajinder Aggarwal ordered that perjury proceedings be initiated against two senior IPS officers,Surinderpal Singh and B.K. Uppal,for fabrication of evidence,the making of false records and presenting the challan with false allegations. “This is the rarest of the rare… not only the complainant and the material witnesses,but even the senior police officers who investigated this case have not supported the prosecution,” the judge said.

The vigilance bureau,which reports directly to Badal,is unlikely to opt for an appeal against the orders of the special judge. So the questions raised in the chargesheet,about disproportionate assets of Rs 78 crore (the initial chargesheet had claimed they were over Rs 4,326 crore),will likely remain unanswered. The fate of the criminal cases instituted against Amarinder in the Amritsar Improvement Trust and Ludhiana City Centre matters is uncertain.

The acrimony between Amarinder and Parkash Singh Badal first started when they were together in the Shiromani Akali Dal. Amarinder had resigned from the Congress in the wake of Operation Bluestar. It was during this time that their struggle for supremacy led to serious bickering between the two leaders. A stage came when Badal ensured that Amarinder was not fielded in the assembly elections. Amarinder stormed out of the party,floated his own outfit for a short while,later rejoining the Congress.

An unfortunate byproduct is that development in the state has taken a backseat over the past decade. Often,projects initiated by one are cancelled by the other,or sometimes are stalled by inquiries initiated to ferret out any scandal. Almost all projects started by either side are therefore seen with cynicism. Punjab has now been reduced to one of the slowest-growing states. It would require a drastic course correction to get the state back on a proper development trajectory.

vipin.pubby@expressindia.com