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Journalism of Courage
THE SPREE of announcements that the Aam Aadmi Party government in Punjab has made, only to retract, grows.
On Tuesday, it withdrew a notification to hold zila parishad and panchayat samiti elections, five days after it had withdrawn two other notifications in quick succession – one pertaining to the dissolution of panchayats and another putting a freeze on panchayat bank accounts.
The Opposition, which accuses the Bhagwant Singh Mann government, comprising many first-time legislators, of inexperience, has got another handle to beat the AAP with.
On the panchayat issue particularly, the Mann government has taken one hit after another, starting with an ill-conceived order to dissolve the local bodies six months ahead of the end of their tenure.
When the elections were last held in December 2018, the panchayats were swept by candidates affiliated to the Congress, the then ruling party. The AAP’s logic appeared to have been that last year’s polls in which it decimated the Opposition meant the mood in the panchayats too had changed.
Its quick retreat followed the panchayat union filing a case in the High Court, and the Opposition taking up the matter.
Last week, Advocate General Vinod Ghai informed a Division Bench, comprising Chief Justice Ravi Shanker Jha and Justice Vikas Bahl, that the government was withdrawing the August 10 notification ordering the dissolution of the panchayats.
But, hours later, the Punjab government issued an order freezing the accounts of the panchayats, with the Controller of Panchayats (Finance) putting a bar on all withdrawals barring money for payment of salaries.
Barely a couple of more hours passed that the Mann government lifted that order too, after it went viral, and was seen as another example of its bid to control the panchayats one way or another.
The plan to hold elections to zilla parishads and panchayat samitis was part of the same August 10 notification, which now stands withdrawn.
Mocking the functioning of the government, Akali Dal leader Parambans Singh Romana posted on X the traffic sign for ‘U-Turn’, saying it was the AAP’s new election symbol.
The AAP government’s face-saving measure, of putting the onus for the embarrassment caused to it on two senior bureaucrats of the Rural Development and Panchayat Departments, convinced few. The Opposition said a decision of this magnitude could hardly have been taken at the officer level.
Mounting the government’s embarrassment, the file notings of the panchayat dissolution order that emerged clearly carried the signatures of CM Mann and Rural Development and Panchayats Minister Laljit Singh Bhullar.
Before the panchayat pickle, was the Mann government’s submission to the High Court in February that it would be revoking orders to remove Manish Gulati as Punjab State Women Rights Commission chairperson. Gulati, who was appointed by the previous Congress government, had moved the High Court over the removal.
The same month, the government was accused of meek capitulation after radical leader Amritpal Singh’s associate Lovepreet Singh Tufan was released following protests in Ajnala. Tufan had been arrested on charges such as kidnapping, with Amritpal also an accused in the case along with 25 others.
After Tufan’s arrest, Amritpal’s supporters had stormed the Ajnala police station, and at least six police personnel, including an officer were injured. Then, top officers, including Amritsar Police Commissioner Jaskarn Singh and SSP (Rural) Satinder Singh, had reached the police station and held direct negotiations with Amritpal, after which it was announced that Tufran would be released.
Last year, the Mann government banned the playing of “jugaad rehris” or modified carts in the state on grounds of these not being safe enough. This was soon after it came to power. Following protests, the government dropped the ban. Mann is known to have pulled officials at a meeting for the decision to ban the rehris.
The Mann government’s flip-flop on the matter followed Opposition parties’ accusation that while the AAP came to power professing to speak for the aam aadmi, it did not really care for the poor.
A Local Bodies Department order to remove encroachments from roadsides, including rehris, was similarly put out, and then withdrawn.
In April last year, the Mann government did a similar turnaround after it found itself dousing fires over arrest warrants issued to farmers for non-payment of debts owed to cooperative banks. After this became a political issue, Finance Minister Harpal Cheema put out a video message that no farmer would be arrested. Seeking to blame the previous Congress government for the fiasco, Cheema claimed that the process to issue arrest warrants was started by former cooperatives minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa.
Randhawa immediately denied this, saying the Congress government had not issued any arrest warrants to farmers during its rule.
Soon after this, the Mann government directed administrative secretaries of all departments to bring to the notice of the CM any decisions that were likely to have an adverse impact on the general public, especially the weaker sections, before these were issued.
Then, in May last year, the government withdrew security provided to 424 people, including former Akal Takht jathedar Giani Harpreet Singh. After this prompted a row, the government restored the security of the jathedar, but he refused the same.
AAP chief spokesperson Malvinder Singh Kang argued that the withdrawal of the many orders showed that the party government was “not adamant”, and rather “how democratic it was”.
On the panchayat episode, he claimed: “The Panchayats Department moved the proposal. The omission was on the part of the officers. The government has now done a course correction. The CM was misguided by the officers.”
