The developments over the last few days seemed to be emblematic of what ails Punjab. A mob led by a would-be ideologue stormed a police station in the border district of Amritsar, bringing back memories of the dark days of militancy. And this happened on a day when Governor Banwari Lal Purohit and Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann locked horns over convening of the Assembly’s Budget Session. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)-led state government finally approached the Supreme Court, which rapped both the Governor and the CM while expressing its disappointment over their actions for precipitating the row. For long Punjab has been trying to erase the memories of militancy while seeking to lower the heat over issues such as the division of river waters and the capital between Punjab and Haryana besides the demand for more autonomy. Now it is faced with a double whammy as Amritpal Singh, a 30-year-old born-again evangelist, is not only raking up the Khalistan issue but also harping on the state’s “inability” to root out the menace of drugs ravaging its youth and to punish the guilty in the 2015 sacrilege cases. The audacious takeover of the Ajnala police station by a large mob led by Amritpal, who returned from Dubai six months ago, is causing much consternation in the state. It is also giving credence to voices that have been warning that the AAP government is “too inexperienced” to govern a sensitive state like Punjab. While CM Mann has held that not too much should be read into the Ajnala incident, the point remains that there seems to be discontent on the ground and that Amritpal is feeding on it. Officials who support the let-it-take-its-course policy should know that Punjab needs an administration that is both strong and sensitive. While Amritpal’s act of taking the Guru Granth Sahib with him during the storming of the Ajnala police station has angered a sizeable section of the Sikh community, which says it was tantamount to “beadbi (disrespect)”, it has also emboldened him as he has got the support of anti-social elements who now see him as a powerful leader capable of providing them protection from the police. The self-styled preacher, who is fluent in English, has attracted most of his following on the social media, landed in the state amidst a deepening political vacuum. The over-a-century-old Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), which had always claimed to be the political voice of the Sikhs, has been in retreat in the wake of a string of sacrilege and related police firing incidents during its tenure. The radical outfits that have mostly worked within the framework of the Constitution while keeping the demand for Khalistan alive also appear to have run out of steam. The Congress appears to have been “discredited”. And while the AAP swept the February 2022 Assembly polls bagging 92 of the state’s total 117 seats, their legislators often face the charge of being “lightweight” with little sense of the state’s history or its political economy. There has been a gripe among the members of several higher education institutions that the state’s youth do not have anyone they can idolise. Armed with his fiery rhetoric centred on a three-pronged pitch — calling for drug eradication, return to a pure form of Sikhism, and the need for Khalistan due to “injustices”, perceived or imaginary, meted out to Sikhs — Amritpal is trying to appeal to the gullible and disgruntled youth. His focus on drugs and the largely unsubstantiated promise to cure addicts at his two drug rehabilitation centres is helping him expand the base of his followers. At the same, Amritpal’s sudden rise has also sparked much speculation about his support system. On the street, people tell you, ‘’Agency da banda hai (He is the product of an agency).” Some say it could be a “build-up to President’s rule”. But there are others who flag social media for fuelling his rise, pointing out how he has been active on it for several years now. Stepping back a little one would see that there were attempts to destabilise Punjab during the initial years of the previous Capt Amarinder Singh-led Congress government as well. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) had then said that the Khalistan Liberation Force backed by a Pakistan agency had hatched a conspiracy to disturb the communal harmony in the state with eight targeted killings, mostly of the BJP/RSS leaders, between January 2016 and October 2017. Its victims included RSS leader Brig (retd) Jagdish Gagneja and BJP leader Ravinder Gosai, among others. The Punjab CMs, present and past, have been complaining of drones from across the border supplying arms and drugs for over three years. The Centre has now decided to send an additional force of 18 CRPF-RAF companies, even as CM Mann is making a big push for its funds to modernise the Punjab police. However, there seems to be a real fear in Punjab about inimical forces trying to vitiate its atmosphere. “Mahaul kharaab karan di koshish hai ji,’’ a trader in Amritsar says, echoing similar views of a farmer near the border. There is no magic bullet for this situation, but effective governance and focus on development by a vigilant state working in tandem with the Centre can keep such forces at bay.
