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Journalism of Courage
The induction of ex-Congress MP from Ludhiana, Ravneet Singh Bittu, grandson of slain former Punjab chief minister and Congress stalwart Beant Singh, into the new Narendra Modi-led Union ministry as the Minister of State (MoS) within three months of switching to the BJP – and despite losing the Lok Sabha polls – has signalled a new approach of the ruling party towards Punjab politics.
Bittu’s remarkable elevation has come at a time when the BJP, which has a support base among the Hindu community in Punjab, was seen to be wooing Sikhs over emotive issues like the opening of the Kartarpur Sahib corridor, commemorating the martyrdom of Guru Gobind Singh’s children as Veer Bal Divas, and the notification on the release of several Sikh prisoners.
On the eve of the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev, on October 11, 2019, the BJP-led Centre issued a notification for the release of eight Sikh prisoners and called for the death sentence of Beant Singh’s assassin Balwant Singh Rajoana to be commuted to life imprisonment.
Over the last few years, almost all political parties in Punjab have turned soft on the Sikh prisoners’ issue, but Bittu has strongly opposed the release of Rajoana. Just after quitting the Congress, Bittu even claimed that Rahul Gandhi had wanted him to forgive Rajoana.
In the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls, Union Home Minister Amit Shah had said that the killers of Bittu’s grandfather would not be spared even as he maintained silence on the issue of Punjab farmers’ protests over their demand for a law on the minimum support price (MSP) for their crops.
Bittu was chosen over other prominent BJP leaders like former MP Preneet Kaur and ex-diplomat Taranjit Singh Sandhu, whose defeats from the Patiala and Amritsar Lok Sabha constituencies, respectively, left a section of the state BJP shocked. The incumbent Ludhiana MP, Bittu himself lost on the BJP’s ticket to his former colleague Amrinder Singh Raja Warring, the state Congress chief.
Expressing surprise over Bittu’s induction into the Central ministry despite his electoral defeat, a state BJP leader said, “We currently do not know what is the reason behind making him a Union minister.”
Just ahead of joining the BJP, Bittu had, however, also made “soft statements” on Sikh militant and former Damdami Taksal head Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, calling him a “sant (saint)” while criticising the Congress for the 1984 Operation Blue Star.
In contrast, given the sensitivity of the issue, there is hardly any Congress leader in the state who would openly defend the army action in the Golden Temple, which is known as the Operation Blue Star.
The Congress could achieve its first election victory in Punjab following the Operation Blue Star only in 1992, when it formed the government under Beant Singh as most other parties boycotted the polls while the voter turnout was 24%.
Later, the grand old party relied on Captain Amarinder Singh’s “pro-Sikh” image in the 2002 and 2017 Assembly polls to return to power in the state as it consolidated votes of a large section of the Sikh community in its favour besides retaining its Hindu vote base.
On the other hand, despite inducting former Congress leaders such as Captain Amarinder, his wife Preneet and Bittu into its fold, the BJP’s plan to make inroads into Sikh votes in the Lok Sabha polls could not succeed in the face of issues such as the farmers’ protests and the lengthy, repeated paroles given to rape convict Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh in neighbouring BJP-ruled Haryana. There has been a history of conflict between the Dera Sacha Sauda devotees and various Sikh organisations.
Bittu was also among the first few Punjab leaders to slam the candidacy of Waris Punjab De chief and pro-Khalistan preacher Amritpal Singh, who has currently been incarcerated in an Assam jail under the National Security Act (NSA), from the Khadoor Sahib constituency and Sarbjit Singh, son of former PM Indira Gandhi’s assassin Beant Singh, from the Faridkot seat, claiming that Punjab would become “unlivable” if the duo won the polls. Both Amritpal and Sarbjit however finished as winners in their respective seats.
While his BJP colleague Dinesh Singh Babbu was trying to pacify agitating farmers in Gurdaspur, Bittu went hammer and tongs against them. “Some fake farmers protest against (Prime Minister) Narendra Modi and me for ₹500 each, while real farmers are in the fields. Such protesters will be treated accordingly after June 4,” Bittu had alleged during one of his campaign rallies in Jagraon.
As Bittu left the Congress, Leader of the Opposition in the Punjab Assembly, Partap Singh Bajwa called his former party colleague “anti-Sikh”. “His elevation (to the Union Council of Ministers) is a message by the BJP that it will not listen to the voice of Punjabis. They will now send Bittu to the Rajya Sabha. In the past, the Centre has used leaders from the state to issue statements against Punjab. Now, they are using Bittu for it,” Bajwa told The Indian Express.
As the BJP drew a blank in Punjab in the Lok Sabha polls, Bittu’s hardline approach is being seen as one of the polarising factors. While a large chunk of the Hindu votes may have gone to the BJP due to the Ram Temple issue, the rural voters, barring a small section of Dalits, seemed to have gone against the party due to farm unrest and various Sikh-related issues.
Observers say that Amritpal and Sarbjit’s wins have shown “fluidity” among the Sikh voters and that the BJP would look to use its faces like Bittu to polarise the votes of another section of the community in its favour while consolidating its existing support base ahead of the 2027 Assembly polls.
