Hailing from Uttar Pradesh, and having spent last 24 years of mine in Punjab, it will be needless to say that the next few months leading to the State Polls are going to be exciting for me. For the last 3 odd years, I have worked in the Chandigarh with multiple IT firms, each having sharp workers and brilliant minds from the lesser known and lesser developed areas of Punjab. Currently, I am associated with a firm in Mohali. For the ones who are unaware, Mohali lies next to Chandigarh, is famous for the PCA Stadium (the venue of 2011 India-Pakistan Semi-Final), and in queue to become the next Gurgaon (in terms of work opportunities, infrastructure, and development, and yes, it would have proper roads).
Every day, I get into candid conversations with the cab drivers I travel with. In Punjab, everyone has a political opinion, and they don’t shy away from sharing it. While the ones looking for opportunities and development wish for the sustained rise of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, there are some who still invest their faith in the ruling party (SAD, owing to their stronghold in the rural areas). However, there is a certain category of people that sees hope for Punjab in Arvind Kejriwal. Before you ponder, no, there is none that harbors any empathy for the Congress.
AAP’s campaign in the land of five rivers has been a dull affair. I remember a rally being cancelled in Mohali a few weeks back because it couldn’t garner substantial crowd strength. The rallies have been conducted, but the spark has been missing (read eggs and slaps). Working with the educated elite of Punjab, I come across many at my workplace who are looking to vote for AAP. Their reason; because Arvind Kejriwal represents a different brand of politics than what they have been accustomed to, even though he merely represents the same face in a different garb of a righteous politician.
So, what is working for Kejriwal in Punjab? Believe it or not, it’s the same that worked for him in Delhi, emotion. Punjabis are known all over the world as lovable, warm hearted people. This is the psychology that Kejriwal is going to exploit for the next few months, and as a worker myself in Punjab, I hope that this exploitation doesn’t transform into reality, for the sake of Punjab. The underlying selfishness of AAP within this exploitation is now starting to become visible, and the first teaser of it was witnessed when AAP crossed every limit to insult the Golden Temple.
For the ones who have been following Kejriwal, writing about him since 2013, understand the lengths to which he and his party can go to win power, be it at a local or a national level. The youth manifesto (to which we shall come back later) was released a week back with a lot of pomp and show. Keeping the tradition of AAP alive, it did manage to inculcate multiple lies and flaws, the biggest of them being the insult to the Golden Temple. A book full of lies and deceit was compared to the holy Guru Granth Sahib, the latter being the pinnacle of religious serenity in the state.
Having visited the Golden Temple on multiple occasions, I can vouch for the fact that the place harbors a distinct feeling of peace and tolerance. People from all communities come together to celebrate the glorious heritage of Sikhs, the marveling legacy of generations that laid down its lives for the state and the country. Golden Temple is not a place to offer prayers alone, but the culmination of all the greatness that reflects Sikhism.
When I came across the AAP Punjab manifesto, the cover had me in anguish. Why on Earth would someone use the holy Golden Temple for their election momentum?
How can someone be so desperate for power in a state that they are willing to hurt the religious sentiments of the people there without any thought? Is this what politics is going to be about in Punjab? Is AAP trying to make headway into the heart of Punjab by using the soul of the state for its own selfish purposes? While my mind was stuck on all these questions, I couldn’t help but feel sorry for the Punjabis who are being fooled by this con man every day. The manifesto that houses nothing but lies and reflects nothing but cheap desperation for power, and is being compared to Guru Granth Sahib should make the people of Punjab worried. Religion has always been a sensitive topic for people all over the country, but the people of Punjab have been paying a price for the same due to the theatrics of politicians over multiple decades since Independence.
What was Kejriwal thinking while having the image of a broom on the Golden Temple? Even for the sake of doubt, if I were to ignore it, how can one let go of the preposterous comparison that was made between the manifesto and the holiest writings of Sikhism? I am not a Sikh by birth, but being in Punjab, this comparison left me in anger, pain, and frustration.
From where I work in Mohali, the memorial of Banda Singh Bahadur is clearly visible. Every evening, while taking a walk on the terrace, I marvel at the complex that has been built to commemorate the brave legacy of Sikhs. Today, the same legacy is threatened by a brand of politics that has its heart in greed, communal differences, and dwells on the fault lines that can divide our state, the state of Punjab.
For the next few months, my focus is going to be on Kejriwal’s Punjab campaign. While I urge the readers to look beyond the apology and the theatrics of AAP when it comes to the Golden Temple, and realize what their state needs. Being on the threshold of development and sustained progress, the youth of Punjab is looking for much more than mere empty words of a seasoned politician. The flawed promises of WiFi and sports complex must not and will not hold back Punjab from heading into a new dawn, the dawn of development.
Tomorrow, in the second and concluding part of this article, we shall analyze the manifesto with an objective to uncover the sham that it really is. Till then, hold on to this thought; what Kejriwal did to the Golden Temple in his cheap and childish greed for power, can he ever do that a mosque?