Negativity breeds negativity and if interpreted in the electoral perspective of Punjab, the incumbent SAD-BJP alliance government seems hell-bent on earning negative points. Any coercive method of subjugating political rivals through officials machinery have the dangerous potential of harming its prospects at the hustings. The latest is the case of stopping trials of budding Hockey players from rural areas for their selection in the sports wing at Jarkhar Hockey Academy near Ludhiana allegedly at the behest of an Akali MLA. The director of this ace Hockey academy had recently joined the APP.
Already under siege from the political adversaries, both parties in power especially the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) seems to have been infected by some suicidal bug. With allegations of victimisation of political rivals already galore, their continuance as exemplified by the Jarkhar episode will only serve to alienate the electorate. Leave rivals aside, of late even the disagreements within have started coming to the fore. There seems a siege within for which no one from the outside can be blamed. Much to the delight of the rivals, voices are being heard decrying the style of working of its leadership. It is a sad development for the SAD which with the arrival of the gennext leadership symbolised by Sukhbir Badal had indicated a paradigm shift in the Akali politics.
Post their suspension, the uneasiness expressed publicly by its own MLAs Pargat Singh and Inderbir Bularia couple of days back only goes to betray the extent of the infection within. Such discordant voices just a few months before elections in February 2017 are certainly not a good sign for the party which created history in Punjab by capturing the power for the second successive term and proclaimed to rule for 25 years. Both MLAs-one has been a star Hockey Olympian- do not have the kind of reputations which may be considered harmful to the electoral prospects of the SAD. The treatment meted out to both certainly does not match with their images in public eye.
Having been in power for close to a decade, it should have by now to its credit an enviable record of performance. Remember 2012, SAD supremo Prakash Singh Badal had attributed the unprecedented return to power for the second time to the politics of development. What has happened to that? Till recently, I myself had been arguing the absence of any noticeable dissidence within SAD as a worthy trait giving it an edge over at least its faction-ridden nearest rival Congress.
But this fortification started crumbling with the advent of APP on the Punjab’s political horizon. Starting with 2014 Lok Sabha polls when this rookie party managed its debut victory by wresting four seats in Punjab. More than the victory of APP it was a sign of the slide that had set in within the SAD which rubbed even its alliance partner BJP the wrong way. The adverse public perception resulted in defeat of BJP leader Arun Jaitley from Amritsar at the height of Modi wave sweeping the country.
Since the unprecedented victory of APP in 2015 Delhi polls, the SAD politics seems to be in a state of drift. Its all MLAs were defeated in the historic polls which flattened BJP and the Congress. Remember the stringently negative campaigning by the BJP and Congress which only boomeranged on both. In Punjab, a favourable public perception for APP in place since 2014 Lok Sabha polls got crystallised after the Delhi Assembly polls. But SAD the main contender in Punjab did not seem to have learnt any lesson from the upswing in the fortunes of APP which had made no secret of its political aspiration to become a third credible contender in Punjab.
Unfortunately, instead of countering the open and growing challenge from APP, the SAD leadership started indulging in negative politics. Instead of course correction, it allowed itself to become a victim of its own misplaced optimism and complacency. Probably Badals mistakenly thought that APP’s victory in Delhi was an aberration and a genuine fluke. At this stage, there is hardly any time and faith left in their own positive, development oriented electoral plank which now looksalmost like having been abandoned. The optimism that replacing it with populism may bring electoral dividends is not going to work this time. Here one may argue that Akalis have all along been resorting more to rhetoric than development on the ground.
Anyhow, like their partner BJP in run up to Delhi polls, the negative propaganda unleashed by Badals like calling APP leaders as Topiwale and Outsiders has not gone down well with the Punjabi electorate especially the Non-Sikhs besides NRIs. Instead of returning to their development, secular plank of Punjabiat, they have adopted a negative, parochial agenda with communal overtones. On the other hand, the APP or even the Congress have made economic, social and governance issues as central to their political agenda and are continuing to do so convincingly enough.
So no prizes for guessing why the likes of Pargat Singh, Bularia and immensely popular Navjot Sidhu fuel public expectations of their crossover to APP! The same holds true for groups of small local leaders or even apolitical persons of prominence. Negativity only breeds negativity and it is the law of Nature. If defied in electoral terms, it could only mean loss of votes.
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Raju William, Associate Editor , Babushahi.com
raju.william@gmail.com
Phone No. : +91-9855101121
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