The victory of Akali Dal candidate in the Gidderbaha Assembly constituency by-election was never in doubt. This constituency was assiduously nursed by Parkash Singh Badal who was chief minister of Punjab twice. Even out of power, Badal never fell foul of Delhi. He exercised influence over the bureaucracy which responded to whatever he desired at any time in the past two and a half decades. The operation “Blue Star” or the alienation of Sikhs from India hardly made any difference to the personal position of Badal. In the last general election, the Sikh masses boycotted the election all over the state and Gidderbaha was no exception. Despite all these strong factors, Badal’s candidate just managed to win the seat. The margin of victory has been unexpectedly low. His candidate could have lost but for the support extended to Akali Dal by B.K.U., the B.S.P. and the C.P.I. Large scale corruption indulged in by chief minister Beant Singh and his ministers by out rightly purchasing votes is not a sufficient explanation for the rather lackluster showing of the Badal candidate, The fact of the matter is that the Indian democracy is generally a sham affair notwithstanding the so-called reforms introduced by high-profile T.N. Seshan. The reforms center around building up Seshan’s personality only.
This south Indian Brahman pretends to head and administer the constitutional post impartially. But he is more political than judicial in his outlook and actions. He has taken it into his head to ‘save India and its system. Since Punjab happens to be a state inhabited by enemies of unity and integrity of India, Seshan must in national interest ensure victory for Congress (I). He, therefore, took no action when plethora of complaints reached him against Congress (I). Instead, he helped the party by postponing the election for a week. No one knows what happened to the so-called “show cause” notice Seshan issued to the “all India Congress committee” about the complaints about its conduct in Gidderbaha. All said and done, Seshan proved once again his blatant partiality for the Congress (I), and against Sikhs, The theme of this piece is not Seshan but his acts of omission and commission failed to hit the target. To that extent, the election result should jolt Delhi.
They should not take Sikhs for granted. At the same time, it has to be remembered that the Akali majority is too thin to make it possible for Badal to gloat over the result. Theresa sizeable section of Sikhs who have grown cynical of both Congress (I) and Akali Dal. They consider the two parties as chips off the same block. In due course, therefore, a third force is likely to emerge in Punjab which will make a clean break with the manner of functioning of the two parties and their leaders. For instance, it is a well-established fact that both Beant Singh and Badal made crores of rupees in the course of the election campaign in Gidderbaha. Beant had all the power to milk the rich, (mostly the Hindu rich) in the name of fighting the election. Badal was looked upon as the future chief minister of Punjab and election donations came to him liberally from all the corrupt and anti-Sikh bureaucrats and police officers. But the results have punctured Badal’s inflated balloon. He will have to look for allies to enter into the electoral field in future. Badal can also not afford to monopolize all the offices and nominations. But, will be relent on ideological matters? There does not appear to be any possibility of his taking up cudgels with Delhi for the fulfillment of even the demands contained in the Anandpur resolution. The Gidderbaha result has a limited significance for Punjab’s political future. It has shown that neither the Congress (I) nor the Akali leadership could take the public for granted.
Article extracted from this publication >> June 16, 1995
