By Gobind Thukral

South Asia Post : 4 sept 2015

Mutinous protests are evident everywhere in Punjab. BJP, a coalition partner is protesting that Akalis do not listen to them enough and are involved in nefarious activities; corruption, drug smuggling and sale and several other misdeeds. They are not only ruining their “beloved Punjab”   but bringing bad name to the collation government.

Their main target is deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal and his brother-in-law, revenue minister Bikram Singh Majithia. In fact, a chief parliamentary secretary, Dr Navjot Kaur Sidhu is so cut up with the chief minister and other Akali leaders that she is protesting all-around, staging dharnas and shouting slogans. Efforts to placate her even by chief minister Prakash Singh Badal have come to naught.

And, Akalis have now got a new stick to beat the BJP. Punjab state unity president Kamal Sharma has been caught with his hands in their till as his two aides have been arrested on the charges of corruption and in league with drug smugglers.  No less than a person, Mrs. Harsimrat Kaur Badal, a union minister and wife of Sukhbir singh Badal had demand that he should quit until the position of his aides is cleared. Interestingly, the senior Badal who leads the government has come to the rescue of Sharma by saying that till charges are proved in a court of law or through an enquiry, there is no need to resign as state BJP unit president. 

Then there are two senior officers of the all powerful Enforcement Directorate of the government of India whose protest has reached the annals the Punjab and Haryana high court.  Niranjan Singh, Enforcement Directorate officer who was enquiring into the Rs 6,000 crore drug racket for the past two years has squarely blamed Punjab revenue minister Bikram Singh Majithia for his transfer.  It was alleged that as the only reason behind his transfer from the Jalandhar office. “The only reason why Niranjan Singh was shifted was that he had summoned and examined Majithia and there was a fear that the officer could summon and examine him again,” his counsel submitted. The development is significant as Niranjan Singh had, till now, cast a shadow on the reason behind his impending transfer by simply claiming that the two substitute officers had hardly any experience in such matters. The officer had also claimed that the probe was far from over and any assertion to that effect was a “patent lie”.

The court has stayed his transfer and ordered to continue with the probe. The court also stayed the operation of orders transfer ED’s Assistant Legal Adviser-cum-Special Public Prosecutor Suresh Batra.  It made clear   that Batra would continue to be associated with the ED cases only in Punjab.

These two officers represent the government of India and are helping the probe and prosecution of an international drug racket and what exactly their protest mean?  The department is directly under the control of finance minister Arun Jaitley. A question going around in the corridors of power in Chandigarh is was the union minister under pressure from the Akalis to bail out Majithia who prominently appears in the probe. It is all intriguing.

These remonstrations apart, the existent protest comes and it shakes the conscience of the society from workers and farmers- the common Punjabi. It is heard only when it becomes defiant.

Take this most recent case. Farmer and labour unions are on a five-day protest near the district complex and resident of Deputy Commissioner, Bathinda. Similar remonstration goes on in Mansa and all across the state.  These men, women and particularly the widows of those farmers who have committed suicides in this land of green revolution are demanding compensation for families of farmers and farm labourers. Heavy debt besides crop failures of crops are two major reasons for the death of over several hundred otherwise sturdy farm hands. They could no more carry the debt burden. Besides, farmers are demanding a survey of suicides again and compensation for farmers who faced damage to their cotton crop by whitefly attack in this season.

They are basically asking the government to implement its circular issued last year to probe into the suicides committed by farmers and implementation of the Swaminathan report.

In fact, a new revolutionary, deeply rooted body of famers and farm workers has come up in Punjab some years back to take up the cudgels on behalf of the beleaguered people and lead militant protests.  Bharti Kisan Union (Ekta-Ugraha) is one such organization that is leading from the front. (Ekta-Ugraha) Bathinda president Shingara Singh Mann is quoted as saying: “The state government had failed to provide relief to families of farmers who have ended their lives following debt burden. Though the government had disbursed the compensation amount to victim families who were reported to be the victims of suicide in the survey conducted by three state-run universities but we are demanding a re-survey and inclusion of farm labourers whom the state government had excluded from the suicide survey report.”

Every day newspapers and now the 24 hour T V channels and sometime   even the one owned by the ruling Badal family report these protests. There had been continuous dharnas against very high toll for the road users.  Toll plazas dot every nook and corner and one ends up paying more than on the fuel.

Police stations are gheroed as are other government officers and this has become a routine . Even hospitals where callous doctors invite the ire of the public are subject to blockades.

And, at top is chief minister Prakash Singh Badal who has been vehemently protesting against the agriculture policies of the union government, causing distress in the farm sector. He has also been demanding some help to overcome the debt burden that Punjab may not be able carry any more.