Amritsar/Jalandhar : Prime Minister Manmohan Singh may no longer be king for the Congress in Punjab but to the party's opponents, he is above criticism. At least in public.
The ruling Shiromani Akali Dal mentions Singh in reverential tones and, in a strategy that suits it, treats him as someone above party politics.
College lecturer Gurnam Singh explains the Prime Minister’s benign image in his home state: he is like an “NRI uncle” whose success makes his Indian relatives proud — yet when he comes visiting, his advice is ignored though he is shown every courtesy.
Sure enough, the Prime Minister is not the Punjab Congress’s star campaigner in his home state. He is either missing from party hoardings or stands in a crowd of national and state leaders. The few poll rallies he has held have seen thin attendance.
All this provides some contrast to the 2007 Assembly elections and the 2009 Lok Sabha polls in the state. Singh had then addressed a larger number of public meetings, and his cut-outs were bigger than those of Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and former chief minister Amarinder Singh.
The Congress fared badly in the 2007 polls and lost power, but two years later won a handsome eight of the 13 Lok Sabha seats from the state.
Congress sources say that Singh’s son-of-the-soil credentials are unlikely to bring the party electoral gains any more. Some even claim that he could lose the party votes because of his opposition to populist sops such as free electricity and water to farmers.
:Half the venue was empty at the Prime Minister's public meeting in Amritsar on January 21 as he read out his speech, in Punjabi, from a written text. His Ludhiana rally too saw a smaller-than-expected turnout.
Much has clearly changed in the past few years for Singh in his home state, with his government’s performance and inflation playing a part.
“He has proved to be a Stepney (spare tyre) for Sonia Gandhi. His government is corrupt and anti-people; its policies have made life difficult for the poor,” said Fateh Singh, a gatekeeper at an Amritsar restaurant.
The owner of the town’s famous Surjit Restaurant echoed the sentiment.
“He (Singh) hasn’t done anything for Punjab during his stint as Prime Minister,” said Surjit Singh. He added that I.K. Gujral, the only other Punjabi to have been India’s Prime Minister, had done much more during his brief tenure in 1997.
Yet Singh continues to be a figure of respect, with even the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee reluctant to criticise him openly.
“The Sikh community is proud of him. Unfortunately, he does not identify himself as a Sikh or take up issues such as the insult to Sikhs by American TV host Jay Leno or the turban issue in France more strongly,” Prabandhak Committee member Bibi Kiranjot Kaur said.
But more than anything else, Singh “is somebody the community considers above party politics”, said former Akali Dal minister Manjit Singh Kalkatta. For this, Kalkatta credited the Akalis with whom he has fallen out.
Akali Dal leaders have left it to the BJP to criticise Singh — but only in the Hindu-majority constituencies where the BJP has fielded candidates. Uma Bharti and Himachal Pradesh chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal have attacked Singh during their rallies in Punjab.
In a deft political move, the Akalis had in October invited the Prime Minister to lay the foundation stone for the Mohali airport and, more significantly, to a religious event to inaugurate the Khalsa Heritage Centre at Anandpur Sahib.
The invite caused much heartburn among state Congress leaders. Amarinder and Punjab Congress chief Rajinder Kaur Bhattal complained to Sonia, requesting her to stop Singh from attending the functions.
The Prime Minister was dissuaded, but the Akalis had achieved what they had set out to do: they had turned Singh into a non-partisan figure.
“For us, he belongs to all the Sikhs of this world. It isn't about the Congress or the Akalis. The Prime Minister is an elder of our community who is heard and respected by world leaders,” said Jaspal Singh, a block-level Akali Dal leader in Amritsar.
Even in this election, the Akalis have continued with their policy of not uttering a word against Singh while continuing to criticise the Gandhis. This despite Singh, during his Amritsar speech, accusing the Akali government of financial mismanagement and of bringing down Punjab's economic standing among the states.
At a rally in Amritsar yesterday, deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal attacked the Gandhis for the problems Punjab has faced over the decades, but he had not a word against the Prime Minister.
Gurnam, the political science lecturer, explained: “We Sikhs have believed in ‘Raj karega Khalsa (Khalsas will rule)’. By becoming the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh has proved that prediction true. For us, he is a Sikh first and last; that he is a Congressman is incidental.”
Pramod Kumar of the Institute of Development and Communication, Chandigarh, tried to put things in perspective.
“That the Prime Minister has never presented himself as a Sikh but as a professional economist cannot be denied,” he said.
“Therefore, the extent to which he mirrors the economic reforms agenda and the price rise as its fallout, along with his opposition to free electricity and water to farmers, may have distanced him from the aam aadmi. But somebody disrespecting Manmohan Singh will be disrespecting the entire community. The political parties in Punjab understand that.”