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“Badal government will fall soon after the elections”

AMARINDER SINGH

If the response of the people during election rallies is any indication, Capt. Amarinder Singh, former Chief Minister and scion of the Patiala royal family, has emerged as the Congress’ main vote catcher. Capt. Amarinder Singh, who heads the party campaign committee in Punjab, says that there is an upsurge in favour of the Congress, which will have a big impact on the political canvas of the State. He spoke to SARABJIT PANDHER.

It is quite obvious that there is a groundswell in our favour. I have been active in politics since 1967, and have never seen such an upsurge in favour of any party. It is for the first time that people are supporting a party so overwhelmingly. Just watch, the results will be historic; the Congress is on the brink of creating history by sweeping all the seats.

Not that he is my son, but through his candidature, Raninder [Raninder Singh, Capt. Amarinder’s son, the Congress candidate from Bathinda] has put the Badals in a panic. For almost one and a half month, the entire Badal clan has been camping in Bathinda. The Chief Minister [Parkash Singh Badal] has been restricted to nukkar meetings, as the party could not mobilise enough crowds for him. They may resort to any tactic, use money, muscle or distribute alcohol, drugs and cash. Out of sheer desperation they may adopt tactics that ensure low voter turnout by intimidation and restrictions on the Congress voters. But I am sure the Election Commission will ensure the confidence of the people [to come out and vote].

I can give you a long list on that. But actually, the people, their own party workers and the [Akali Dal’s] alliance partner, the BJP, are all fed up with the Chief Minister, Parkash Singh Badal, and his son, Sukhbir Singh. The entire Cabinet is filled with people from the Badal family or their relatives. There are so many centres of power that one does not know who is running the government. This has affected the governance and justice delivery system. Most important is that people across the State want to teach the Akalis a lesson for what they did during the elections for Panchayati Raj institutions. Anybody who did not agree with Sukhbir faced the wrath of his goons. Forty-two Congress workers were killed and no action has been taken. False cases have been foisted against 7,000 of our workers. Then they used unheard of coercion to take complete control over the transport business, cable network, liquor trade and sand mines across the State.

To a limited extent that is true. But the Congress has been able to win the confidence of the people as Punjabis are comparing both the Prime Ministerial candidates. The world compliments Dr. Manmohan Singh for not only keeping India’s head above the water, but maintaining an eight per cent growth rate while the world is faced with a grave economic recession. On the other hand, what has Mr. Advani done for the country, especially Punjab? And then people are comparing the present dispensation in the State with ours. While we carried out 10 procurement seasons where the farmers were not harassed for a day, payments have not been made for more than weeks in the current season. We purchased power to ensure regular supply of power, but now we have prolonged cuts though the Badals had promised to make Punjab power surplus. There are so many examples to show how false their promises are.

I admit we failed to counter the perception that our government had focused more on the rural areas at the cost of the cities and towns. Of the 16 purely urban seats, except for two, all our candidates lost. Then we were a trifle unlucky, as about another dozen leaders lost by narrow margins.

Actually I am overwhelmed by the love that people shower on me. I think the present response is because I took up the fight against this highly repressive government.

The Badals filed five cases against me, three against my son and many others against my associates, but they failed to break us. Secondly, the decision of our government to terminate the previous inter-State agreements on river water sharing has raised the level of confidence among the people.

The results, which will be a complete washout for the Akali-BJP alliance in Punjab, will act as a catalyst to take the existent vertical divide in their camp to its logical conclusion. This government will fall within two weeks of the drubbing.

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