In Punjab, as Congress bets on Dalits, it could lose Jat Sikh support

Political observers feel that a sense of uneasiness among the Jat Sikhs is bound to happen across party lines, because they may see their dominance being diminishing in days to come.

By Vikas Vasudev

A few months ahead of the 2022 Assembly election in Punjab, the Congress chose Charanjit Singh Channi, a Scheduled Caste, as its leader to head the State, the decision being seen as an attempt to help the party to garner the support of significant Dalit voters in the State, even as it could nibble the party’s Jat Sikh vote bank.

Punjab has close to 32% population of the Scheduled Caste community, the highest in the country while Jat Sikhs population is around 20%. But since 1977, the State has never seen a non-Jat Sikh Chief Minister, be it of the Congress or the Shiromani Akali Dal, indicating the political dominance of the Jat Sikh community. Giani Zail Singh was the last non-Jat Sikh Chief Minister of Punjab between 1972-77.

In the run-up to the 2022 Assembly poll, the Congress’s politics seems to be predominantly focusing on wooing the Scheduled Caste community, but in this entire exercise, the party could alienate the Jat Sikhs, which could be an obstacle to the party’s ambition to regain power in Punjab. Political observers feel that a sense of uneasiness among the Jat Sikhs is bound to happen across party lines, because they may see their dominance being diminishing in days to come, which would be an unusual scenario for the single largest caste (Jat Sikhs) in the State. “Jat Sikhs have owned majority farming land in Punjab. Against the backdrop of the green revolution, their financial situation strengthened further. As they had been economically strong it reflected in the politics as well. The Chief Minister in Punjab has been mostly a Jat Sikh. Now, it’s natural to have an uneasiness among the community if someone else is at the helm of the affairs. In the Congress, Mr. Channi who initially was ‘overshadowed’ by the presence of Punjab Congress president Navjot Singh Sidhu [Jat Sikh] has now been forcefully asserting his leadership. This assertion is going to create a flutter among the Jat Sikh leaders in the party. If Mr. Channi can get more party tickets to his loyalists then definitely the anxiety among the Jat Sikh leaders would increase and shall be more evident,” said Ashutosh Kumar, professor of Political Science at Panjab University.

The party replaced Captain (retired) Amarinder Singh (Jat Sikh) with Charanjit Singh Channi as Chief Minister in September last year. And, now there is a strong buzz in the party circles that in the coming election Mr. Channi could contest from two Assembly constituencies, from his home seat Chamkaur Sahib and the Doaba region, which has high a concentration of Dalits, making it evident that the Congress is aiming to win over the Dalit votes in an attempt to regain power in Punjab.

As the ruling Congress is fighting to retain its government in Punjab, the party’s recent moves give an impression that it is moving towards ‘exclusivity’ from its traditional ‘inclusive’ approach, which may not be much rewarding in the State’s electoral politics that is a multi-religious, multi-caste and multi-cultural society.

Retaining the Hindu vote bank, that has traditionally been inclined towards the Congress, is going to be a tough task for the Congress — the reason is, over the years, the BJP has been contesting elections as a ‘junior partner’ in alliance with the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and the SAD is seen as a ‘Panthic’ (Sikh) party and therefore the Hindu voters largely have been traditionally seen as inclined towards the Congress. But against the backdrop of the emergence of ‘polarisation’ politics lately, the BJP could go in to woo the Hindu votes in the State, especially in the urban areas.

Notably, Congress’s former State president and party’s in-charge of 2022 poll campaign committee Sunil Jakhar has categorically stated that during the deliberations surrounding the choosing of a new Punjab Chief Minister, a remark by a veteran Congress leader that ‘only a Sikh can be the Chief Minister of Punjab’ was totally against the ethos of the Congress and the ‘uncalled’ remark has left an ‘entire community’ of Punjab’s society anxious, which was never an issue earlier in the border State. Mr. Jakhar was the front runner for the post of Chief Minister, before Mr. Channi’s name was announced. However, not choosing Mr. Jakhar, a Hindu, and simultaneously the remark by a Congress leader that ‘only a Sikh can be the Chief Minister of Punjab’, could alienate the Hindu vote bank from the Congress.

“The attempt of coming to power only based on Dalits is difficult in Punjab as it is a State where society is multi-religious, multi-caste, and multi-cultural. Winning an election by focusing on ‘exclusivity’ is difficult in Punjab, and this is what precisely the Congress is attempting here. From its traditional ‘inclusive’ oriented approach, the party has started a process to move towards adopting an ‘exclusivity’ approach, which is not very rewarding in the electoral politics of Punjab,” said Pramod Kumar, director of the Institute for Development and Communication in Chandigarh.

Courtesy : The Hindu

Note: This news piece was originally published in thehindu.com and used purely for non-profit/non-commercial purposes exclusively for Human Rights objectives.