Guv, CM at loggerheads; arrested Amritpal triggers ‘Khalistan’ scare

Chandigarh : Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Singh Mann and the Raj Bhavan sparred repeatedly over the past year, during which the AAP government approached the Supreme Court and Governor Banwarilal Purohit made a veiled threat to impose President’s rule.

Mann had other things to worry about as well in 2023. Like floods that devastated crops, farmers who blocked highways and a radical preacher who reminded many of the days when the border state suffered under Khalistani terror decades back. The Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) canal dispute with Haryana festered, and the Supreme Court asked the Centre to survey the portion of land which was allocated to Punjab for the construction of its part of the canal decades back.

Punjab has reiterated that it doesn’t have a single drop of water to spare for any neighbouring state. Over the months, Governor Purohit questioned Mann on several issues, including the criteria for selecting school principals for a trip abroad for training. The CM snubbed him, saying he was accountable “only to the three crore Punjabis”.

Purohit was also accused of “interfering” in the functioning of an elected government. In turn, the governor would sit on Aam Aadmi Party government’s requests to summon assembly sessions. In June, the Raj Bhavan protested when the Mann government termed a two-day sitting an “extension” of the Budget session, apparently just to bypass the need to get Purohit’s nod. The state government took the matter to the Supreme Court. In November, the SC made it clear that the session was “constitutionally valid” -- and not “illegal”.

But it also questioned the state government over repeated sine die adjournments of the Budget session, instead of it being prorogued. In August, Purohit said he could impose President’s Rule and also initiate criminal proceedings if his letters to the state government were not answered. And in one of the assembly sessions, the Mann government brought Bills that seemed to be aimed at cutting the Centre to size. The Punjab Universities Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2023 would have stripped the Governor of his role as Chancellor of state-run varsities.

The Punjab Police (Amendment) Bill, 2023 would have bypassed the Union Public Service Commission in the appointment of the police chiefs in Punjab. The Governor has now reserved these and another bill for the President’s consideration. The Punjab Police were kept on their toes by criminals linked to gangsters based abroad. Almost as a matter of routine, drones crossed the India-Pakistan border, dropping consignments of drugs and weapons in the state. But the biggest security challenge proved to be a pro-Khalistan preacher, Amritpal Singh. He had taken over as the chief of an outfit called ‘Waris Punjab De’, after the death of its founder, activist-actor Deep Sidhu.

Amritpal Singh’s supporters clashed with police on February 23, barging into a police station in Amritsar district to demand the release of one of his aides. The state police caved in. But days later, they launched a state-wide crackdown. A cat and mouse chase in Punjab and neighbouring states ended with the preacher’s arrest on April 23. Singh and his key aides were charged under the stringent National Security Act and are now lodged in an Assam jail. The AAP had backed the farmers’ year-long protest in 2021 for the repeal of three agriculture laws introduced at the Centre. But in Punjab, it found itself at the receiving end with farmers protesting against the Mann government.

Several times in the past year, farmers blocked roads, squatted on rail tracks and protested at government offices over demands ranging from compensation for rain damage to better price for their crops. Mann reminded farmer unions that they could turn people against themselves if they blocked roads. “If this attitude remains, the day is not far when you will not find people for the dharnas,” he said. The AAP won the Jalandhar Lok Sabha by-election in May, breaching a Congress stronghold.

Both parties are in the opposition INDIA alliance, but have indicated that they would rather fight on their own in Punjab in the 2024 parliamentary elections. Amid the search for Amritpal Singh, cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu emerged from Patiala jail after serving a one-year sentence in a three-decade-old road rage case in which a man died. Around this time, Shiromani Akali Dal patriarch and five-time CM Parkash Singh Badal died at 95, after an epic innings in Punjab politics. Sidhu, a former state Congress chief and a bitter rival, travelled to Badal village to offer condolences just days after his release.