Punjab Political Diaries Bhagwant Mann Anindita Mitra Raja Warring

They say politics has a strange way of writing scripts overnight and changing fortunes. The Akal Takht’s censure of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and its decision to summon AAP legislators over the anti-sacrilege law have had an unexpected beneficiary in the form of the Agriculture Minister Gurmeet Singh Khuddian. The only Sikh in the Punjab cabinet, sporting a flowing beard, Khuddian had reportedly fallen out of favour with the party’s top leadership after a showdown with senior AAP leader Manish Sisodia during a meeting. Till recently, political circles were convinced his days in the cabinet were numbered. However, a new lease of life arrived. With the highest temporal seat of the Sikhs pulling up the Chief Minister, dropping the cabinet’s only Sikh with a flowing beard is no longer seen as an easy option. The whispers about his possible ouster have changed. “The Akal Takht has given a jeevan-daan (new lease life) to Khuddian,” is the catchline. The minister who looked politically vulnerable a few days ago is suddenly being spoken of as the one man nobody would want to touch. At least for now.

Just when the Aam Aadmi Party thought it had found the perfect political script with the launch of the Maawan Dhiyan Satkar Yojana, another script has begun worrying its leaders. The release of Satluj has sparked quiet conversations within the ruling party, with some fearing that the film could strike an emotional chord with young Sikhs and revive interest in Amritpal Singh’s Waris Punjab De. In the Assembly corridors, two AAP MLAs were heard making a wry comparison. “Last year it was the Ravi floods. This year it’s the Satluj,” one quipped, suggesting that while the Ravi washed away fields, Satluj threatened to wash away the political gains from the government’s Rs 1,400-crore already distributed to women as a financial assistance scheme. For now, the biopic seems to have overpowered the welfare politics.

Amid the rumblings of rebellion in the Punjab Congress, PPCC chief Amarinder Singh Raja Warring found an unusual way to send a political message-with a bowl of churi (a traditional Punjabi comfort food made by crumbling fresh rotis and mixing them with ghee and sugar). Even as a dissident group led by former Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi met Punjab affairs in-charge Bhupesh Baghel, sans Warring, he chose to dominate television screens, seated in his car and cheerfully relishing churi. With a smile, he declared it had been prepared by his nani. The symbolism was hard to miss. Having just been retained as the state unit chief despite weeks of speculation over his future, Warring appeared keen to project that he was unruffled by the rebellion and firmly in the saddle. Sometimes, comfort food serves as the most effective political messaging.