Casteism in Punjab politics

I have felt proud throughout my life that Punjab is the region where caste has no role to play in politics. Maybe I was naïve or wasn’t aware of the deep-rooted social structure based on discrimination in the minds of the people of Punjab. The recent conundrum in the Punjab Congress proved it right.

For decades the politics in India is driven by the caste and religion. Although the country is secular constitutionally, but the people selected by the countrymen are not. And they try to prove how much they are related to the religion and the caste they were born into. The fact is you can’t run a political party in India without being associated with the culture or religion of the land or sub-land. These two are the major factors when it comes to the grouping of people. People who are so emotionally connected to these can be fooled easily by the rulers. I have seen some people suggesting they chose BJP not because of development but the Hindutva ideology. And they don’t even care much about BJP, if there is another political party who’s going to talk Hindutva, they will choose that in power.

Congress and AAP, the so-called secular parties, have shown their leaning towards the religious people or their beliefs. To win elections, they all do any sort of tricks. Rahul Gandhi has called himself a janeu-dhari. Arvind Kejriwal has said to make Uttarakhand the global spiritual capital for the Hindus, if voted to power. BJP is not the sole flag-bearer of the Hindutva now. There are other players in the game.

Leaving the non-Punjabi political parties and people alone, my heart aches as I write the similar situation arising in Punjab, when the Chief Minister of Punjab, Captain Amarinder Singh, resigned from the post, and Charanjit Singh Channi swore as the next CM of Punjab. The Punjab elections are nearing in the early 2022. The move of Captain was either stupid, or there was already a big planning to have some other candidate to lure the voters for the next assembly elections.

Charanjit Singh Channi became the CM later but dalit first. His background and his political career weren’t discussed by the people. He was the first dalit CM, that was the news. The so-called dalit caste is elated to see a CM from their own caste. This is true that a person believes that his own religion/caste member should be in power or should have certain powers to make their lives better. Collectively, Sikhs believe the same, and a just society will be there if a Sikh is at the top or has enough power to make decisions. What has been done so far is given a Sikh-looking person to the masses of Punjab, by all the political parties. What they haven’t given us is a proper Sikh, who lives his life based on the principles of the Sikh Gurus. Those Sikhs will definitely be a changing factor for the society.

If I look back after the Kharku Lehar, from the mid-nineties, I didn’t see a CM who is religious and make just decisions. SAD is there, but the Sikh values are going down from the top to the bottom of its members. However, it doesn’t mean we have to discard them, because this has been discussed and talked about for years. SAD is the party of martyrs. We can replace its top members; we can’t dismantle its base.

Anyways, from SAD too we didn’t see much progress on the extrajudicial killings of the Sikh youth back in 1980s and 1990s. And their handshake with the BJP shouldn’t be forgotten either. Now they have broken their ties over the farmer issues related to the laws.

Some suggest SAD is filled with Jats, so it’s new and fresh to see a non-Jat face as the CM. The fact of the matter is Jats aren’t superior, neither dalits are inferior. This line has created enmity between the people. Politicians have used this in the Hindi belt for decades. If we are stuck in this cycle, we will never come out of it, and we will be played out by the politicians. We are Punjabis. The politicians running the state should be Punjabi. That’s it.

With the resignation of Captain, some assumed the Congress would have a Hindu as a CM. Sunil Jakhar’s name was on top. With Charanjit Singh Channi as the CM, some Hindu hardliners took to social media about how the Hindu wasn’t chosen by the Congress.

Words are that Amarinder wanted to create his own party, when asked in 2015. So, this feud might have given the way as the Congressmen believed him to be independent minded. Although, the reasons given by the ex-CM were that he was humiliated because the MLAs were called to Delhi twice and called CLP in Chandigarh.

We Sikhs have to step cautiously. This shouldn’t divide the Sikhs on the lines of so-called caste; there is no caste in Sikhi. If people who call themselves Sikhs and practise Sikhi have the caste-mindset, they shouldn’t impose their views on the Sikh Panth.