RS members of AAP
One of the pressing issues that we witnessed in the last week was the non-Punjabi and the businessmen chosen by the AAP government to send to the Upper House of the Indian Parliament (Rajya Sabha, in short RS). The backlash from the non-AAP as well as the AAP supporters were evident on the social media platforms where they raised their concerns over the issue.
There is no official statement given by Bhagwant Mann on this, the newly elected Chief Minister of Punjab from AAP. But on the official Facebook pages of Bhagwant Mann and AAP Punjab numerous people commented on the posts that how the government’s decision wasn’t in the favour of the Punjab; but I’m not able to find these comments now. (A note to myself to take the screenshots in case there is a notorious play of deleting the comments.) AAP supporters seemed very quick to point this out when the news of the RS members spread over the social media.
Newly members who will be sent to the RS include Ashok Mittal (LPU founder), Harbhajan Singh (cricketer), Sanjeev Arora (industrialist), Raghav Chadha (Delhi MLA), and Sandeep Pathak. Ashok Mittal and Sanjeev Arora are named as the businessmen who would never safeguard the rights of Punjab in RS. Harbhajan Singh’s pics of hugging and lifting Nita Ambani from a decade ago when the Mumbai Indians won a cricket match went viral on social media. Harbhajan Singh was accused of having close ties with the Ambani Family, who along with Adani are named to monopolize everything in India. Recently three farm laws were repealed by the Modi government after a year of sit-in protests by the farmers because they believed these giant businessmen would do what they please without looking at the welfare of the farmers. A piece of news from 2009 is also widely shared where Harbhajan Singh admitted that a helicopter was sent for him by the Ambani to fly to Chandigarh while he’s stuck in the curfew. His association with the Ambani Family might be limited to the cricket and has been highly exaggerated to be otherwise, but only the time will tell if the allegations levelled against Harbhajan Singh come true or not. Raghav Chadha has already tried to polarize the Punjabis on religion when he tweeted Sunil Jakhar being ignored by the Congress for the post of Chief Minister merely because he’s a Hindu – he himself has said the same in a rally though. Sandeep Pathak is awarded the RS seat because he designed the Punjab campaign for AAP.
Who knows that the rich guys cheering for AAP might be the Ambani and Adani of the AAP! It’s true that to fight elections you need money. You can’t have a big party with merely crowdfunding. You need people with deep pockets who can flow the cash during the campaigns. AAP has spent enormous amount of money on the advertisement. Just for the swearing-in ceremony of Bhagwant Mann 3 crore rupees were spent.
RS as well as the Punjab Cabinet should consist of those people who have knowledge. You can’t have an agriculturist to look over the economy of the state, or an economist for the education, etc. Dedicated people, who have the knowledge on the matter, should be consulted if not selected. In the words of Neera Chandoke:
Punjab should be nominating knowledgeable candidates who can fight out these issues in the Rajya Sabha and instruct ministers from the Central Government. Punjab’s universities and research centres have a number of distinguished economists; let them go and speak forcefully in the Rajya Sabha on the problems of the state, on the need to generate employment, on environmental issues, on climate change and on MSP. Let them represent Punjab.
Official language of Punjab: Punjabi
One who has read the Punjab history knows how the official language of the state was chosen and how some people went against using the Gurmukhi script. But that is in past. A sitting CM and his close acolytes should know Punjab’s official language is Punjabi.
There is a strong note taken by the Punjabi community when the advertisement for the swearing-in ceremony of Bhagwant Mann was shown in Hindi on 15th March 2022 in The Tribune, an English newspaper. There are advertisements given by the non-Punjabi states as well, which are in Hindi. To some extent it makes sense as their official language is Hindi, or they were run by the BJP governments who want to pain the whole country with one language, one culture, and one religion. But for the Punjab Government, it’s very unfortunate and reprimandable act to choose Hindi for the advertisement in the English newspaper. Soon the government seemed to come to their senses because the March 16th advertisement came in English in The Tribune.
Some AAP followers who always defend the party say Hindi advertisement was given in The Tribune because some people won’t understand Punjabi, maybe outsiders who’re working in different fields in Punjab. That is not very much accepted by public because people who know English would buy a copy of The Tribune. A Hindi reader won’t buy an English newspaper just to see Hindi advertisements. It’s better to choose the language of the newspaper. The government should be aware of choosing the language while advertising.
Before the AAP’s win in Punjab, Bhagwant Mann had been tweeting in Hindi. Even after becoming the CM of Punjab, there’re tweets in Hindi[1]. It might be the policy of the AAP to use the Hindi language so that the tweets can be read by non-Punjabi speakers as well. I am aligned with the thought of tweeting in Hindi if there’re non-Punjabi rallies outside of Punjab, like in MP or UP. But when you’re declaring your Cabinet Ministers in the Government of Punjab, you should tweet in Punjabi, not Hindi.
Where is Maharaja’s picture?
Within a few days of swearing-in ceremony, the AAP government found itself in a number of controversies. One of them was the removal of Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s photo. It’s been alleged that the picture of Maharaja Ranjit Singh was removed and was replaced with the pictures of Bhagat Singh and Dr B. R. Ambedkar in CM’s office. What is the truth in it?
On 16th March, one Facebook page shared the picture of Maharaja Ranjit Singh behind the ex-CMs – Charanjit Singh Channi, Amarinder Singh, and Parkash Singh Badal. But behind the chair of Bhagwant Mann, the wall had the pictures of Bhagat Singh and Dr B. R. Ambedkar as Arvind Kejriwal had said to have the pictures of these two in every government office.
On 19th March, AAP – Punjab official Facebook page shared one picture of the first meeting of the Punjab Cabinet, maybe after the backlash on the social media, where the picture of Maharaja Ranjit Singh was clearly seen behind Bhagwant Mann. So, the AAP followers saved the image and shared across the Facebook pages where the people were accusing the government of removing the picture.
There is another post appeared where it’s said there’re three rooms, and in Bhagwant Mann’s room the picture was removed. That made sense as the 19th March post was showing the picture of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, but not 16th March, which was shared by the AAP – Punjab’s official Facebook page too. It also cleared the doubt where it was pointed out that 16th March picture had the window on the right side of Bhagwant Mann, but not in the other pictures of ex-CM; the reason behind that was the different rooms.
I think the CM office should clear this picture issue.
Always defending the politicians, some of the people also said what is in the picture, when Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s picture was in place nothing extraordinary was done by the earlier government, and people should focus on the work of the government, not these trivial issues. My point is who started the picture row? Why to put the pictures of Bhagat Singh and Dr B. R. Ambedkar at the first place? You should’ve avoided the whole controversy by focusing on the work than displaying the pictures of these two to confirm your nationalistic feelings. I’m not against these two even if I have some reserved thoughts, but one has to realize that there’re certain boundaries you don’t cross when you start a new trend, like removing the heritage of the Sikhs and Punjab.
Applauded work
One pension for MLAs is the best decision of the AAP government.
An MLA if wins the seat is entitled to a pension, but if he wins again, he gets a second pension, and so on. There are numerous candidates who’ve won the assembly seats multiple times, think about the salaries that would be drawn by them. According to the news report, first term pension comes to Rs. 75,150, and Rs. 50,100 is added in every term, tax free. There is a catch in this whole pension row.
Before the elections, some have alleged that Parkash Singh Badal had been withdrawing some 8-10 pensions every month because of his winning streak, which was broken by AAP’s Gurmeet Khudian. This piece was circulated hundreds of times on social media if not thousands. Many have believed this because Punjabis are yet to learn how politics work.
According to the news published in The Tribune, an MLA is eligible for pension only when he ceases to be a member of the Assembly. If this is true, then Badal didn’t withdraw the pension as he never lost since 1969. How he withdrew multiple pensions then? It should be noted that Badal’s pension would have been Rs. 5,76,150 after losing in the current elections, but he refused to take it. Badals aren’t the saints but at least the substantiated matters should be picked against them.
We might see increase in the corruption too because it’s not like the old times when after winning the Assembly seat every time you would be given the pension when you lose; now the politicians would try to gather as much money as possible before losing their Assembly seat.
The government should make more of these decisions where the money would be saved, and the Treasury Department wouldn’t be depleted. The money saved with this decision should be used on the welfare of the state.
The removing of the Punjab’s representation from the Bhakhra Beas Management Board and Amit Shah’s announcement that central services rules will be applicable to Chandigarh administration require great attention of the Punjab government. There’re certain decisions made by the Punjab government – only time will tell how they would actually help people – but the government, especially the AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal, should never forget that if the identity and the powers of the Punjab are taken away by the Centre government, and state government keeps mum, Punjabis won’t care about your freebies and welfare schemes. Last few incidents mentioned in this article confirmed that Punjab is not Delhi.
[1] पंजाब का नया मंत्रिमंडल कल शपथ ग्रहण करेगा। पंजाब की AAP सरकार में होने वाले सभी मंत्रियों को बहुत-बहुत शुभकामनाएँ।
पंजाब की जनता ने हम सबको बहुत बड़ी ज़िम्मेदारी दी है, हमें दिन-रात मेहनत कर लोगों की सेवा करनी है, पंजाब को एक ईमानदार सरकार देनी है। हमें रंगला पंजाब बनाना है।
आज़ादी के 75 साल बाद भी हमारे लोग कतारों में खड़े हैं। आज हम ये सिस्टम बदलने जा रहे हैं। अब हमारी बुजुर्ग माताओं को राशन के लिए घंटो लाइन में नहीं लगना पड़ेगा। किसी को अपनी दिहाड़ी नहीं छोड़नी पड़ेगी। आज मैंने फैसला लिया है कि आपकी सरकार आपके घर राशन पहुंचाएगी।
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