Punjab: How many of Bhagwant Mann’s enemies are within?

Following the AAP’s lacklustre performance in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, winning just 3 out of the 13 Lok Sabha seats in Punjab, chief minister Bhagwant Mann has been under renewed pressure from his own party high command as well as naysayers.

Some disgruntled AAP MLAs, led by Vidhan Sabha speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan, reportedly lobbied with Delhi-based leaders to air their grievances against Mann in the immediate aftermath of the Lok Sabha polls.

Swords were crossed once again during the recent Vidhan Sabha session when Sandhwan, in an unprecedented move, sought the support of the Vidhan Sabha to summon the DGP to report on a corruption complaint against a junior police officer. The Speaker also gave this odd request ample play and sought the opinion of Kunwar Vijay Partap, former IPS officer and current AAP MLA from Amritsar North — and an ardent critic of his own government. Though the Speaker backed down the next day, it was a clear challenge to the authority of the chief minister, who is also the home minister. 

During the session, a number of the ruling party’s MLAs — including Kunwar Vijay Partap, Baljinder Kaur, Kuljit Singh Randhawa, Inderbir Nijjar, Dinesh Chadha and Gurlal Ghanaur — hauled up their own government for alleged non-performance and corruption! These fresh salvos by dissidents from within are believed by many observers to have the blessings of the Delhi bosses.

Of course, Bhagwant Mann’s tussle for power against the Delhi-based high command led by Arvind Kejriwal is common knowledge. Kejriwal’s release from jail was quite expected to exacerbate it further — not least because while Kejriwal was trapped in Tihar, Mann had quickly asserted himself to select candidates for the elections.

However, now that Kejriwal has been released on bail, Mann is repeatedly being shown his place, it seems. Bhagwant Mann was not allowed to speak during an event at Delhi to welcome Kejriwal. A miffed Mann was conspicuous by his retaliatory absence during the oath-taking ceremony for Atishi, newly sworn in as Delhi chief minister.

Kejriwal also convened a meeting of all the Punjab ministers in Delhi, a direct challenge to Mann’s authority. The latest reshuffle in the cabinet, where four cabinet ministers were dropped and five new ones inducted, is seen as his defiant response — and an attempt to bolster his dwindling base. 

A cup too full?

Allegations of alcoholism have haunted the Punjab chief minister ever since his entry into politics.

In 2015, he was forced to leave the Bhog ceremony of two youth killed during protests against Beadabi due to being three sheets to the wind.

Later, his party colleague and fellow Lok Sabha MP Harinder Singh Khalsa would accuse him of arriving drunk to Parliament sessions.

Facing repeated criticism, Bhagwant Mann publicly pledged to give up drinking in January 2019, at a rally in Barnala. His vow was hailed by party supremo Arvind Kejriwal as “a sacrifice for Punjab”.

However, Mann’s indulgence in spirits came into renewed focus this month when Akali leader Bikram Majithia alleged that the chief minister tripped on the tarmac at Chandigarh airport due to being in an inebriated state and had to be rushed back to Delhi on the same chartered flight which brought him.

Partap Singh Bajwa of Congress joined in the razing, wishing good health to the chief minister’s “vital organs like the liver”! Mann tweeted a denial of injury due to the effects of liquor — and deleted the post a short while later.

Meanwhile, clips of Mann making fun of government schools (an AAP flagship initiative) and incoherently congratulating the Indian hockey team on its bronze medal at the Olympics continued to circulate on Punjabi social media.

Curiously, though, notwithstanding his problem with the bottle that political detractors make so much of, Bhagwant Mann’s image with the public has largely remained positive. However, as the case of former chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh and his relations with Pakistani journalist Aroosa Alam showed, people are only forgiving as long as the government is delivering; otherwise, what is considered ‘private’ quickly becomes a public matter.

The arrest of Malwinder Mali

One of the characteristics of the AAP model has been its obsession with controlling the narrative. This has taken the shape of incessant advertisements across TV channels, newspapers, billboards, social media, etc. One can hardly escape Bhagwant Mann in his yellow turban anywhere in Punjab.

Alongside this carpet bombing, the AAP also specialises in extreme intolerance for critics of the government, those speaking truth to power. In the last two years, opposition leaders such as Sukhpal Khaira, legacy media such as <Ajit>, small digital channels such as <Akhar> and social influencers such as Bhana Sidhu have all been targeted by the party. Critics believe the AAP’s rising intolerance is symptomatic of the state government losing the plot after its Lok Sabha debacle.

The latest to face the ire of the Bhagwant Mann government is Malwinder Singh Mali, an influential opinion maker and a critic of the AAP dispensation. Mali was picked up by the police late at night from Patiala, barely an hour after an FIR was lodged at Mohali for ostensibly ‘hurting the religious sentiments of Hindus’.

It later became known that the person whose religious sentiments were hurt was an AAP worker and a nominated member of the government-funded Punjab Gau Sewa Commission. Mali’s arrest was vociferously opposed by civil society in Punjab, which staged demonstrations in Chandigarh and various other places in the state. 

Meanwhile... A change of guard at Dera Beas

Dera Radha Soami will see a change of guard after 34 years with its current head, Gurinder Singh Dhillon, deciding to appoint distant relative Jasdeep Singh Gill, a PhD from the University of Cambridge and a senior corporate official, as his successor.

Dera Radha Soami, with its headquarters in Beas, Punjab, is one of the most influential deras of the state, playing an important role in the socio-political affairs of North India. It boasts over 4 million followers in India and abroad, and controls a vast network of smaller deras and prime real estate in Punjab, Haryana, Himachal and Delhi.

Deras such as Radha Soami and Sachha Sauda also, naturally, play important roles in the electoral politics of the state, so that politicians canvass for their support. Earlier known to be discreet in its support to political parties, Dhillon’s dera has become conspicuous in its recent political support of prime minister Narendra Modi during his visit to the state in November 2022.

Gurinder Singh Dhillon’s stewardship also saw Dera Radha Soami courting controversy with allegations of financial fraud, involving his nephews Shivinder and Malvinder (of Fortis and Religare fame), and has also been targeted by radical Sikhs, who consider the dera’s reverence for living gurus apostasy.

For now, however, the succession is apparently necessitated by the dera head’s ill health rather than any personal or political foibles, as he is reportedly suffering from cancer.