Close fight expected in Punjab

The Sikhs came from all over the country to be part of what promises to be the last of its kind of 'kar seva' (voluntary service). They left standing crops awaiting harvesting to be at the service. The occasion being cleaning the Amrit Sarovar (holy tank) that surrounds their highest place of worship – the Golden Temple.

There were many who did not wear a turban since even non-Sikhs have traditionally been offering prayers at Sri Harmandir Sahib, as the Golden Temple is popularly called. Among non-Sikhs to be present there to pay his reverence was a man who could easily go down in contemporary Indian history as the most travelled Indian politician – the Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani.

His presence in the Holy City when the kar seva was on may have been a 'coincidence', as his supporters would have one believe. Besides having travelled the country by road more than any of his peers due to his penchant for taking out rath yatras (chariot tours), Advani will also be remembered for the most judicious use of religion to rise in politics.

The Golden Temple kar seva offered Advani just the right platform to do the same yet again. Interestingly, despite having an image of being a champion of Hindus after having led the movement for construction of a Hindu temple in place of an ancient mosque of Ayodhya, Advani is one of those rare individuals who talks of Hindu deity Ram in public but reads the Guru Granth Sahib (Holy Book of Sikhs) at home.

The first thing he did after his Bharat Uday Yatra rath entered Amritsar on March 26 was to call on Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak (management) Committee chairman Gurcharan Singh Tohra at the hospital, followed by a visit to the Golden Temple. He somehow resisted the temptation to get splashed in mud like hundreds of thousands of devotees present there that could have given him greater political mileage.

Only time will tell though if this 'pleasant coincidence' will help Advani increase the tally of his Bharatiya Janata Party-Shiromani Akali Dal combine from the state in the new Lok Sabha.

Given the fact that the polls have been ordered during the harvest season, there was no other way to reach to the masses. The response to Advani's rath in the northern state was lukewarm as most of the farmers were busy in their fields. Polling in the state for all 13 Lok Sabha seats has been deliberately scheduled for May 10, the last of the five-phased polls so as to avoid clash of harvesting and polls.

Despite being a predominantly agrarian society, Punjab is vastly different from the rest of the country. With at least one member of almost every family being an NRI and good inward flow of dollars, farmers in the state are generally prosperous.

Locals hardly work as farming labourers who are brought from other states like Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Orissa. This has also meant that villages and hamlets of Punjab are anytime better than towns elsewhere in the country.

Punjab is also different from other states in another way. While political parties use religion on the sly in other provinces, the Golden Temple is the breeding ground for politics in the state. The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) is one party that will go to any extent to control the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee. Every election rally in the state starts with raising of religious slogans.

The rival Congress party, which presently rules the state, tries to interfere with religious activities of the Sikhs by proxy since it is supposed to maintain its secular image.

The BJP, although a new entrant in the state's bipolar politics, has been trying to create its own space over the years arduously. SAD is its most natural ally since if SAD is normally the preferred political party of the majority Sikhs, BJP known as a pro-Hindu party, has been trying to make a dent into the Congress party's vote bank in the state, which largely consists of non-Sikhs.

The BJP, realising its limitations, is currently eyeing those non-Sikh voters who are not a natural Congress voters. And they have managed to lure in many. While Hindus dominate the party office bearers in the state, there are quite a few Sikhs and even Muslims in its ever-swelling ranks.
"There are nearly a million Muslim voters in Punjab. Many of us have joined the BJP and it has meant that today most of the Muslims here are BJP supporters," informs Abdul Qayoom Raja Qureshi, state president of BJP's minority cell.

Satpal Sharma, secretary of Amritsar unit of the BJP, confirms that the BJP at least in Punjab is not seen as a pro-Hindu party, not any longer. SAD has helped it change its image. It takes a big heart on the part of an alliance partner to offer the Amritsar Lok Sabha seat, which besides being the highest seat of Sikhs also has nearly 60 per cent Sikh voters, to the BJP, which SAD has done.

And the effort is showing up. Projections say the Congress party may not repeat its 1999 performance when it won nine out of 13 Lok Sabha seats. In fact it was a perfect 10 since its ally the Communist Party of India won the 10th seat. This time round, it could be a close fight with the SAD-BJP alliance expected to win not less than half a dozen of them.