Mere assurances won’t do, the Captain must deliver on many fronts

CAPT Amarinder Singh comparatively is an honest politician who would like to have no gap between what he has promised and what he is doing. But there are interest groups operating, each vying to have its own pound of flesh and, sometimes, they get the better of him. He knows this dilemma like Shakespeare’s Hamlet, who wishes to disentangle himself from the temptation to do what he must do for the sake of justice, for the welfare of the State. There is also another distinction as Amarinder Singh is an elected leader in a democracy and should be aware of the transitory nature of his office.  The Congress that has come to power after 10 years has its task cut out and set in its election manifesto. It also knows too well that if unimplemented, the manifesto might come to haunt it. If there are good omens, there are bad signs too. At one stage, the new government was able to conduct hassle-free procurement of wheat soon after it came to power — some 11.5 million tonnes against last year’s 10.6 mt at a whopping cost of Rs 21,000 crore. The Akalis had fumbled during the last two seasons. The fight against the drug menace that has nearly ruined a generation of Punjabi youth is making some notable successes. Some big fish have been caught, supply routes are being disrupted and there is an effort to break the politician-police-smuggler nexus. But it would require a stronger political will at the level of Amarinder Singh and his party leadership to break this nexus. He is fortunate to have a seasoned former leader of the Opposition, Sunil Jakhar, as state president. He is proving his mettle in keeping the party united and defusing the crisis. It was Jakhar who prevailed upon the CM to disband truck unions that had turned into a mafia and were extorting crores of rupees every year from traders and truck operators. But efforts to streamline the sand mining business and break the powerful politician-bureaucrat nexus has run into rough water with one of his ministers allegedly found with his hands in the till. Amarinder Singh knows that it has adversely impacted  the image of his government and has weakened his resolve to fight corruption. The Congress, despite its best effort to have a smooth ride during the first budget session, faced a united Opposition and rough conditions. There should have been not even a semblance of unity between the two arch rivals, the Akali Dal and the AAP.  Another area which is causing troubles is the government’s lack of promised serious efforts to end the monopoly of the cable operator control system. For this reason, many a television channel was either killed or stopped in the tracks from coming to Punjab. It has given near-monopoly to a channel allegedly owned by none other than former Deputy CM Sukhbir Singh Badal. While the CM has clearly stated not to hold any probe by the vigilance department, his local bodies minister Navjot Singh Sidhu has declared a war on Punjab’s ‘cable mafia’ and asserted that Fastway Cable Network ‘bullied Reliance Communications, which was laying cables for 4G mobile services, to lay its cable too, for free’. If what he said is true, there is a serious case of punishing the guilty and bringing back the Rs 680 crore of evaded taxes and create a level-playing field for all cable operators and television channels like Day and Night and ABP. Some have been waiting desperately to start operations. The government failed to bring in legislation to end Fastway’s hold on the cable network, though the irrepressible Sidhu — replying to Congress MLA Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa during question hour — had said, ‘It is a miracle that a company that started with Rs 25 lakh as capital showed profit of Rs 30 crore during its first year. Like a big fish, it ate away the small fish. It created a monopoly by intimidating cable operators. It rendered over one lakh youth jobless.’  The CM, as it is clear from the latest Cabinet meetings, would be risking much if he ignored the demand for a probe and a new law to regulate cable networks. Also, the wayward transport department that had become a fiefdom of the Badals for the benefit of the family-owned luxury passenger transport has to be rid of the syndicates, where even some Congress bigwigs have developed a stake.  The CM loses nothing if he acts tough as there is a strong support among Congress MLAs. Is it not the party’s major commitment made to the people? Another area where he spent long hours designing a strategy is the agriculture crisis. With adverse market conditions and daily disturbing news of more and more farmer suicides, he announced a slew of measures. He claims in an article in a leading daily that there should be no doubt about his intention to fulfill the promise of loan waiver. He writes, ‘Can anyone deny that the small and marginal farmers were the ones most acutely affected by the debt burden, and by waiving their loans up to Rs 2 lakh we have brought lakhs of them back from the brink of economic devastation?’ The government is not paying much heed to the crisis of landless agricultural labourers who are the worst hit. Recent studies suggest that the number of suicides by them was higher than farmers. But how does one explain the continued suicides by famers?  The agrarian crisis is, no doubt, a national problem. The NDA government has been tackling it for the past three years. PM Narendra Modi, who promised the farmers the moon by increasing their profit by 50 per cent, went back on his promise, declaring it was not possible. Instead, there were new promises: doubling farmers’  income by 2022 and a second Green Revolution. The government has not disclosed from what level of income it would double. From insurance, made compulsory in many states, farmers have paid their premium but during the kharif season last year, only 23 per cent claims were settled. The less said the better about the soil cards.  In these times of grave crisis, more farmers are falling in the debt trap. A bumper harvest during the last two years has meant a bumper crisis. What is the solution before Punjab?   Enterprising farmers like Avtar Singh offer good hope. The 60-year-old owns — along with his two brothers — just three and a half acres of land at Tira village, 10 km from Chandigarh. He grows turmeric, his farming being totally organic. He cleans stems, grinds turmeric and packs it neatly to sell to consumers. Quality sells and he makes a neat Rs 4 lakh. In another half acre, he prepares vermin-cultured compost and earns another Rs 7 lakh. Punjab grows organic food in over 12,000 acres and this is on the rise.  Let Amarinder Singh sit with hardy peasants like Avtar Singh and learn how to tide over the crisis. He would discover that experts living in comfortable rooms, drawing huge salaries, are of little use. The writer is a Chandigarh-based journalist