It makes for quite a composition. A Christian-Dalit-Sikh, just months old Congress chief minister (and CM candidate) Charanjit Singh Channi, atop a red tractor.
And a Congress High Command nominee, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, of mixed parentage, perched to his side and slightly behind.
Channi calls Priyanka Vadra a ‘Punjaban’. This, despite Priyanka being half-Italian plus a mixture of ancestors from other regions, none of them from Punjab.
Channi thinks she is a Punjaban, only by virtue of her marriage to an Anglo-Indian Punjabi combo from (originally) Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh.
Channi declares from atop the tractor that “UP, Bihar ke bhaiya” should leave Punjab. At the time, the televised photo opportunity gets a quota of claps and wolf-whistles from the faithful before the duo.
Vadra herself claps and grins her delight, displays her dimples, her much mentioned Indira Gandhi nose.
Channi’s inexperience in high politics shines through as he explains after a substantial backlash from Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar.
Channi says, to make matters worse, that he meant the Aam Aadmi Party leaders such as Durgesh Pathak, Sanjay Singh and Arvind Kejriwal.
The AAP are seen as the front-runners to form the next government in Punjab by the findings of several opinion polls.
Prime Minister Modi, taking Channi at his word, pointed out that Guru Gobind Singh was born in Patna Sahib in Bihar. Guru Ravidas, a Dalit icon, said the prime minister, whose birth anniversary was just celebrated, was born in Uttar Pradesh.
In Patna, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said he was “stunned” by the comments.
He continued, “Do they know what is the contribution of the people of Bihar in Punjab and how many are living and serving there?”
Channi then fell over himself to course-correct. He said, “Those who come from UP, Bihar and Rajasthan and work in Punjab — Punjab belongs to them as much as it does to us.”
Vadra chimed in with “All that Chief Minister Charanjit Channi said was that Punjab should be run by Punjabis”.
Yes, but she may find that the people of Punjab choose the so-called outsider AAP instead this time.
Besides, there could be darker motives in the Congress. The Khalistan movement is beginning to revive.
The storming of the Red Fort had one of its proponents, Deep Sidhu, making no secret of it.
His recent death in a car crash and the subsequent funeral where slogans for Khalistan rent the air are sobering realities.
The Canadian Sikh/Khalistani financial and physical contributions to the Shaheen Bagh anti-CAA stir and the farmer protests thereafter are threats to India’s internal security well recognised by the government at the Centre.
Some Punjabi Sikh politicians like Navjot Singh Sidhu have precipitated foreign policy embarrassments by going to Pakistan and embracing General Qamar Javed Bajwa, their Army Chief.
Another stalwart of the Pakistan loving brigade, Mani Shankar Aiyar’s photograph was plastered all over Congress promotion material recently.
Since he hasn’t said a word lately, a rumour started that he had probably died.
However, happily, he is very much amongst us, but Congress probably wanted to remind the public of his sympathies.
Of late there has also been an upsurge in evangelical conversions of Sikhs to Christianity and the establishment of scores of new churches.
Charanjit Singh Channi, a product of this process, and possibly the Congress High Command led by Sonia Gandhi, are apparently in favour.
What this implies in terms of national security in this, a border state, is not clear, unless it leads to greater Western influence.
