CHANDIGARH: At a time when the Congress is trying to pin down the BJP over atrocities on Dalits across the country, the party finds itself in a catch-22 situation in Punjab due to discontent among its Schedule Caste and OBC MLAs, especially with the Shahkot Assembly bypoll scheduled on May 28, since the constituency has 31 per cent Dalit and 18 per cent OBC votes.
Dalit leaders of the party are upset over that despite schedule castes comprising 32 per cent of the state’s population, they have poor representation in the Amarinder Singh ministry. Most of the 25 SC and OBC MLAs of the Congress are upset with the Punjab Chief Minister for the “step-motherly treatment” meted out to them during last month’s Cabinet expansion. They have even met Congress president Rahul Gandhi but are not satisfied.
The disgruntled lawmakers point out that there are only three SC ministers in the cabinet in the state which has the highest Dalit population in the country. Out of 125 law officers nominated by the government, only five are Dalits while there is no Dalit Mayor in any municipal corporation of the state. Even those who are in the ministry have higher ambitions. Dalit minister Charanjit Singh Channi wants the Deputy Chief Minister’s post in order to redress the issue of SCs and OBCs.
In the Jan Aakrosh Rally organised on April 29 in Delhi by the Congress, only 35 of Punjab’s 77 MLAs participated while 42 stayed away to show their resentment over the issue.The Dalit legislators have held a string of meetings at Chandigarh, Moga and Jalandhar. They say the CM neither meets nor takes their phone calls.
In a recent meeting of the Congress’s OBC cell chaired its national chairman and party MP Tamradhwaj, seven of the eight OBC legislators from Punjab stayed away due to simmering anger over non-inclusion of any OBC MLA in the state cabinet.These legislators also allege that under the farm debt waiver scheme, only the loans of Jat Sikh farmers are being waived off, but the government has not paid `1,100 crore to farm labourers who are mostly Dalits.
The cornered government is trying to placate the disgruntled MLAs by amending the rules of boards and corporations so as to appoint MLAs as their chairman. The Ordinance making amendments to the Punjab Legislature (Prevention of Disqualification) Act, 1952, which prohibits elected representatives from holding an office of profit, will be soon brought before the Cabinet.