When ‘livid’ Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann walked out of a meeting with the state’s farmer unions that announced a week-long protest in Chandigarh from March 5, it was symptomatic of the pulls and pressures of office he has been failing to deal with for quite some time. After the BJP wrested Delhi from the AAP in the recent assembly polls, Mann lost what little leverage he had in running his government without interference. It is common knowledge that party convenor Arvind Kejriwal handles decision-making in the state government through his personal secretary, Bibhav Kumar. Bibhav has a history of intemperate behaviour. He was arrested for assaulting the party’s Rajya Sabha member, Swati Maliwal, at Kejriwal’s official residence last May. When Delhi fell, rumours of a vertical split in Punjab’s AAP chapter prompted Kejriwal to call a meeting of his party’s legislators in the state. Led by Mann, they trooped to Delhi, but all they got was a few minutes of pep talk, which many thought was meaningless. Two years after its listless rule, the Punjab government has woken up to its promise of eradicating the drug menace. But nobody thinks it has the will to deliver.
When the AAP recently fielded Sanjeev Arora, sitting Rajya Sabha MP from Punjab, as its candidate for the Ludhiana West assembly seat bypoll, it was read as Kejriwal creating room for himself to enter the RS if the seat is vacated. Now, the speculation is that he wants to send his then-deputy in the Delhi government, Manish Sisodia, to the Upper House. Arora will have a tough fight in Ludhiana West as the Congress has its tail up, hoping to build momentum and possibly engineer defections from the AAP later.
Protests create a spectacle when angled away from the party that fuels them. But when agitations are directed against that party’s rule, those in power tend to get worked up. That unease manifested in Mann’s walkout and subsequent actions against farmers. At the other end of the spectrum are the talks the Centre has been holding with protesting farm leaders to resolve the MSP issue without temper tantrums. Both governments are locked in their respective battles of perception that can be won only through patience, understanding and empathy.