Mann needs to emerge from the Kejriwal shadow
When the AAP’s Haryana in-charge and Rajya Sabha member Sushil Gupta recently promised the impossible by alluding to water from the emotive Sutlej-Yamuna link (SYL) canal irrigating his state if his party is voted to power, he was playing a dangerous game of stoking passions. Water is a highly sensitive subject in Punjab, which is not ready to share even a drop with Haryana despite Supreme Court rulings. Punjab also has a history of violence and widespread unrest whenever SYL canal decision-making was on the table. By design or otherwise, Gupta has placed his party top leadership and the AAP-led Bhagwant Mann government in Punjab between a rock and a hard place.
As it is, the month-long CM is still finding his feet, mentored as he is by AAP founder Arvind Kejriwal who himself wanted to be Punjab CM but settled for the next best option of remote control as he had to yield to the history of the state always having a Sikh as the CM. Unsurprisingly, Kejriwal conducting a meeting of a bunch of Punjab’s bureaucrats a few weeks ago in Delhi stirred up a storm. Allegations that the Mann government is being run by proxy from Delhi are bound to hurt the CM.
As for Mann’s ministerial team, it lacks both political and administrative skills as the state polls gave a massive mandate to loads of greenhorns in his party instead of the familiar duopoly of the Congress and SAD. They have to learn on the go. And the humongous welfare promises the AAP made in the run-up to the Punjab polls are not easy to keep since the state does not have adequate revenue and is sitting on a whopping `3 lakh crore debt pile. In FY22, an estimated 21% of its revenue went towards debt servicing alone. Yet, Mann announced 300 units of free power for each family, mirroring the scheme that is operational in Delhi.
For Mann to eventually succeed as a leader, he has to soon show he is his own man. As for the SYL minefield, stepping away from it would be the most prudent option for him and Kejriwal as it otherwise risks squandering away Punjab’s goodwill the party earned at the hustings.