Punjab Outlook

Jalandhar: Amritsar North MLA Kunwar Vijay Partap Singh, who has been shown the door by the AAP, played a crucial role in destabilising Capt Amarinder Singh’s govt in 2021 over the 2015
sacrilege and police firing cases. The Aam Aadmi Party, which hit rock bottom in the 2019 parliamentary election, used the issue by inducting him into the party, marking the first step in their comeback. After becoming the main opposition by winning 20 seats in the 2017 assembly election, AAP did away with most of its prominent faces by 2018. A split also occurred in the party when Sukhpal Singh Khaira parted ways after his removal from the post of the leader of the opposition, with a few MLAs joining his camp. In the 2019 parliamentary election, AAP’s vote share dropped to 7.38%, with only Bhagwant Mann winning from Sangrur, while the party lost security deposits at most other seats. In comparison, the Khaira-led Punjab Democratic Alliance (PDA) and BSP alliance secured a 10.77% vote share. In the four assembly byelections in Oct 2019, its vote share was just 5 %. The turning point for AAP came in April 2021 when the Punjab and Haryana high court quashed the probe by IG Kunwar Vijay Partap Singh’s Special Investigation Team (SIT) in the Kotkapura police firing case. Although he was supposed to investigate only the Kotkapura firing case, he also looked into the sacrilege part and commented extensively about it in his media interviews. The quashing of his investigation and his statements triggered significant trouble within Congress. Though the high court tore into his investigation, he further embarrassed Capt Amarinder Singh’s govt by resigning and raising questions about his govt, especially concerning the advocate general’s office in the case.
Navjot Singh Sidhu played on the front foot to question Amarinder for failing to deliver justice in the case, and
other prominent Congress leaders, including ministers, also joined in. However, Kunwar also revealed in an
interview with a Punjabi YouTube channel that Amarinder’s office told him to go by the merits of the case.
Amid this turmoil within Congress and political fluidity in the state, AAP managed to capitalise on the sacrilege
and police firing issues by bringing Kunwar into the party. His induction was high-profile, with hoardings of his
joining put up across the city. AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal promised swift justice in the case once his party
came to power. In the 2014 parliamentary election, AAP played the Sikh card by bringing in prominent faces
associated with activism on the cataclysmic events of 1984. In 2021, it focused on the sacrilege and police firing
cases.
As the farm movement further increased political fluidity, AAP smartly capitalised on other issues as well, acting
like a cohesive election machine. Its promises, such as free 300 units of power and Rs 1,000 per month to all
women, along with the sentiment of change and a qualitative shift in politics on the ground, became game
changers. At the same time, Congress’s campaign was anything but imaginative and cohesive as its high
command also refused to read.
Now, with Kunwar Vijay out, the sacrilege and police firing cases are reportedly moving at a slow pace, drawing
complaints from victims. Kunwar Vijay himself had been critical of the current AAP govt’s handling of these
cases. However, at present, these issues are not generating significant political heat, which also points to the
broader role of the opposition.