After sweeping to power in Punjab, the Aam Aadmi Party has announced its five candidates who will contest the Rajya Sabha elections in the state, who will sail through the election.
The election to fill 13 Rajya Sabha seats across six states will be held on March 31, as will the counting of votes. The election process will be completed by April 2.
The outgoing members from Punjab are Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa (SAD), Partap Singh Bajwa (Congress), Shwait Malik (BJP), Naresh Gujral (SAD) and Shamsher Singh Dullo (Congress), whose term expires on April 9, 2022.
AAP’s candidates are Sandeep Pathak, party poll strategist, who designed the campaign for Punjab; Raghav Chadha, the co-in charge of Punjab affairs; Harbhajan Singh, former cricketer; and businessmen Sanjeev Arora from Ludhiana, and Ashok Mittal of the Lovely Professional University. Having won Punjab with an overwhelming majority, AAP candidates are expected to sail through the election.
Spirit of Rajya Sabha lost
In the constitutional scheme of things, the Rajya Sabha, which is also called the House of States, allows its members to raise issues of states at the national level, ensure that they figure in the national mainstream politics and governance. It’s a revered institution of the Indian Republic providing functional meaning to its federal set-up.
However, by selecting non-Punjabis and business tycoons as Rajya Sabha members under the Punjab quota, AAP has violated the constitutional and representative spirit of Rajya Sabha.
By choosing party strategists and loyalists over deserving Punjabis, the AAP’s central leadership has wrongly given the indication that party comes first. If Rajya Sabha membership is to be allotted as a reward to party leaders, strategists and funders, then one wonders where is the ‘change’ in the politics that AAP promises to deliver.
Also read: Harbhajan Singh, Raghav Chadha Among 5 Candidates, All Men, Nominated by AAP to Rajya Sabha
The decline in stature and functioning of the Rajya Sabha has predominantly been due to the selection of ‘undeserving’ candidates to the Upper House of the Indian parliament. Instead of representing a state through informed and dedicated members, the House of States has many times been used to reward and accommodate parties’ interests. AAP has proved no different to this ‘un-representative’ phenomenon.
‘Punjab’ missing in AAP’s nominations
The fact that none of the five selected for Rajya Sabha has a track record of raising issues related to Punjab counters AAP’s claims that it stands for Punjab at the national level.
It is not only about the nomination of two ‘non-Punjabis’ but also about the question mark over the credentials and aptitude of other members required to raise the issues of the state in the Upper House. More care should have been taken before announcing the nominations from the state, which is under massive debt and facing a multipronged crisis.
No doubt, former India cricketer Harbhajan Singh has made Punjab proud in the sports arena, but rarely one has seen him raise issues concerning the state. Singh has rarely been seen participating or contributing to any Punjab-based socio-economic and political discourse.
It appears that Singh’s selection is more about utilising his ‘celebrity’ status at the national level and granting Punjabi-Sikh representation, and much less about representing the issues of the state.
The nomination of Ashok Mittal, owner and chancellor of Lovely Professional University, is a big surprise. Lovely Professional University is a leading private university in the region, best known for making huge profits from the education sector. It paved the way for private universities in Punjab, which are now 20 in number. By nominating Mittal, AAP inadvertently appears to be supporting privatisation and commercialisation of education, and in the process defeats its own stated agenda of bringing about social justice in the education field.
By choosing another industrialist and real estate tycoon Sanjeev Arora from Ludhiana, the party leadership has made it crystal clear that it is ready to throw away its “Aam Aadmi” narrative when it comes to top positions such as Rajya Sabha membership. No doubt these businessmen are highly successful in their fields, but their ability to represent the state at the national level is indeed questionable. These nominations have been already been questioned by politicians at large, who wonder what has happened to the ‘change’ that AAP has promised in Punjab.
It is being said that Sandeep Pathak and Raghav Chadha’s nominations are rewards for their successful drives in Punjab. Another perspective is that both of them have been empowered with the goal of enhancing the party interests at the national level.
AAP leader Raghav Chadha. Photo: Twitter/Raghav Chadha.
However, in the process of rewarding the loyalists or expanding the party, AAP has given a go by to the constitutional objective that Rajya Sabha should provide adequate representation to the states. With Delhites Raghav Chadha and Sandeep Pathak being nominated from Punjab, one can’t help but ask a question if Delhi and Delhiites are representative of the people of Punjab in parliament.
These nominations also question the faith and confidence of AAP’s Delhi leadership in the intellectual class of Punjab. There is no dearth of young scholars, activists and experts from various fields who have worked extensively for Punjab. They certainly possess the required ability to raise the issues of Punjab at the national level.
Self-defeating move
AAP must know that number of Rajya Sabha seats depend upon seats won in the state’s legislative assembly. After having won 92 seats in 117 seat Punjab assembly, AAP can get all seven Rajya Sabha seats from the state. Elections are currently being held for five Rajya Sabha seats, while the elections for the remaining two Rajya Sabha seats in Punjab will be held in July this year.
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supporters celebrate their party’s lead during the counting day of Punjab Assembly elections, in Jalandhar district, Thursday, March 10, 2022. Photo: PTI.
So, it’s all due to the landslide mandate provided by Punjabis which has enabled AAP to win all seven Rajya Sabha seats. But, by selecting non-Punjabis and undeserving elites, it is the clear case that Delhi bosses have used Punjab’s historic mandate for fulfilling their own vested interests.
The contributions and sacrifices made by numerous Punjabis to dismantle the traditional political establishment and adopt a new political alternative in the form of AAP have been ignored and insulted. A political revolution brought about by the people of Punjab has taken a serious setback in its initial stages itself.
AAP has been talking highly about following the ideals of Babasaheb Ambedkar and Shaheed Sardar Bhagat Singh. Bhagwant Mann-led AAP government in Punjab has ordered placing the portraits of Bhagat Singh and Ambedkar in all government offices. Even Mann’s oath-taking ceremony was held at Shaheed Bhagat Singh’s ancestral village Khatkar Kalan, and not at Raj Bhawan.
Both Bhagat Singh and Ambedkar had similar stands on fighting against exploitative systems and bringing about social justice. They outrightly rejected the elite and aristocratic setup and stood for the rights and dignity of the common man. Equality and freedom remained the cornerstones of their life and struggle.
Also read: As AAP Plans To Expand Further, a Look at the Factors Behind Its Victory in Punjab
But, AAP’s nominations for Rajya Sabha from Punjab neither reflect any kind of social justice nor any adherence to socialistic principles. On the contrary, elitism and capitalism have been rewarded.
By voting AAP to power through a historic landslide mandate, the people of Punjab have shown immense faith in their leadership. Every common man of Punjab is looking towards this new government with high hopes and aspirations. Indeed, the Punjabis have brought about a political revolution, and a new era of positivity has ushered in.
Bhagwant Mann’s decisions to provide 25,000 government jobs to the youth and to regularise the services of 35,000 contractual employees of group C and D are highly praiseworthy. They are being touted as reformist moves to revive Punjab. However, Rajya Sabha nominations have emerged as a serious setback, and in turn, defeats AAP’s own ideology.
Punjab has been a vibrant state. It has a history of strong resistance, whenever rights have been denied. The Delhi-based AAP leadership must not misuse the power vested in it by the people of Punjab. Opposition from Punjab would not only be detrimental for AAP’s fortunes in other states but would also tarnish the party’s image nationally.
More importantly, AAP must realise that portraits of Ambedkar and Bhagat Singh cannot be mere political symbolism.
Kanwar Deep Singh Dharowali is a political analyst based in Chandigarh.