Smooth take-off, but can Pilot navigate Punjab turbulence and land Congress a win?

The optics were good: A united Congress hitting the streets of Chandigarh to demand justice for a Dalit man who died by suicide after accusing Punjab Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema of intimidation in his “dying declaration”.

The scenes of cohesive combativeness witnessed on Tuesday (September 15) had eluded the Punjab Congress for months. For Sachin Pilot, who was on his first visit to Chandigarh since his appointment as state in-charge 10 days ago, the show of unity by his feuding Punjab Congress colleagues and their emphatic assurance of unitedly moving forward was a feat that seemed inconceivable when his predecessor, Bhupesh Baghel, held the charge.

Test flight passed, now what?

By all accounts, Pilot has passed his first test. Yet, navigating Punjab Congress through its internecine turbulence and landing it past the victory line in the state polls due five months from now, is a challenge he may find more daunting than brokering a day-long truce of warring satraps.

Also read: Punjab: Congress protests over power cuts, Warring detained as police use water cannons

For the past two months, the Punjab Congress’s disunity, indiscipline and acrimony had been a daily public spectacle. Former chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi, Gurdaspur MP Sukhjinder Randhawa and a host of other party leaders had made their dissent against state Congress chief Amarinder Singh Raja Warring amply clear.

Raja Warring, in turn, had likened colleagues opposing his leadership as “RSS-walas”. Posters and hoardings showing then state in-charge Bhupesh Baghel, who had openly sided with Raja Warring in this turf war, as a jailer had come up across Punjab.

Long way to go

Erasing all of that from public memory is now Pilot’s task. Party leaders agree it won’t be easy. They claim the solidarity showed in Chandigarh on Tuesday, when Pilot sat on protest with Raja Warring and Channi flanking him on either side, could unravel just as quickly once discussions on ticket distribution and campaign strategy for the ensuing assembly polls pick pace.

“It is definitely a good beginning for Pilot because until now the situation was such that almost all senior leaders would routinely boycott anything organized by Raja Warring and Baghel. He has succeeded in getting everyone on the same platform, but how long this unity remains is uncertain… Even today, you could see the discomfort on Channi’s face when he was sitting between him and Raja Warring at the dharna before we began the march to Cheema’s residence; after the protest concluded, they went their separate ways and there was no effort to get Channi, Randhawa and Raja Warring to jointly address the media,” said a senior party MLA from the Channi camp.

Smart choice of issue

Political observers say the issue with which Pilot chose to begin his intervention in Punjab was also such that no party leader could keep away.

Also read: Congress gets a new Pilot in Punjab, but will its Warring stop?

“It was a smart move to turn his debut visit to Chandigarh after becoming Punjab in-charge into a protest. If it was just a regular affair of him going to the party office and meeting people, I don’t think there would have been such a turnout. By deciding that his first visit will be a protest to raise the issue of the suicide by a Dalit man who publicly confronted Cheema about drug abuse and made a dying declaration stating he was being harassed by the police for confronting Cheema, Pilot ensured no Congress leader could afford to stay away,” says Jagrup Singh Sekhon, former professor of Political Science at Guru Nanak Dev University.

All through the protest, party leaders ensured they stuck to a common script, speaking only of their demand for justice for Gulzar Singh, the Dalit man who died by suicide earlier this month in Sangrur district, the home turf of not just Cheema but also Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann.

One script, one voice

“The matter is clear, Gulzar Singh committed suicide… Why he committed suicide would have come after investigation, he mentioned the name (of Cheema) in his dying declaration… His relatives say the government forced his final rites; there is no name of the finance minister in the FIR… It is a matter of shame that the chief minister brushed all of this aside as a small matter (sic),” said Pilot.

Taking the cue, Raja Warring and Channi also kept their statements to the press focused on Singh’s suicide and the various issues that it has become intertwined with – alleged state apathy, rampant proliferation of chitta (heroine) and other drugs across Punjab, crumbling law and order, and plight of Dalits.

Also read: Sikh youth’s alleged custodial torture sparks political storm in Punjab

“The entire Congress party, under the leadership of Sachin Pilot, has held a march. We demand that Harpal Cheema resign, that an FIR be registered against him immediately, and that he be arrested. Bhagwant Mann must apologise for shielding a culprit. That is our demand, and I will say nothing more,” said Raja Warring.

Channi assured Pilot that the party will “fight unitedly” under his stewardship and said Tuesday’s protest showed that the Congress was on the streets to “put an end to the atmosphere of hooliganism, gangster-ism, looting, and bloodshed” under Mann’s reign.

Missing CM face

A Congress MP who is among the few Punjab unit leaders to have taken a neutral stand in the turf war between Raja Warring and the Channi-Randhawa combine told The Federal, “This was such an issue on which no leader could ignore the party’s protest call; the biggest issue in Punjab today is drug addiction; the man who committed suicide was demanding accountability from the AAP government on this issue and he also happened to be a Dalit… could Channi, who was the state’s first Dalit CM refuse to participate in the protest, could Randhawa, who is a former deputy CM and among our senior-most leaders, stay away?… The real question is how these leaders will function from tomorrow.”

Many in the party believe that at the core of the leadership tussle in the party is the question of who would become the state’s chief minister if the Congress romps to power in next year’s polls.

Also read: AAP bags goldmine as Punjab Congress implodes; why is high command mute?

“No one wants Raja Warring but it is also true that if the high command today declares any one leader as a CM candidate, then even those who have united against Raja Warring despite their own past differences will start fighting among themselves. This is why the party is insisting that we go to polls under a collective leadership so that some unity is maintained till the polls… Whether this strategy works is a different matter altogether but I think it is the less difficult choice right now than saying X, Y or Z will be CM,” said a former party MLA considered close to Randhawa.

Faces matter in Punjab

Sekhon believes the Congress’s refusal to declare a CM face may keep its internal turf war under check but may not help the party electorally. “In Punjab, faces matter. For decades, the state knew that if the Congress came to power, Captain Amarinder Singh would be the CM and if the Akali Dal came to power, it would be Parkash Singh Badal. Now that era is over. Badal is no more and the Akali Dal is fighting for survival. Captain has switched to the BJP and made himself irrelevant. Now you have Bhagwant Mann as the face of the AAP while Punjabis have been left guessing who is the face of the Congress… Without declaring a CM face, the Congress may make a lot of noise and lead a good campaign but it may not be enough to win the state,” says Sekhon.

Ironing out this question could well be Pilot’s next test as party insiders claim that the pressure from not just the various factional leaders of Punjab but even the public to know who is leading the Congress’s charge is bound to increase as the elections draw close.

Tuesday’s protest may, thus, have made for good optics for the Congress but it may yet not be a case of “well begun is half done”.