Politics makes strange bedfellows. That is what the ruling Aam Aadmi Party has precisely done in Punjab. Turning Bikram Singh Majithia and Sukhpal Singh Khaira, otherwise two staunch rivals of each other, into allies. Both are stringent critics of the ruling party. Both were jailed, which turned them into each other’s sympathisers. That is how the politics is unfolding in Punjab in the crucial year ahead of the Assembly elections.
Majithia finally came out of prison eight months after he was granted bail by the Supreme Court of India on Monday. He was arrested in a case of disproportionate assets in June last year. Earlier, he spent a few months in jail in a case related to his alleged role in drug peddling, which had been registered by the previous Congress government, after Charanjit Singh Channi replaced Capt Amarinder Singh in September 2021. He had been granted bail in that case. Later, the Aam Aadmi Party government registered a case of disproportionate assets against him.
Majithia is a strong and bitter critic of the AAP government, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann in particular. The Shiromani Akali Dal alleged that Mann had resorted to vendetta against Majithia just because he was a staunch critic of the government. Some of the Opposition leaders like Sukhpal Singh Khaira, otherwise a stringent critic of Majithia, also rallied behind him after he was arrested by the government. Majithia and Khaira turning into allies is something unique that the AAP government must be credited for.
Khaira was himself booked under an NDPS case during the Akali regime. He was jailed twice, first by the Enforcement Directorate and later by the AAP government. Personal bitterness against the AAP government, Chief Minister Mann in particular, has made him forego hostility with the Akalis and come out in support of Majithia, who specially thanked him after coming out of jail.
Not only Khaira, even Charanjit Singh Channi, during whose tenure the case under NDPS was registered against Majithia, criticised his arrest by the AAP government. So did some other Opposition leaders, less because of any sympathy for Majithia and more for their own animosity and aversion for the government. Majithia-Khaira bonhomie is reflective of an unwritten agreement among Opposition parties and leaders in the state against the ruling party.
Immediately after Majithia came out of jail, he spoke to the media. While he went barrels and guns against Mann, he specially thanked several Opposition leaders, including his sister Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Sukhbir Singh Badal, Capt Amarinder Singh, Sunil Jakhar, Tarun Chugh, Sukhpal Singh Khaira, Bharat Bhushan Ashu and Charanjit Singh Channi.
There was a message in the expression of gratitude that the entire Opposition, irrespective of the differences, was unanimous in its support for him, which he suggested was a verdict against the AAP.
Also read: Congress publicly cracks whip on ‘indiscipline’ in Punjab
Before Majithia got bail, head of Radha Soami Dera, Gurinder Singh Dhillon visited him in the prison. It was his second visit to see Majithia in the jail. The ruling AAP did not take kindly to it. The Chief Minister took strong exception with a subtle message on social media platform ‘X’, which received severe backlash.
The Radha Soami Dera has a large following across many states in the northern states. The Dera has consistently maintained an apolitical character. Leaders of all political parties have been regularly paying obeisance there. After the backlash, the AAP tried to resort to some firefighting with state unit president and minister Aman Arora saying he respected the Dera head. The Dera head is related to Ganieve Majithia, wife of Bikram Majithia. It was during this visit that he said the case against Majithia was false to which the Chief Minister took an exception.
While for the Akali Dal, which is looking forward to its revival, release of Majithia will come as a major morale booster. The Opposition parties also used the occasion to settle score with the AAP government. Chief Minister Mann’s remarks about the Dera chief, though quite subtle as he did not mention his name, came handy for the entire Opposition, which rallied behind the Dera head and criticised Mann. For a while, the ruling AAP was placed in a defensive position on the issue that its state president had to come out with a “firefighting clarification”.
As the AAP enters into the last and decisive year of its term, it is finding itself more and more at the receiving end of the Opposition onslaught. Punjab has the dubious distinction of mostly rejecting the incumbent governments. The AAP government, as of now, does not look like an exception. Rather, it is faced with severe anti-incumbency for multiple reasons. More so, for the high expectations it had raised among people, which are not so easy to be met.
For Majithia and the Akalis, his release could not have come at a better time as the state gets into electoral mode. Not only is Majithia endowed with brilliant oratorical skills, he is a good organiser and campaigner with a dedicated cadre of supporters in the party. He has the ability of capitalising on the sympathy he may have generated during his incarceration. He has been maintaining that the government could not prove any charges against him whether in the matter of drugs or in the case of disproportionate assets.
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