for-punjab-not-much-to-cheer-about-2024

For Punjab, there is not much to cheer about the year 2024 that has gone by. Punjab definitely is not passing through the best of times. Farmers’ unrest continues with one of the farm leaders on fast unto death, while the economy is in shatters. The state’s debt continues to rise as the Aam Aadmi Party government continues with its borrowing spree.

 

Although Punjab has remained politically stable and the AAP has managed to run a stable government, thanks to a comfortable majority, the administration, however, has remained far from satisfactory. Even when the government is about to complete three years of its term, it has not been able to rein in the bureaucracy. One of the party MPs admitted that they had been let down by the bureaucracy.

 

While the AAP had ushered in great hopes and expectations, and people had given it an overwhelming mandate in 2022, there appears to be complete disillusionment with the government now. So much so, one of its prominent MLAs Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh, a former IPS officer who resigned from service to join the AAP and contest elections, went on record to say that if the elections were held today, the AAP will not win even a single seat.

 

He may have his own axe to grind with his party for the reasons best known to him and his apprehensions may be exaggerated, the matter of fact is that the AAP popularity has nosedived within two and a half years of coming to power.

 

This was reflected during the 2024 General Elections, when the AAP could win just three of the thirteen parliamentary constituencies in Punjab. Against 92 assembly segments it had won in 2022, the AAP led only from 32 segments, indicating the extent of disillusionment with the party among the people.

 

Farmers’ unrest

 

The lack of experience, as all the AAP ministers, including the Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann are first timers, led to multiple problems, which should normally have been settled at the beginning. The state is currently faced with a perennial farmers’ agitation. The farmers have blocked the Shambhu border since February 14, 2024. Ten months have passed and the national highway remains blocked.

 

The farmers are demanding legal guarantee for the Minimum Support Price, which is within the scope of the government of India only. The AAP has not been able to explain to the protesting farmers that they are unnecessarily holding the state to the ransom, as their demands are not within its purview.

 

As if the highway blockade was not enough, one farmer leader Jagjit Singh Dhallewal, has started fast unto death. He is on the fast for over a month now and his health has become critical. The Supreme Court of India has asked the state government to ensure his hospitalisation and proper medical treatment and care.

 

The Bhagwant Mann led AAP government, is repeating the same mistake of its predecessor, the Capt Amarinder-led Congress government, which allowed a free run to the agitating farmers.

 

Capt Amarinder proved wiser as he encouraged and eventually made the farmers to move towards the national capital. In the current government case, it could not facilitate farmers’ movement out of Punjab, with the result it is bearing the brunt.

 

The SC has been strictly monitoring the health of the agitating leader and has castigated the Punjab government on the issue.

 

The farmers’ demand for legal guarantee on the MSP is neither feasible nor practical. It will require an annual budget of over Rs 10 lakh crores.

 

No government can guarantee that. Although the Congress had promised it in its manifesto that it will provide legal guarantee for the MSP, had it come to power, it would not have acted any differently.

 

The farmers’ agitation and continued blockade of the highway has taken a toll on Punjab’s economy. It has affected lakhs of people including those dealing in hosiery, tourism and travel business.

 

The hosiery manufacturers and traders maintain that most of their business has shifted to Panipat as outside traders are not sure whether they will be able to travel hassle free to Ludhiana.

 

Most of the taxi operators, who would run between Delhi to different places in Punjab, have been rendered jobless as people are avoiding to travel by taxis. There has been massive decline in footfall of tourists in Amritsar hotels, which they attribute to the farmers’ unrest.

 

Shattered economy; rising debt

 

Punjab, which topped in GDP Per Capita in 1981 and was fourth in 2001, has dropped to an abysmally low rank of nineteenth place in the country. Similarly, state’s debt has spiralled out of control to about Rs 3.40 lakh crores, against Rs 2.81 lakh crores when the AAP government took over.

 

The AAP government is not the only one to have added to the state’s debt as all the governments since 1991 have done that, when total debt of the state was about Rs seven thousand crores only.

 

Agriculture and industry, which are to main driving forces for the growth in the state are both stagnant. The farmers’ unrest has discouraged the industry from further expansion and investment in the state. Some are even trying to find greener and safer pastures outside the state.

 

Agriculture continues to remain a losing proposition with most of the farmers being in distress. The farmers’ protests are actually driven by the state of desperation and frustration among the farming community, as agriculture is no longer ruminative.

 

Students’ migration abroad

 

Punjab is one of the few states in the country, other than Gujarat, which has been sending a massive number of students abroad. This is partly because of the ambitious nature of Punjabis and partly due to the lack of avenues in the state.

 

According to Indian Student Mobility Report, quoted in The Tribune, the Punjabi students spent a whopping 3.7 billion dollars (about thirty-one thousand crores of rupees) for studies in Canada alone during the financial year 2023-24. Many others study in the US, European countries and Australia also. That amount has not been included.

 

Law and Order

 

While by and large Punjab has mostly remained peaceful, in the last quarter of the year, the state saw targeted bomb blasts around some police installations in the Amritsar-Gurdaspur border belt. While most of the accused have been identified, arrested and killed, the rise in such incidents has been a cause of concern.

 

The Punjab Police have confirmed the role and hand of the ISI in these incidents, which has been using the radicals and extremists to carry out such subversive activities here.

 

What is more concerning is the involvement of gangsters staying abroad in carrying out such incidents. The gangsters lure youth from poor economic backgrounds to carry out such incidents.

 

Thankfully, these incidents are very limited and involvement of people is also negligible. But the state will need to remain cautious and careful against the ISI designs.

 

As Punjab steps into the new year, it will be the crucial time for the state and also the government. Practically this is the last year when the state government can redeem itself, and fight off the incumbency that has cropped up during the last three years.

 

With restricted finances and multiple challenges, navigating the state will not be an easy job for the powers that be.