Manmohan as mascot

Sarabjit Pandher

Congress plays the ‘Sikh card’

The Congress appears to have broken new ground in this election by using the “Sikh card” to woo the community, estranged since “Operation Bluestar” in 1984 and the anti-Sikh violence following the assassination of Indira Gandhi.

It is hard to imagine that Manmohan Singh is not surprised by the fact that he has become the poster boy of the Congress in its campaign to win over the Sikhs.

The Congress was put on the defensive, when its nomination of Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar, who were alleged to have fanned violence against the Sikhs in November 1984, met with widespread protests — including a shoe thrown at Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram — from the Sikh community and the party was forced to withdraw their nominations. The party quickly went into damage control mode and reminded the Punjabis, especially the Sikhs, that it was the “first” party to have a “Sikh” as Prime Minister.

The tactic seemed to have worked, as it not only calmed the Sikhs but also put the combative Akalis on the back foot, with the party finding it hard to launch a full scale broadside against a Sikh.

The Akali leadership was almost knocked off its feet, when Sikhs reacted sharply to a Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee statement that Dr. Singh was not a Sikh. Put on the defensive, the Akali Dal failed to project Dr. Singh as “just another” Congress Prime Minister. Eventually, the Akali Dal had to resort to a no-holds-barred offensive against the former Chief Minister, Amarinder Singh.

Now, with Dr. Singh as the mascot, Capt. Amarinder, who has been getting a good response from the public, has emerged as the spearhead of the Congress campaign in Punjab.

For a change, the roles of the Congress and the Akali Dal appear to be swapped with the former using the “Sikh card” and the latter focusing on the development plank, say analysts.

However, this tactic is fraught with danger: it could conceivably lead to communal polarisation once again, say observers. They point out that the Congress used the “Sikh card” in the 1970s, which ultimately provided the fuel for the subsequent Sikh extremism.

with thanks : source : http://www.hindu.com/2009/05/12/stories/2009051250031200.htm

sikhsindia
www.sohnijodi.com