Tewari attributes Cong loss in Punjab to internal contradictions

Anandpur Sahib MP Manish Tewari on Thursday said the Congress’ loss in the 2022 Punjab assembly elections was not because the party opted for a Dalit Sikh chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi, but because of their “internal contradictions”.

At a discussion on book ‘Punjab- From the Perspective of a Punjabi Hindu’ written by author and poll strategist Vinayak Dutt, the Congress leader also stressed that different communities of Punjab have a “syncretic identity” and the Punjabi Hindus are not a separate identity group compared to the Punjabi Sikhs.

“The fundamental question is if there is an identity called ‘Punjabi Hindu’? There is no separate identity called Punjabi Hindu. Ethos of Punjab is essentially summed up by Punjab, Punjabi and Punjabiyat… It subsumes various ethnic identities,” Tewari said.

The discussion was also attended by poll strategist Naresh Arora and Professor at Delhi’s Ambedkar University Sumail Singh Sidhu. Referring to the last assembly polls in the state, which saw the Congress being defeated by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Arora mentioned that the grand old party was close to having a Hindu chief minister in Punjab, but then Channi was picked as the face.

“The Congress, for whatever reasons, was on the verge of making a Hindu a chief minister then Mr Channi came up as an alternative and he became the chief minister. I keep thinking about it… what if it had happened? How would it have shown Punjab to the world?” he said.

“…The Congress did break the unwritten rule and did make Mr Channi the chief minister, results are there… despite Punjab having the highest number of people of the community which Mr Channi represented, the results are here…” Arora said. Tewari, however, said, “politics cannot be differentiated from the political evolution of a state”.

“Cultural evolution of Punjab post 1947 created that Punjabi identity which in my mind is an indivisible identity. To try and divide this identity, is fraught with great risk to national security, because this is what Pakistan wants,” he said.

“I have nothing personal against anybody… But the gentleman who was dreaming of chief ministership in the name of being a Hindu and later on left and went to another party, I asked him what he ever did for the Hindu community to ask for chief ministership in their name.

In fact he was the worst enemy of Punjabiyat by trying to create this division,” said Tewari in an apparent reference to former Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee chief Sunil Jakhar, who had quit his party to join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) after the 2022 Punjab assembly polls.

“Similarly I don’t think the rejection of Congress was because there was a Dalit chief minister, the rejection was partly because Punjab had this five year tradition which was broken by the Akali Dal, and there were internal contradictions within the Congress which facilitated the result which came in March, 2022,” he said.

“There are only a few states left where this indivisible identity across communities still remains, those paradoxically are the two states which were partitioned by the British – Punjab and West Bengal,” Tewari added.

Meanwhile, Sumail Singh Sidhu mentioned the farmers’ agitation and said that it brought Punjab and Haryana — which was split in 1966 to form two states. He also said that the Khalistan issue was raked up to create a divide in this unity.

“Khalistan bogey was raised to check the dynamic created by farmers’ movement… The movement created a unity which broke the isolation of Punjab and brought Punjab and Haryana closer,” he said.

Talking about the book, Dutt said it discusses the Punjabi Hindu identity, which is juxtaposed with the idea of a uniform Hindutva, which is being called the only version of the religion.

“Punjabi Hindus form 30 per cent of Punjab’s population. Vedas were written in Punjab, the Ramayana was written in Punjab and Geeta came from Kurukshetra. We don’t believe in the aggressive posturing of Hindutva,” he said.