Most commentators have interpreted the electoral verdicts in Punjab and Uttarakhand as rejection of the Congress and resurrection of the BJP. While this cliché may do justice to the Uttarakhand poll outcome, it fails to convey the import of the latent message from Punjab. It is not just about voting out one political party for another in the border State. In fact, this election has put paid to the divisive politics of the opportunistic alliances the Congress gets into and marks the bridging of the decades old Hindu-Sikh gulf in Punjab.

The origin of Hindu-Sikh tension goes back to the days of the Punjabi Suba agitation prior to the carving of Haryana out of Punjab. Mrs Indira Gandhi sought to enlarge the gulf between the two communities for political reasons and her protégé, Giani Zail Singh, pandered to the extremist section of the Akali Dal. The ploy was simple but dangerous. It was to engage the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) in competitive communal politics with extremist elements.

If the Akalis had refused to bite the bait, the community would have considered them weaklings and deserted the SAD. If the Akalis had tried to compete with the extremists in being shrill about issues related to the Panth, either the BJP would have been forced to part company with them or Hindus would have disowned the BJP. It was against this background that Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, who inspired terrorism, and Gurcharan Singh Tohra, a hawk in Punjab politics, were propped up by the Congress.

After her return to power in 1980, Mrs Indira Gandhi picked Bhindranwale and gave him enough leeway, sending her Home Minister to pay obeisance to the extremist leader. Murders of perceived political opponents, which were traced to Bhindranwale or his followers, became commonplace. But he was not arrested. She did not order the security agencies or even the intelligence agencies into the Golden Temple complex when Bhindranwale entrenched himself inside the most sacred place of Sikhs and began to preach secession. Bhindaranwale was described as a 'saint' by Rajiv Gandhi, the then young General Secretary of the party while the former went around Delhi with his followers armed to the teeth. The rest is history.

In the process, Mrs Gandhi and the State unit of the Congress sowed the seeds of extremism in Sikh politics and competitive extremism became the curse of Punjab for almost 10 years. Supported by Ms Sonia Gandhi, former Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh followed in the footsteps of Mrs Gandhi, hobnobbed with Khalistanis during his visit to Canada couple of years ago, encouraged their sympathisers in the State and supported separatist leaders like Simranjeet Singh Mann.

Despite the direct and indirect support that the Congress provided to the extremists in the hope of dividing the Akali vote, the people gave them the short shrift. Not one of them won despite seeking to uphold the extremist line of Tohra and Mr Mann. Finally, Sikhs have woken up to the danger inherent in the Communist-minded Congress brand of politics and this election marks the total rejection of extremist and communal politics. The success of the SAD, which stayed away from pursuing a communal line, and the total eclipse of the extremists are Punjab's endorsement of nationalist politics.

An analysis of how the SAD-BJP campaign was conducted and the type of candidates they sponsored is revealing. The SAD has had a history of using the-Panthis-in-danger as the focus of its politics. During this Assembly election, the campaign was generally not conducted from gurdwaras. Nor was the usual slogan of the Panth being in danger heard in the meetings organised by the SAD.

Besides, the SAD set up Hindu candidates. Out of the five Hindus who fought the election on SAD tickets, two have won. Similarly, the BJP put up three Sikh candidates. Two of them won. The ultimate example of Hindu-Sikh kinship and the cohesion in the Akali-BJP alliance is seen in the victory of a father-son duo: While the father, Swarna Ram, a Dalit Hindu, won from Phagwara on a BJP ticket, his son Chowdhry Mohan Lal Singh, a Khalsa Sikh, has made it to the Assembly as an Akali candidate.

The BJP's campaign slogans revolved around the issue of the threat to national security from growing terrorism and how the Congress has been taking a lenient attitude towards those who allow terrorists to flourish. As against the clean politics of development pursued by the winning coalition during its previous tenure, the Congress pursued a path of promoting and exploiting communal politics. The so-called secular Congress sought and obtained the support of a religious sect, Sacha Sauda. After the details of this sect were exposed in a newspaper report, the Congress Government of Punjab was compelled to institute an inquiry into its activities, but only after its followers allegedly murdered the journalist who had carried out the exposé. Journalists' organisations had to hold several demonstrations to get the Congress Government to act.

"Communal" and "Right-wing" are labels invented by Marxists and their fellow travellers. It was none other than Ram Manohar Lohia, a leader of integrity and respect, who said that such labels could not be applied to the Indian situation. Now Punjab voters have gone a step further. This stereotyping is not only irrelevant but also very dangerous as it could, under certain circumstances, mislead the people.

The absurd branding of the BJP as a "communal" party has been done in other political theatres too. Karnataka, where the JD(S) has teamed up with the BJP to secure power, is yet another instance. When the JD(U) joined the BJP in a pre-election coalition called NDA, Mr HD Deve Gowda and his followers claimed they would have nothing to do with the "communal" BJP. Mr Deve Gowda has since dropped that objection to seize power from the Congress.

Some politicians like the marginalised former Prime Minister, Mr VP Singh, are using the BJP's "communal" label to stage a comeback. This is clear in the emerging election scene in Uttar Pradesh. Mr Singh has even dropped the Bofors plank that once shot him to power. The only stain on his "secular" image is that about a decade-and-a-half back, he had come to power because of support from the BJP.

Punjab is a good case study. That the media stereotyping of political parties, inspired by Marxists, as "communal" and "secular" is irrelevant has been underlined by the verdict in Punjab.

Courtesy: www.dailypioneer.com, March 9, 2007