Chandigarh: On his last day of rallies in Punjab, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi took a short break to sit for a free wheeling conversation with Balkaur Singh, the father of slain singer Sidhu Moosewala, on his second death anniversary.
“He always wanted to be in your team,” says Balkaur Singh. Rahul recalls the connection. “Yes I realised it when I met him. He was special.”
Acclaimed rapper Moosewala, a cult figure in Punjab, was killed by gangsters in May 2022. Moosewala had contested unsuccessfully the 2022 state elections on a Congress ticket from Mansa. The rapper had released a song later in which he referred to Punjab voters as “traitors” for voting the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) to power.
“Did he always want to become a singer?” Rahul asks Balkaur Singh.
“Yes, he started singing when was very young, but shied away from singing before us. Teachers encouraged him and when he went to Canada, he came back a different man,” Balkaur recalls.
Balkaur Singh has been demanding justice for his son from the Punjab chief minister. According to him, the information about the chief minister withdrawing Moosewala’s security was leaked by the CMO that came in handy for the killers of his son. But, no action has been initiated against anybody in the CMO.
“I promise you when we come to power, everyone who has any role to play will be taken to task,” Rahul promises.
A five-minute recording of the interview ahead of the Congress rally at the Dakha Wednesday posted by Rahul on his YouTube has clocked more than 8.31 lakh views so far.
During the Dakha rally, Balkaur shared the stage with Rahul who before starting his speech paid tributes to Moosewala and showered flowers on his lifesize picture. As the Congress leader’s speech ended, Moosewala’s superhit number ‘295’ started playing and the crowd broke into frenzy.
Dhaka falls in the Ludhiana parliamentary constituency where the party has fielded its Punjab president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring. His rivals are former party colleague Ravneet Singh Bittu, who switched to the BJP ahead of these elections. The Akalis and the AAP have fielded Ranjit Singh Gill and Ashok Parashar Pappi, respectively.
Apart from Ludhiana, Balkaur Singh has campaigned extensively for Warring in half a dozen other constituencies hoping to convert his fight for “justice to Moosewala” into votes for the Congress.
But there are other planks too that the Congress is hoping will help it spring back on to the Punjab scene and reclaim lost ground.
In 2019, the Congress had won 8 of the 13 seats in Punjab while the BJP and the Shiromani Akali Dal had won two each. The AAP had won only one seat. The Congress vote share was over 40 percent
In the 2017 state elections when it came to power winning 77 of the 117 seats, the Congress vote share was almost 39 percent. But five years on, the Congress was the biggest loser electorally winning only 18 seats. The vote share dropped drastically to 23 percent as the party lost half of its voters to the AAP.
The Congress is banking largely on the anti Modi, anti-BJP sentiment in rural Punjab, especially among the farmers, to garner votes. It is also banking on anti-incumbency and the failures of the AAP government in delivering its promises.
Playing on the anti-Modi sentiment among farmers, Rahul announced in the Dhaka rally: “Modi ji wants to finish the MSP regime in Punjab. I promise you that when we come to power we will ensure legal guarantees to MSP… The farmer never gets the right price for the produce because it’s not fixed,” he said.
The UPA government had waived farm loans worth Rs 70,000 crore, he said. “But Modi ji is only working for 22 big industrialists and businessmen, not farmers, traders or labourers.”
“When we come to power we will waive loans of every farmer. We will create a loan waiver commission that will have representations from farmers and will have the authority to give loan multiple times if required. The farmer is the backbone of the nation and needs to be protected.”
“Modi ji brought in a crop insurance scheme that benefits 16 private companies, but the farmers do not get any compensation for damaged crops. I promise you that we will bring in a system wherein compensation for crop damage will be ensured within 30 days,” he said.
Criticising the Agniveer scheme, Rahul said that two kinds of martyrs were being created in the country. “This is not acceptable. While the first people in the regular army get pensions and other facilities and Agniveer who does the same thing does not get anything we have to scrap this scheme.”
Later in the day, he went to visit the family of Agniveer martyr Ajay Singh in Ramgarh Sardaran village in Khanna, near Ludhiana. Ajay Singh had died in a blast in Jammu and Kashmir in January.
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Congress candidates slam Mann
Though Rahul did not attack the AAP, the Congress candidates are critical of the Bhagwant Mann-led AAP government. “The Punjab CM has got our farmers killed by the Haryana CM. Had I been there I would have ensured that an equal number of bullets were fired from our side,” Warring said in his election meetings.
“The CM is busy singing kiklis (folk song). Even after 26 months in power, not a single new project has been undertaken in villages. Nobody got employment; the drug problem remains unsolved; women have not been given Rs 1,000 per month; and corruption is rampant in all government offices. When no change has come in the system even after you brought them to power, why not throw them out,” he told a village meeting in Jagraon last week.
Sangrur candidate Sukhpal Singh Khaira, one of the most vociferous critics of Mann, was unsparing in his speeches.
“The AAP folks are children of Kejriwal; don’t let them decide your fate. The CM has no time for the public.. our youth is in the grip of drugs. When the CM says that he has given government jobs to 40,000 youth, he doesn’t tell you that many more have already retired. He is a drunkard. Despite having publicly sworn that he will not touch liquor, he continues to stumble,” Khaira said in his public meetings.
“Punjabis generally listen to their hearts, and that is what they did when they brought in Bhagwant Mann to power,” Leader of Opposition, Partap Singh Bajwa told an election meeting in Qadian in favour of Gurdaspur candidate Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa.
“Bhagwant Mann is a sharabi (drunkard)…a lowly person who lies all the time. He does not even use the word ‘Singh’ with his name. Under his dastaar (headgear), there is no hair. The other day in a rally in Bathinda, he put dirty water on his dastaar,” he alleged.
Prof. Harjeshwar Singh from department of history, Chandigarh’s SGGS College, said that the Congress was looking to revive itself in Punjab .
“Buoyed by Rahul’s Bharat jodo Yatra and his promise of panch nyaya combined with fielding credible candidates, the Congress believes that it will do well. Dharamvir Gandhi (Patiala), Sukhpal Singh Khaira (Sangrur), Charanjit Channi (Jalandhar), Sukhjinder Randhawa (Gurdaspur) and Raja Warring (Ludhiana) are good strong choices,” he said.
“On the flip side, there are some factional issues on various seats but still Congress is likely to do well in Punjab and will emerge as the single largest party,” he added.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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