May 2019

www.theasianindependent.co.uk
ASIA
May 2019
It's celebrity card again in Punjab's border constituency
Gurdaspur (Punjab) :
Amid blistering heat, a sea of
people thronged actor-turnedpolitician
Sunny Deol's roadshows
vying for a selfie with
their favourite candidate. True
to star gesture, the Gadar star is
also not missing an opportunity
to get off from his vehicle to
meet children. It's star power in
Punjab Lok Sabha elections
again, literally. The BJP-Akali
Dal has fielded the 62-year-old
from Gurdaspur, the seat represented
four times by yesteryear
actor Vinod Khanna, who died
in April 2017 due to cancer.
Khanna, a native of Punjab,
was a sitting MP at that time of
his death. Son of veteran actor
Dharmendra, Deol, who does
not have any direct connection
with Gurdaspur city -- though
his father hails from Sahnewal
town near Punjab's industrial
town Ludhiana, has a strong
Punjabi appeal. He is a Jat
Sikh. Deol, whose main priority
is creating employment for
the youth, entered the Hindi
film industry with "Betaab" in
1983 and his best hits include
"Border", "Damini" and
"Gadar: Ek Prem Katha".
Deol's unforgettable dialogue
from 1990's Hindi film
"Ghayal": "Jab yeh dhai kilo ka
haath kisi pe padta hai na, toh
aadmi uthta nahi... utth jata hai"
(When this hand weighing 2.5
kg is kept on some person, they
don't get up, they go up (they
will die) echoes through out his
meandering campaign trail
here. One of his fans handed
him a hand-pump at a roadshow,
a scene in his 2001
blockbuster movie "Gadar..." in
which Deol uproots a similar
pump to fight off a crowd, who
were trying to attack a woman.
Deol is unfazed by the criticism
and despite being dubbed
an "outsider" by the Congress,
the actor says: "I'm Punjab da
puttar (son of Punjab) and
farming is in my blood."
Landing here on Wednesday
straight from Mumbai, Deol
met families of soldiers who
sacrificed their lives for the
nation at a border village in
Dinanagar area. "I am not a
hero as I only acted as a soldier.
The real heroes are those who
sacrificed their lives for the
country," he told a family.
Gurdaspur lies in the north
of Punjab, sharing an international
border with Pakistan and
the troubled state of Jammu and
Kashmir. The area is not as
developed as other areas in
Punjab. Deol, who is not missing
an opportunity to pay obeisance
to Sikh shrines and
Hindu temples during his campaigning,
is pitted against
Congress state unit President
Sunil Jakhar, who won the
October 2017 by-election with
a margin of 1.92 lakh votes.
The bypoll was necessitated
with sitting MP Vinod
Khanna's death. The BJP did
not give the ticket for the byeelection
to Khanna's widow,
Kavita Khanna, a strong
claimant for the seat.
With the fielding of Deol,
Kavita Khanna expressed her
disappointment, saying she felt
"betrayed" by the party.
The Gurdaspur constituency,
which has 14,68,972 voters,
including 72,6363 women, has
nine assembly constituencies. It
has a high number of serving
and retired defence personnel
and the BJP is trying to woo
them by using the 'fauzi' image
of Deol. The former members
of Parliament from Gurdaspur
are Sukhbuns Kaur Binder of
the Congress, who won the seat
five times in a row till 1996
when she faced her defeat from
BJP's Jagdish Sawhney; from
BJP's Khanna (1998 to 2009)
and Congress' Pratap Singh
Bajwa from 2009 to 2014.
Khanna got elected for the
first time in 1998, followed by
wins in 1999, 2004 and 2014.
He lost the poll in the 2009
general election to Congress
leader Bajwa with a slender
margin. In 2014, Khanna had
again won by a thumping margin
of over 1.38 lakh votes. A
local BJP leader told IANS:
"Khanna won his last election
not due to his stardom but
because of Modi wave. This
time too his magic will work
here. Moreover, Deol is known
for playing nationalist."
Locals believe the Modi
wave might work for Deol, too.
"Deol, who is a Jat Sikh, will
help winning the state as the
constituency is dominated by
the Jat Sikhs," a senior BJP
leader said. A confident
Congress candidate Sunil
Jakhar, though, said: "I have
been a Dharmendra fan. I like
Sunny Deol as an actor. The
people will prefer a local than
an outsider (Deol). I wish him
all the best." "He is unaware of
the issues of Punjab and
Gurdaspur. He should share his
vision for Gurdaspur. What is
his agenda for the people
here?" asked Jakhar. The
Gurdaspur constituency has
seen two major militant attacks
by Pakistan-backed militant
outfits in the recent past.
It is believed by the BJP that
DESERTED by MLAs, AAP
looks a sinking ship in Punjab
5
terror attacks and Deol's stardom
will trigger the BJP magic.
"As Modi has sent the air
force to destroy terror camps in
Pakistan after the Pulwama
attack, so is Deol who has
thrashed militants with iron
hands in movies. So people in
Gurdaspur like both Modi and
Deol. His stardom will catch
votes for BJP," a local BJP
leader said. Tough road for
Congress Hindu candidate
Jakhar to retain the seat. Jakhar,
who started his campaigning
well ahead of Deol, won the
seat when the Congress government
in the state just came at
the helm. Now after two years,
the government has anti-incumbency.
This factor will make
Jakhar's victory tough, admitted
a senior Congress leader.
In 2017, most of the state
ministers had campaigned for
him. Now, even Jakhar doesn't
enjoy a good relation with
Chief Minister Amarinder
Singh. The BJP in the state has
an alliance with the Shiromani
Akali Dal in Punjab.
It is contesting three Lok
Sabha seats (Amritsar,
Gurdaspur and Hoshiarpur),
while the Akali Dal is contesting
the remaining 10 seats.
Punjab will vote on May 19.
Cyclone Fani kills
6 in Bangladesh
Dhaka : At least six people were killed as cyclone Fani
slammed into Bangladesh's coastline after striking the Indian
states of Odisha and West Bengal, officials said.
Bangladesh State Minister for Disaster Management Enamur
Rahman said that 63 people were injured in the storm,
bdnews24.com reported. However, local TV channel NTV put
the death toll at seven, adding that around 1,000 homes were
damaged. Officials said Fani damaged houses, uprooted trees,
snapped power and communication lines and disrupted rail, road
and air traffic. TV footage showed widespread flooding in
coastal areas where hundreds of thousands of people were evacuated.
However, Shamsuddin Ahmed, Director at the
Bangladesh Meteorological Department, said that Fani had
weakened and was being gradually reduced to a depression.
Officials said the cyclone did not prove to be as devastating as
feared. At least 1.6 million people who were taken to storm centres
were told to return to their homes, reports said. The severe
cyclonic storm, one of the strongest to batter the Indian subcontinent
in decades, weakened before entering Bangladesh on
Saturday morning from West Bengal.
It first made landfall in Odisha on Friday morning. It crossed
Tangail and Mymensingh region as a deep depression at noon,
said the Met office. The storm will become weaker after rain.
Fishing boats, trawlers and maritime vessels over the bay
were advised to remain in shelter till further notice. Under the
influence of Fani, strong winds with rain started to lash many
parts of coastal Bangladesh from Friday night, destroying
homes, damaging crops and roads and uprooting trees.
Chandigarh : The Aam
Aadmi Party (AAP) had
emerged a dark horse in Punjab
in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections,
winning four seats and
stunning rivals with its performance
in the nine other
seats. But it's a different story
this time. The infighting-ridden
party is struggling to save its
sinking ship with several leaders
either quitting or being suspended
in the last four years.
AAP's four prominent rebels --
sitting Patiala MP Dharamvira
Gandhi, former Leader of
Opposition Sukhpal Khaira,
MLA Baldev Singh and
Punjabi singer-turned-politician
Jassi Jasraj -- are contesting
Patiala, Bathinda, Faridkot
and Sangrur Lok Sabha seats as
the Punjab Democratic
Alliance (PDA) candidates.
Except Bathinda, the AAP
had won the other three seats in
2014 with a vote share of 24.4
per cent. The PDA, a six-party
coalition, was formed by
Sukhpal Singh Khaira, who led
the rebellion against AAP
national convener Arvind
Kejriwal after being removed
from the post of Leader of
Opposition in Punjab Assembly.
They aim to defeat the AAP,
which is contesting all 13 seats
with a mix of youth, experienced
and trusted hands, and emerge as
the third alternative in the state.
The trouble began when two
AAP MPs, cardiologist Gandhi
(Patiala) and Harinder Singh
Khalsa (Fatehgarh Sahib), were
suspended from the party in
May 2015 for "anti-party activities".
Likewise, the AAP
removed its then state unit chief
Sucha Singh Chhotepur, who
played a crucial role in
strengthening the party's base
in the state, on flimsy bribery
charges in August 2016.
In the February 2017
Assembly elections, the AAP
finished second as the main
opposition party with 20 legislators
in the Congress-ruled
117-member Assembly. Of the
20, eight have defected till date.
The latest dissident MLA to
quit the AAP is Amarjit Singh
Sandoya. He joined the
Congress on Saturday and
alleged he was feeling disenchanted
due to the top AAP
leadership's high-handed
approach towards Punjab.
Welcoming Sandoya into the
Congress-fold, Chief Minister
Amarinder Singh said the
Congress had got a major boost
due to exodus in opposition
parties in the state. Suspended
AAP legislator Kanwar Sandhu
said, "In this election, the AAP
is a low key player in the state
and is not getting the response
it got in the 2014 and 2017
polls. At that time people were
looking for a change. Now they
are upset with the infighting in
the AAP". Countering it, AAP
legislator Aman Arora said the
"silent voters" were still with
the party. In Sangrur, state
AAP chief and comedian
Bhagwant Mann is facing popular
singer and party rebel Jassi
Jasraj. In Patiala, Neena Mittal
is facing AAP rebel MP
Dharamvira Gandhi who had
defeated three-time MP Preneet
Kaur, wife of Chief Minister
Amarinder Singh, by over
20,000 votes in 2014. Kaur is
also in the fray.
in Faridkot, dissident AAP
legislator Baldev Singh is taking
on outgoing party MP Sadhu
Singh as the Punjab Ekta Party
candidate. This time, rich
Punjabi non-resident Indians
(NRIs) too are conspicuos by
their absence as the AAP supporters.
In 2014 general elections,
many NRIs came out
openly by offering cash but also
campaigning with people to support
the AAP. This time they
have switched their loyalties and
are backing Mann's Congress
opponent Kewal Singh Dhillon
and are campaigning for him,
riding an air-conditioned bus
called the 'NRI Express'.
Karamjit Singh Dhaliwal,
who runs gas stations in New
York, said, "In 2014 and 2017
elections, we campaigned for
AAP candidates. Now the AAP
has drifted away from its ideology
of 'Swaraj', so we decided
not to support it". Countering
dissidence and defection within
the party, Mann, AAP's only
hope to retain his seat, issued
an emotional video message to
party cadres. In his message, he
accused rebel leader Khaira of
being an agent of both the
Congress and the Akali Dal and
for engineering defections of
AAP legislators to the
Congress. Punjab will vote on
May 19.