PUNJAB UPS THE ANTE

CAPITAL PROTEST Amarinder Singh at the November 4 dharna in New Delhi

- Anilesh S. Mahajan

On October 20, the Punjab assembly passed four bills, moved by the Amarinder Singh-led Congress government to counter the provisions—and their supposed adverse impact on farmers—of the three new farm laws passed in Parliament a month earlier. The fourth bill, to amend the Code of Civil Procedure (CPC), seeks to grant farmers the right to take their grievances to civil courts.

The legislative activism—later mimicked by the Congress-ruled government in Rajasthan too—has set the Amarinder Singh government on a collision course with the BJP-ruled Union government, and is now really getting in the way of life and business in the state. To become laws, however, the new state bills need Punjab governor V.P. Badnore’s assent, and chances are that he will refer them upward to President Ram Nath Kovind, given that the bills fall foul of the recently promulgated central laws.

The legislative battle aside, the unrelenting farmer protests in the state have consequences the Punjab chief minister must worry about. Since late September, protesters have been blocking highways and railway tracks and laid siege to power plants, petrol bunks, malls and much else. Punjab is in a gridlock.

With railway tracks and stations taken over by protesters, the movement of goods has been crippled. According to Railway Board CEO V.K. Yadav, protesters have taken control of, or are camping close to, two stretches of track and 22 railway stations. The Railways are firm that freight and passenger trains cannot resume operations until the protesters are evicted from these sites—and with the Punjab and Haryana High Court pulling up the state government for its inability to restore law and order, pressure is now building on the government.