The seminal rift between the bureaucracy and the political bigwigs in Punjab surfaced once again with the Congress leaders, including the Cabinet Ministers and the legislators blaming the babus for wielding more powers in the State.
Congress leaders, even the Ministers, went all out to attack the state’s bureaucracy, which they claimed, is still working under the influence of the Akali Dal, which had ruled the state for a decade (from 2007 to 2017).
The resentment against the babudom of their own government was witnessed during the meeting of party’s newly-elected MPs, all MLAs, and the Cabinet Ministers, convened by the Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Thursday evening.
The meeting was also attended by the state Congress president Sunil Jakhar, state party affairs general secretary in-charge Asha Kumari and other senior leaders.
During the meeting, the Congress leaders rued that many decisions, already taken by the government, are yet to be implemented in real sense on the ground. Besides, they also claimed that the party did lose ground by not directly interacting with the people but getting things implemented, especially the social welfare schemes, through the bureaucracy.
They also expressed their resentment that despite being in power, neither they were being heard nor their wishes were being honoured.
This was not for the first time that the Congress leaders had expressed their offence to the babus. In fact, the issue was vehemently raised by the party MLAs during the pre-budget meetings held early this year. Besides, several leaders have also, time and again, raised the matter with the authorities concerned, but to no avail.
Several MLAs protested that the decision to waive the 200 units of power was not yet implemented, and the debt waiver scheme was also implemented through bureaucracy — the actions which are working in favour of the Akalis.
Cabinet Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, also expressing his concerns about the bureaucracy, insisted that the bureaucracy need to be tackled otherwise things may go out of hand.
In chorus, another Cabinet Minister and Mohali MLA Balbir Singh Sidhu referred to an incident saying that on the bureaucrat’s orders, bulldozer ran in the city which was stopped only after the Chief Minister intervened. “In places where the bulldozer ran, the Congress had to suffer,” he said.
During the pre-budget meetings in March, the MLAs and MPs were unanimous in favour of greater coordination between the elected representatives and the bureaucracy to bring in more connect between the government and the people. But since then, nothing has been done.
A senior Congress leader, requesting anonymity, told The Pioneer that though the Thursday meetings was an invite of high-tea by the Chief Minister to interact with the MLAs and the newly-elected MPs, discussions were also held on the party’s performance and the reasons for not achieving Mission 13.
“From the beginning, there was a sense among the MLAs and leaders that they are not having any say despite being in power. Despite raising this issue several times, nothing has been done. Congress sarkaar de do saal baad vi Akaliyaan da rang utreya nahi babuaan te (Its seems Akalis’ influence has not faded from the babus even after two years of the Congress government),” said the leader.
Citing one of such incident, the Congress leader said that party MLA from Baghapurana Darshan Singh Brar had submitted a complaint against seven officers from Moga to the Chief Minister’s office demanding their transfer after the zila parishad and panchayat samiti polls in 2018.
Brar and his son Kamaljit Singh Brar had alleged that the said officers were working in favour of Akali Dal during the rural polls. Before that, Brar had also complained against the officers to the Cabinet Minister Rana Gurmit Singh Sodhi for “not listening to them” and ‘ill-treating and misbehaving with them”.