The Aam Admi Party is coming in for a lot of flak for its Punjab model. The criticism is that while Bhagwat Singh Mann has been appointed state chief minister, the state is being run by Arvind Kejriwal’s team from Delhi. There has been a MoU signed between the two governments to share knowledge, experience and skills for public good as well as send ministers and officials to each other’s states for the implementation. This has been criticized as Kejriwal’s attempt to remote control Punjab from Delhi. And now, Raghav Chaddha who enjoys Kejriwal’s complete confidence has been given an advisory role in the Punjab government. This has been translated to mean that it would be Chaddha who would be running the show. As it is, the crowd and cars outside Chaddha’s home in Chandigarh are much more than those outside the CM’s house next door.
But before we jump to criticize the Aam Admi Party, are they the only ones to follow this model of remote control? What about the famous National Advisory Council under Sonia Gandhi that ran Dr Manmohan Singh’s government? It was an open secret that the UPA was run by Sonia’s group of left-liberals at the NAC. In fact some of the UPA’s trophy schemes – NREGA, RTI and farmers’ loan waivers, all came from the NAC but were announced by Dr Manmohan’s cabinet.
Ditto for the Modi government—where there is a strong centralised rule though the CMs are allowed much more liberty to come up with their individual day-to-day schemes such as the Yogi government’s anti-Romeo squad or Khattar’s policy for giving employment priority to the people of Haryana. So with Raghav Chaddha in charge, one will expect some Punjab centric policies as well, but all with the approval of Arvind Kejriwal.
Raghav will have his challenges cut out as the honeymoon period of the new government is nearly over; especially after the spate of high profile killings, there has been a question of the law and order. There is also the issue of managing expectations, as the state is reeling under a heavy debt, incurred prior to the Aap government. But Kejriwal had promised that he would take measures to ease the burden. Well, the clock on that has started ticking. Can Team Kejriwal deliver?
