Why Kejriwal's 'Delhi formula' won't work in Punjab

Former Amritsar MP Navjot Singh Sidhu has chosen a clever nomenclature for his tiny front: Awaaz-e-Punjab. And the timing of his news conference, loaded with his characteristic verbosity, couldn't have been more appropriate either.

Sidhu's Awaaz-e-Punjab is a little, newborn baby on the state's political landscape that produced stalwarts like Master Tara Singh, Giani Zail Singh, Darbara Singh, Surjit Singh Barnala, Gurcharan Singh Tohra, Parkash Singh Badal, Harchand Singh Longowal and so forth.

His Awaaz-e-Punjab invokes Punjabiyat. Its birth coincides with a brewing unease in Punjab, and within Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party over its non-Punjabi commanders.

Kejriwal took a gamble on the political, cultural and social nuances of Punjabiyat when he declared in Rome that he would be the overall boss of AAP in the state by month end. As if he is not.

In all fairness, Kejriwal, howsoever embattled he may be now, did create history when he became chief minister of Delhi in 2013 and 2015. But the history he wrote doesn't necessarily obliterate the history others have written in the past.

Punjab offers a case study.

From the Singh Sabha movement, the Punjabi Suba movement, the Anandpur Sahib resolution, to the controversial Dharam Yudh Morcha, the state has a record of locking itself in fierce confrontation with the might of New Delhi, mainly over cultural identity and natural resources.

This history, which I am not too sure Kejriwal has grasped fully, explains why his AAP is losing ground in Punjab. His Rome declaration is a two-edged sword. It may win him non-Sikh support divided between Congress and the BJP. But risks are higher - he'll most likely alienate the Sikhs further by imposing himself upon them as their messiah.

After the region split into Hindi-speaking Haryana, Pahari-speaking Himachal Pradesh and Punjabi-speaking Punjab in 1966, no non-Sikh has ever been the chief minister of the Sikh-majority state.

Kejriwal has so far been unambiguous about his Punjab ambitions, by action if not by words. He has rejected heavyweights from the soil, within and outside AAP. His lieutenants micro-managing party campaign in the state don't belong to the state either.

Carved out of the protracted Punjabi Suba movement, Punjab is also the cradle of the Sikh faith.

The party lost its novelty as an anti-corruption grouping long back. Kejriwal's anti-Badal rhetoric, his promises to arrest the corrupt are a cut-paste of his election speeches in the national capital.

Sikh sentiments will ultimately crystallise on identity. No cut-paste formula from Delhi will work there.

Also read: AAP is looking to sink in Punjab polls