Who Will Amritsar Vote For?

Company Bagh – as the Maharaja Ranjit Singh Garden is colloquially called in Amritsar – is in many ways reflective of the city. Something about its verdant landscape tells you it has seen better days. Perhaps, it’s the disgruntled and bored look on the faces of the many young and middle-aged men who play cards in the shade of its many leafy trees. Or probably it’s just the patchy grass – a far cry from the meticulously manicured Lodi Gardens in the Capital where Arun Jaitley, the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate from the city’s lone Lok Sabha constituency, used to take his morning walks before shifting camp to Amritsar. Jaitley now goes to Company Bagh for his morning walks, where he occasionally comes across Captain Amarinder Singh, his opponent from the Congress.

It’s a Friday afternoon, and the Newslaundry crew – in town to shoot a town hall meeting in the garden – is desperately hoping the fierce April sun would relent in time for the 5 pm shoot. The usual pre-shoot chaos is in progress and people fret over the smallest of things – much to the amusement of the early birds. Krishna Kumar, who’s one of the first to arrive, wants to know the issues that will be discussed during the course of the show.  When told that Amritsar’s massive, and yet grossly underreported, drug-addiction problem would be one of the subjects, he enquires tentatively if we know about Maqboolpura.  When convinced that we do in fact know about Amritsar’s infamous locality of drugs-inflicted widows, he says, “The Akalis have destroyed Amritsar – people will vote for change this time”.  I ask him what change is. “Anything but the Akalis”, he declares.

The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), a party founded on the idea of Sikh nationalism, has emerged as the single largest party in the last two legislative elections in the city. The lone Lok Sabha constituency of Amritsar, though, has been with the BJP – the SAD’s ally in the state – since the last decade.  “They’ve been in power for too long and they’ve started to behave in a dictatorial fashion”, says Krishna who’s also a research scholar in the Punjab Technical University. He is a first-time voter and excited about exercising his adult franchise and having his say. “People will vote for the Congress this time – everyone’s fed up of SAD”, he forecasts. Krishna himself, though, is rather non-committal. “Maybe the Congress, or the new party, but I don’t know them too well. People say they fled from Delhi so I don’t know if they’re trustworthy”.

A little away, Sukhbir Singh and Daljeet Mann are surreptitiously drinking whisky in glasses borrowed from a chai-walah nearby. The quarter bottle of whisky is wrapped in a blue cloth and kept in the storage space in Mann’s Vespa scooter. They are wary when I approach them. Singh chuckles when I ask him about the elections. “The loot began since Indira Gandhi’s time and has continued ever since. I am not going to vote – I don’t remember the last time I did”, he says bitterly.  Mann menacingly points a finger at me and says, “You don’t have the guts to publish what I’ll say, so why even bother asking?” I persist and ask if they see any hope in the newest entrant in the fray – the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). “No one cares about those topi-wallas here”, says Mann dismissively.

As the sun begins to set and shadows become longer in Company Bagh, more people begin to flock in. Some evening joggers look at the cameramen in amusement, as they try to get their angles right and in the process seem to be shooting nothing in particular with great concentration.  Varender Singh, who’s a student leader in the Guru Nakak Dev University, patiently waits with two of his female friends for the light to be just perfect for the show to begin. “We are fundamentally opposed to the BJP’s idea of Hindu nationalism. Is India just a country for Hindus? That is what the BJP seems to imply all the time”, says Varender who’s agitated when I ask him if he thinks Narendra Modi will be the next Prime Minister. “We’ll vote for the Congress.” Shipra and Jasleen, his companions, nod their heads in agreement.  “The SAD will yet again get the rural votes because their leaders have a demi-god status there but they’ll get very few urban votes this time”, predicts Payal. Varender then comes with a brave projection, “Not Modi, Arvind Kejriwal will be the Prime Minister. It’s all about numbers – he’ll be the kingmaker and then he’ll dictate the terms.” When I ask them why he thinks of the BJP as a Hindu nationalist party, “2002”, they reply without batting an eyelid.

Jaswant Singh, hardly 100 meters from the cameras, doesn’t even look up once to look at them. He’s immersed in, what seems from the reaction of everyone huddled around to watch it, a riveting game of cards. When I tell him I’ve come from Delhi, he keeps his cards aside and instructs me to ask my questions. I ask him about the Modi wave. He is annoyed and tells me that the problem with us Dilliwalahs is that we think the entire country thinks like Delhi. “No one cares about Modi here. No one. Do you?”, he asks his card-mates. No, is the unanimous response. “We’ll vote for the Congress. We’re sick of the Akalis, and Modi has lost all our goodwill by aligning with them again”, he says.

Just as I close my notebook and prepare to take my position for the show, a young lady approaches me and asks what’s happening. I try explaining but she’s only interested in knowing if Jaitley’s going to be there. I ask her if she’s going to vote for him. “No, never. I’d have voted for the BJP had they fielded Navjot Singh Siddhu. He’s a good man – his heart’s in the right place.” Siddhu is Amritsar’s sitting MP but was overlooked this time for the much senior Arun Jaitley, who’s contesting elections for the first time.

Just as darkness begins to descend on Company Bagh, an old man walks up to me to enquire what the hullabaloo is about. When I tell him it was a discussion on the elections, he is curious and wants more details. I explain that it was a discussion to understand the real issues concerning Amritsar this election. “But why? No one cares about them – not BJP, not Congress, not AAP and definitely not the SAD”, he says. I ask him if he’ll vote. “Yes, I will do my duty even if they don’t”.