NEW DELHI: While farmers are protesting on Delhi borders for the past three weeks, the politics on their agitation is being played out in Punjab. The three main political parties - the ruling Congress, main opposition Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) are squabbling among themselves.
The prime reason behind this fight between the Congress, AAP and SAD is that the farmers’ agitation is being led and dominated by the agriculturalists from Punjab. The three parties are seen outdoing each other in a bid to be seen as the best sympathiser of the farmers.
The second reason is that power in Punjab has been alternating usually between the Congress and SAD-BJP combine for the last few years. However, AAP made a surprise entry into the state’s electoral politics in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections by winning four of the 13 seats in the state.
In the 2017 Punjab assembly elections, it won 20 of the 117 seats, coming a distant second to the Congress which bagged 77 seats. With the SAD-BJP combine winning 18 seats - two seats lesser than AAP - the status of the main opposition party went to Kejriwal’s party.
No wonder both Congress and SAD are attacking AAP, as they feel threatened by the latter which seems to have a potential to take a larger share of the political cake.
Both Congress and SAD have come down heavily on Kejriwal ever since he tore the agriculture laws during the Delhi assembly session on Thursday to show his anguish over the Acts and to extend support to the farmers.
On Thursday itself, SAD leader and former Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal slammed Kejriwal. She accused him of indulging in “cheap theatrics”. She pointed out that the AAP government in Delhi was among the first to notify one of the central laws related to agriculture.
In a statement, she said though Kejriwal was known as a “dramebaaz”, on this occasion he had indulged in "cheap theatrics" and "unparalleled hypocrisy" by tearing the same laws in the Delhi assembly, one of which he had notified on November 23.
On Friday, it was the turn of Congress to attack Kejriwal and SAD both. Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh mocked Kejriwal calling him a "big fraud" and the act of tearing the copies of the farm laws as double standards.
Singh called Kejriwal's act as "theatrics" as the Delhi government had given approval to the "black farm laws" by notifying one of them last month. “The Aam Aadmi Party leader is indulging in petty politics now,” he said.
"This shows Kejriwal and the AAP have a different face for the people, with totally contrarian intentions hidden inside," Singh said.
Singh alleged that both AAP and SAD were a "bunch of hypocrites whose double standards on the farm laws had exposed their lack of commitment to the farmers".