A day before the eventful resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan from the union cabinet, there was another resignation that went into the background.
Union Minister of State in the Railways, Ravneet Singh Bittu had “tendered” his resignation which was duly accepted by President Drupadi Murmu. The timing of the resignation was significant. It was obviously aimed at conveying a message to a section of people in poll-bound Punjab where the BJP has raised high stakes. Bittu’s resignation is inconsequential at the national level, but for Punjab it is significant.
A perception is building up in Punjab that the BJP is trying to prop up the radical preacher Amritpal Singh, who is an MP from Khadoor Sahib and is currently lodged in Dibrugarh Jail. His supporters have formed a political outfit Waris Punjab De. Some of the mainstream Akali leaders like Manpreet Singh Ayali has also joined the party. The party is understood to be gathering momentum in the countryside across the state.
Bittu had taken a clear and unambiguous stand on the film “Satluj”, which undoubtedly projected one sided of the story about what happened during the dark days of terrorism in Punjab. When Bittu raised the voice, he was speaking for all those victims of terrorism who have remained unheard even till now. Bittu had a point in arguing that one sided narratives are in nobody’s interest. Moreover, his grandfather Beant Singh, who was the Chief Minister and had led from the front in fighting terrorism was killed in a suicide bomb attack. The movie glorifies his assassination. It also blanketly maligns the entire police force of Punjab.
While the radicals and the liberals alike criticized Bittu, even the BJP tried to distance itself from what he said about the movie. The party fielded a senior leader Iqbal Singh Lalpura, a former cop himself, to counter Bittu. The message was not lost on anyone as the BJP was trying to mollycoddle the radicals and all those who were glorifying Jaswant Singh Khalra.
Also read: Why is BJP trying to silence Bittu?
The BJP wants to make inroads into the Jatt Sikh dominated ‘rural constituency’ in Punjab. It apparently believes that it cannot do it without shedding off the image of being a “nationalist” party. Otherwise, given the BJP’s policies towards terrorism, it should be endorsing what Bittu was saying. Instead, it contradicted him with the aim and hope that it may find some resonance and some support in the countryside.
While the BJP first distanced itself from Bittu’s stand on movie “Satluj”, his being dropped in a standalone decision was clearly aimed at pleasing and appeasing the radical sections of the state. But even this step, that the party has taken after deviating from its stated position on radicalism and terrorism, is unlikely to generate any votes and support for the party among the sections the party aims to please with Bittu’s removal.
Bittu in any case had to be dropped as his Rajya Sabha term had ended in the month of June. The party had not renominated him. At the same time, it had allowed him to continue as the minister, possibly with a chance that he may be accommodated in the next phase of Rajya Sabha elections in which BJP can win as many as 12 seats.
Even if the party did not want to renominate him to the Rajya Sabha, it could still have waited for the long overdue cabinet reshuffle. But the BJP believes in optics. Dropping him in a routine process may not have been noticed as much as dropping him exclusively in a standalone decision.
Even the sudden release of the movie “Satluj” on an OTT platform, followed by a “ban” that led to its mass screening across the state appeared to follow a particular pattern.
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