In what many are calling a “desperate attempt” to mask the failures of his struggling Bhagwant Mann-led Aam Aadmi Party government, the Punjab Chief Minister has once again chosen fear over facts, reviving the narrative that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) would bring back the three contentious “farm laws” if voted to power in the state.
The irony, however, is impossible to miss. Mann’s own party, along with the principal Opposition Congress, has repeatedly maintained that the BJP’s political footprint in Punjab is minimal, with the party holding just two seats in the 117-member Assembly and allegedly nowhere in serious contention for power. Yet, despite these claims, it is the BJP—not Congress—that has become the central target of Mann’s political attacks.
This contradiction speaks volumes. If the BJP is truly “irrelevant” in Punjab politics, as Mann and his allies insist, then why is the Chief Minister devoting so much energy, rhetoric and political ammunition toward attacking it? Why is he not confronting the Congress directly, which remains the principal Opposition force in the state?
Political observers see parallels between Mann’s renewed farm laws rhetoric and the narrative pushed by Congress during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, when Opposition leaders repeatedly claimed that the BJP would change the Constitution if voted back to power. Critics argue that just as the “Constitution under threat” campaign was used to emotionally mobilize voters nationally, the revival of the farm laws issue in Punjab appears aimed at reigniting fear and consolidating support amid growing anti-incumbency against the AAP government.
However, with Mann repeatedly resorting to the farm laws rhetoric, many believe the answer lies in growing nervousness within the ruling establishment. Mounting anti-incumbency, dissatisfaction over governance, unfulfilled promises, worsening law-and-order concerns and public frustration over key issues appear to have rattled the AAP leadership. By attempting to reignite fears surrounding the farm laws, Mann seems eager to shift the political discourse away from his government’s record and toward emotional polarization.
But Punjab’s electorate has historically demonstrated political maturity and an ability to distinguish between genuine issues and manufactured narratives. The repeated invocation of the farm laws—despite their repeal by the Union Government following sustained farmers’ protests—appears less like a warning and more like a “diversionary tactic” aimed at consolidating political support through fear.
The Chief Minister’s aggressive fixation on the BJP may ultimately reveal more about his own anxieties than about the saffron party’s actual electoral prospects in Punjab. In politics, leaders rarely attack what they genuinely consider insignificant. And perhaps, hidden beneath the rhetoric, lies an acknowledgment that Punjab’s political equations are shifting faster than the ruling party would like to admit.
(The author is the Editor of the website www.thenewsgateway.com. Views expressed are personal.)
