CHANNI PUTS OUT A STEADYING HAND

Gurinder Singh, a resident of Khauli village in Amritsar, had a VVIP guest on the night of December 6—Charanjit Singh Channi. The Punjab chief minister was on a surprise visit to the village and chose to have dinner at Gurinder’s modest home. He ignored the family’s pleas to sit on the cot and planted himself on the floor for a meal of sarson da saag and makki di roti, loaded with white butter.

- Anilesh S. Mahajan

Earlier in the day, Channi had attended a political event in Amritsar city’s Jora Phatak area, where he broke his security cordon to lend an ear to protesting lower-rung government health workers. On November 28, he had taken children on an impromptu helicopter ride while visiting his home in Morinda in Ropar district.

To many, these are scenes not seen in Punjab in a long, long time. They see 58-year-old Channi—the state’s first Dalit chief minister—as a striking contrast to his predecessor Captain Amarinder Singh. Amarinder, the titular maharaja of Patiala, was often criticised for being a reclusive CM, who mostly ran his government from his farmhouse near Chandigarh. Channi, on the other hand, is projecting himself as a hands-on administrator who is always available to his people.

Amarinder may have quit the Congress to launch his own outfit after being unceremoniously removed as CM, but he has several loyalists in the party who could still give Channi grief. Aware of the threat, the new chief minister, who enjoys Rahul Gandhi’s backing, has been systematically going after them. One such loyalist, Patiala mayor Sanjeev Sharma Bittu, lost the vote of the majority on November 25 and was also suspended. This followed the removal of city improvement trust chiefs in Amritsar, Batala and Ludhiana. Amarinder’s wife and Patiala MP Preneet Kaur has been served notice for “anti-party” activities even as the Congress is keeping an eye on other MPs from the Captain’s camp—G.S. Aujla, Mohammad Sadique, Manish Tewari and Santokh Singh Chaudhary.