MANN IN A MUDDLE

A fusillade of crises-political, economic, social-assail Bhagwant Mann's AAP government in Punjab. How he can arrest the state's descent into chaos

- ANILESH S. MAHAJAN

IT was just a year ago that Bhagwant Mann and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) stormed to power in Punjab with a landslide victory after the electorate turned its back on the state’s two most powerful parties— the Congress and the Akali Dal (SAD)—that had taken turns to rule the front line state since it came into existence in 1966. The 49-year

old Mann, like the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, was a popular comedian before he turned to politics. His promise of badlav, or change, along with the freshness that AAP brought with it, had wowed voters who were disillusioned with the shenanigans of the state’s seasoned parties.

Yet when Mann completes one year as chief minister of the first AAP government in Punjab on March 16, the euphoria among voters will seem to have noticeably dissipated. Mann did inherit a state with an ailing, debt-ridden economy wrought by two decades of Sikh militancy and an over-exploitation of its natural resources that caused widespread unrest among farmers and unemployed youth, not to mention rising drug addiction and lawlessness. It was going to be an uphill task for any political leader to administer such a troubled state and turn it around. And Mann was a complete rookie. There were also no quick-fix solutions.