JALANDHAR, February 2: It is a chilly Sunday evening on the first day of spring. At 7 pm, Prime Minister I K Gujral is preparing for the final act to round off a hectic day's campaigning in a nondescript locality of this industrial town. It is round two of his electioneering after filing his papers here on January 21. And despite the Akali bravado of a runaway victory, Gujral is leaving nothing to chance.There's a riot of colour in a predominantly Sikh crowd though most of them are sporting the blue Akali turbans. The well-knit venue of the rally has some banners hailing Gujral, flags of the Akali Dal (Badal) and for a change, a few Janata Dal flags as well. People from surrounding houses curious to know what is happening, are peeping out of balconies and windows as wails of sirens herald the arrival of the Prime Minister's convoy.
The Prime Minister's son, Naresh, wraps a shawl around his father who was indisposed throughout the day, coughing, sneezing and occasionally dozing off at the five electionmeetings he addressed in and around the city earlier in the day. The son, in charge of the campaign, briefly whispers to his father before Gujral gets up to address. Akali Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal has already appealed to the audience to get Gujral elected with the highest vote margin in the country. As Gujral rises, an Akali Dal organiser of the rally shouts the slogan saada chon nishan (our election symbol) and the crowd responds, chakkar (wheel). This is apparently to drive home the point that the audience should not lose sight of Gujral's symbol in a campaign dominated by Akali paraphernalia. It is the Akali slogan bole so nihaal which is most heard at his rallies.
His election speeches are by now familiar. ``Son of Punjab'', ``Punjabiyat'', ``Punjab lover'', ``first Punjabi Prime Minister'' and ``Jalandhariite'' have become bywords in his campaigning. Gujral has been seeking votes on his claims of having brought the people of Punjab into the national mainstream for the firsttime in 50 years by removing the feeling of alienation among them.
That Hindus are in a discouraging minority in most of his rallies even in Jalandhar, has obviously not gone unnoticed with his poll managers, who include his son Naresh and political secretary N K Mehta. The result, Gujral is now focussing his attack only on the Congress which has put up a candidate against him, and is not uttering a word against the BJP in any rally. Political observers feel this could be a calculated move by his poll managers to rope in the support of the BJP, which has so far remained aloof despite its coalition partner the Akali Dal (B), appealing to it to support Gujral.
Gujral also projects himself as a martyr, reminding the audiences that he had opted to shed power rather than succumb to the Congress demand for dropping three DMK ministers. ``If I had survived at that cost, how could I have faced you? I have upheld Punjabi pride. Nobody can charge me or my seven-month government with corruption,'' Gujral says in hisrhetoric.A remarkable aspect of Gujral's campaigning has been his visits to the deras of many godmen and babas in the constituency. Gujral is hoping for the support of the large following commanded by them.
On Sunday, Baba Buddha Shah and Baba Kashmira Singh, a police official turned godman, organised separate rallies in Gujral's honour. Sheila Gujral, who accompanied her husband, was greeted with loud cheers by a large women's presence at Baba Kashmira Singh's rally when she came up on the dais and folded her hands in greetings.
Gujral is also trying to rope in the support of Akali leaders who have fallen apart with Badal. He visited Kuldip Singh Wadala, a radical Akali leader who severed his links with Badal over the latter's alliance with the BJP. Shrewdly, he stayed clear of the Wadala-Badal conflict during the talks.
Gujral's main rival Umrao Singh of Congress, on the other hand, showed his combative spirit by littering the roads and pathways leading up to the rally venues of Gujral with Congressflags and posters.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
