The party high command chose to turn a blind eye to party in-fighting throughout 2006. The state unit of the party was placed under veteran Pranab Mukherjee in 2004, as Amarinder Singh raked up the sensitive water issue. But the Congress soon lost interest in the state. Janardan Dwivedi, who took charge in January 2006, visited Punjab rarely, perhaps assuming that there was nothing left there to fight for.

In 2002 the Congress led by a mere one per cent of votes in the state assembly elections. In the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, the gap between the Congress and Akali combine was 6 per cent in the latter’s favour. In 2006, the party brought down that gap to 4.7 per cent. But it still could not hold on to power.

To blame this on market reform is not just lazy political analysis, it is a deliberate cover-up of organisational inefficiency.