Delhi model, Punjab's problems

AAP's political platform will face a new reality test

The Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP’s) sweeping electoral victory in Punjab has set the stage for a new challenge to the secular programme of welfare delivery. The “Delhi model” of quality government schools, the network of “mohalla” or community clinics to provide free or low-cost basic health services to the poor, and the near-free supply of power and water helped AAP parry the formidable challenge of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to win another term in the Union Territory. AAP’s campaign in Punjab has mirrored this model. AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal’s response has promised Punjab 300 units of free electricity, 100 units more than is given to Delhi’s citizens, to upgrade the state’s schools on the lines of the Delhi institutions, and to set up 16,000 mohalla clinics and Pind Clinics in every village and ward. A health guarantee scheme will deliver free medicines and treatment for surgeries, and accident victims in government hospitals will be treated for free.

Given the fact that AAP made good on its electoral promises in Delhi, there is solid credibility to these electoral promises. But AAP’s Chief Minister-designate Bhagwant Mann may find governing Punjab on the “Delhi model” a bigger challenge than he anticipated. First, there’s a question of scale: Punjab at 50,362 square km is many times larger than Delhi at 1,484 square km and has one and a half times more people. Then there’s the hard question of money. Delhi is a relatively prosperous state that has consistently run a revenue-surplus Budget, which has enabled AAP to pay for its welfarist agenda. Punjab, on the other hand, is severely cash-strapped. Its debt burden under the previous Congress regime grew significantly over the past four years to Rs 2.6 trillion. Not all of this increase is due to Covid-19 exigencies; populist schemes in readiness for the Assembly elections have resulted in the state debt-GSDP ratio crossing 50 per cent in FY22 (Budget estimates). This means that the incoming AAP regime will be hard put to find the resources to finance electoral promises.
 

Finally, there’s the question of addressing Punjab’s chronic problems. One of them is law and order, most of which stems from rampant cross-border drug smuggling. Tackling this effectively will require a major expansion and reorientation of the state’s police establishment. Delhi also has an enduring law and order problem, but Mr Kejriwal, as Delhi chief minister, has been able to dodge this challenge because the Delhi Police come under the Union home ministry. Similarly, although Punjab has a governor, this constitutional role is far more limited than that of the lieutenant governor in Delhi, who is equipped with potent powers to curb the functioning of the elected government. The differences between the lieutenant governor and Mr Kejriwal over AAP’s scheme for home delivery of rations, recently cleared by the court, is a case in point. Though Mr Kejriwal has clashed fiercely with the Centre over this division of powers, famously sleeping on the street in protest in his short first term, the fact is that this structure has given him an alibi for non-performance in critical areas. In Punjab, Mr Mann and Mr Kejriwal will have fewer such excuses. So, it is fair to say that Punjab will be the first real test of the Delhi model’s national scalability.