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The rebels' call for the ouster of Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh becomes shriller following a series of embarrassing charges, observes India Today's Ramesh Vinayak.

When Captain Amarinder Singh took over as chief minister of Punjab on February 27 last year, he was received in his high-roofed office in Civil Secretariat by a Hindu priest, a Sikh granthi and a Christian pastor who prayed for the longevity of his government.

But less than two years later, the effect of all the prayers seems to have worn off as a politically embattled Amarinder lurches from one crisis to another in the face of a bitter power struggle with his rivals within the party belligerently seeking his ouster. The same office nowadays is the hub of Amarinder's desperate strategy sessions to stave off the crisis that virtually reduced him into a lameduck chief minister. The beleaguered captain walked into another high-voltage controversy this week in the wake of allegations of his son Raninder Singh's shady dollar dealings with a foreign-based company. Though without evidence so far, the sensational allegation has put a precariously placed Amarinder on the defensive, given fresh ammunition to his rivals and cast a shadow on his anti-corruption credentials.

With the Congress high command still groping to resolve the month-long standoff triggered by an open revolt by 32 MLAs - almost half of the Congress Legislature Party's 65 member strength - the Amarinder Government continues to be on the edge. Spearheaded by Amarinder's sworn bete noire and Agriculture Minister Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, the rebels, including 16 ministers, are defiantly sticking to their guns on their terse "save- Amarinder-or-the-party" ultimatum.

The ministers belonging to the rebel camp continue to play truant with official work and are boycotting Cabinet meetings, with the result that even the routine functioning of the government has come to a standstill. Key decisions, specially on the much-touted reforms in the financial and power sectors, have been pushed on the backburner. As the rebels are holding key ministries, Amarinder has been virtually reduced into a lameduck chief minister. "The instability has blunted instruments of governance," says a top bureaucrat. With a deepening bankruptcy - the debt liability has ballooned to a whopping Rs 42,000 crore - stalking the state, and many reforms still at a nascent stage, a political turmoil is the last thing Punjab needed.

The breather that Amarinder earned after the high command spurned the dissidents' demand for his replacement was shortlived. In the high command's perception, a change of guard in Punjab in the face of strong-arm tactics would not only erode its authority but also precipitate the simmering rebellion in other Congress-ruled states, particularly Kerala and Maharashtra. The buzz of an early Lok Sabha elections was the final clincher against changing the horses mid-stream in Punjab. "The risks far outweigh the advantages in replacing Amarinder at this juncture," says a senior AICC leader, deputed as a troubleshooter on the Punjab rumpus by Sonia Gandhi.

The high command's strategy now is to tire the dissidents out while trying to hammer out a solution short of change of leadership. However, the buzz about the Lok Sabha polls being advanced has lent urgency to the party's attempts to broker a truce sooner than later. Unnerved by the likely impact of incessant infighting, the high command has summoned the state Congress Legislature Party - all 65 MLAs - to Delhi on January 5 to work out a compromise formula.

Though chastened, the dissidents are doing all that it takes to keep the pot boiling. "We will not retreat even an inch from our demand for Amarinder's removal," asserts Bhattal who has steadfastly managed to keep her flock together despite Amarinder's placate-and-poach tactics. Nor has Amarinder's offer for reconciliation, preceded by removal of two key and controversial aides - Principal Secretary Sanjit Sinha and media advisor Bharat Inder Singh Chahal - found any takers in the dissident camp.

The game of intrigue, blackmail and brinkmanship reached a new flashpoint on December 26 when the rebel ministers threatened to resign en masse from their official positions after the Vigilance Bureau forwarded a complaint of corruption against Transport Minister Tej Parkash Singh, son of former chief minister Beant Singh and a close ally of Bhattal, to the Chandigarh police for investigation. Terming the episode as an Amarinder-orchestrated move to cow down his rivals, 10 ministers were quick to lodge their protest with the Governor and even set a three-day deadline for the chief minister to suspend the vigilance director or face their resignations from the ministry.

However, Bhattal shrewdly retreated from the resignation threat and instead demanded the resignation of Amarinder and his Man Friday and Home Secretary Sinha, charging them for "maligning" the image of the Beant Singh family. In a dramatic move on December 29, the rabble rouser led the dissidents to take a "swim-and-sink-together" pledge at the "samadhi" of Beant Singh, vowing to continue their campaign against Amarinder. By pitching the revolt to the Beant Singh faction, Bhattal has clearly fortified her ranks and made it difficult for the high command to crack the whip against her or her supporters.

But the damning allegations against Amarinder's son, relating to the transfer of $1 lakh to an Intranet company run by his foreign national friend, could not have come at a worse time. Though Amarinder promptly mounted a damage control, vehemently rubbishing the allegations, his opponents were quick to seize the explosive issue. Even before Shiromani Akali Dal chief Parkash Singh Badal raised the ruckus on the issue, the dissidents were first to move for the kill and pitch for a CBI probe - a demand also made by Badal who is now pressing the Vajpayee-led Government to order a probe by a central agency. "Amarinder must come clean on the allegations against his son as these could ruin the party's chances in the Lok Sabha polls," says senior minister and the dissidents' spokesman Harnam Dass Jauhar.

Clearly, with even the party colleagues baying for his blood, the chief minister hardly needs the opposition. "Amarinder has been trapped in intrigues of his own making," smirks Badal. For once, the captain's assiduously cultivated image as an anti-corruption crusader has come under a cloud and also raised question marks on the momentum of his politico-legal offensive to nail Badal in a string of corruption cases. Predictably, the Congress imbroglio has come as a major reprieve for Badal and also resurrected the Akali rank and file. "We are getting things on a platter," says senior Akali leader Kanwaljit Singh. With Amarinder living on borrowed time, his survival is almost certain till the Lok Sabha polls. Also certain is that the party has prepared the ground for cooking its own goose in the polls. Ironically for the Congress, the dissidents now hope that the party's defeat may lead to their victory in unseating Amarinder.

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