Sisodia’s Remarks Trigger Political Storm in Panjab

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Panjab state in-charge Manish Sisodia has triggered a political storm over remarks he made during a workshop of the party’s women volunteers on 14 Aug. He said, the party should make efforts using saam (persuasion), daam (appeasement), dand (punishment) and bhed (exploiting weaknesses) to win the 2027 Panjab Assembly elections. Until this point, he was quoting from the ancient Hindu text Arthashastra (Treatise on Money) by Kautaliya aka Chanakya which outlines strategies for statecraft and diplomacy. Critics and political analysts associate these approaches with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and its political party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), though neither the organization, nor the party have admitted to them. Sisodia went a few steps further when he asked the AAP cadre to deploy Sach (Truth), Jhoot (Lies), Sawal (Question), Jawab (Answer), Ladai (Fight), and Jhagda (Quarrel) to achieve their goals. This is a huge climbdown for AAP which was established in Nov 2012 to eradicate corruption and uphold transparency in government. While AAP has not been able to walk their talk, encouraging a change of values signals them eschewing democracy altogether. Panjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann, AAP state unit president Aman Arora, and other senior leaders were present at the workshop. Opposition parties have condemned Sisodia’s statement as a blatant admission of intent to use unfair and unconstitutional means to retain power. Leader of Opposition, Indian National Congress' Partap Singh Bajwa said, 'Sisodia’s call to win the elections at any cost is a confession of intent to destroy democracy.' The BJP and the Shiromani Akali Dal have written to the Election Commission of India demanding registration of a First Information Report against Sisodia. BJP state president Sunil Jakhar said, 'The AAP leader is openly advocating winning elections ‘by hook or by crook’, promoting undemocratic methods and violating laws. The remarks mock the values of peace, freedom and integrity and clearly indicate AAP’s intention to undermine the democratic process.' INC Panjab chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring said, 'You can win over Panjabis with folded hands...but you can’t threaten and intimidate them.'

Heavy rainfall in lower Himalayas and negligence by Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB) has created a flood-like situation in Panjab. While rain has caused havoc in Himachal Pradesh, and most of the water is coming into BBMP managed dams on river Satluj and Beas, it is of grave concern that both Bhakra and Pong dams keep storing water and releasing high quantities rapidly without adequate warning. During monsoon, the water inflow in Bhakra and Pong dams are 70K and 90K cusecs respectively. Daily outflow from each dam averages 30K-40K cusecs. For weeks now the Public Action Committee, Mattewara has been asking for gradual increased outflow but BBMB has not paid heed. Suddenly on 17 Aug, Pong Dam released 57K cusecs of water into Beas river and flooded Sultanpur Lodhi and Mand area. On the same day, Bhakra Dam released 90K cusecs causing a flood-like situation in Tarn Taran and Harike headworks. With heavy rains expected on 23-25 Aug, the situation will only worsen. The affected districts include Hoshiarpur, Kapurthala, Fazilka, Ferozepur, Gurdaspur, and Tarn Taran, where rising water levels in rivers and breaches in temporary embankments have raised concerns. Villagers in these areas are rustling up their own embankments to save their fields and homes from floods. BBMB has published a new water release plan which strangely, mostly talks in terms of feet—reservoir height and gate open size—not cusecs. The Panjab Health department has now been put on a high alert. The department has deployed 172 ambulances, 438 rapid response teams, and 323 mobile medical teams for flood-affected areas. The civil surgeons of likely affected districts have been asked to remain on alert in view of the weather conditions. As during the 2023 floods, the administration’s mismanagement of water release is related to the flawed BBMB water distribution arrangements with Haryana and Rajasthan which prioritize the needs of those states at the cost of Panjab. Meanwhile, flash floods have killed at least 337 people in northwestern Pakistan, according to the National Disaster Management Authority, while dozens remain missing (earlier coverage).

With the breakaway Akali Dal refuses to take on a different name, at present there are two Shiromani Akali Dals (SAD). The new breakaway faction intends to contest the earlier faction and snatch the party name, symbol, and office premises. On the new SAD headed by former Jathedar (leader) of Sri Akal Takht Sahib (Eternal Throne, AT) Giani Harpreet Singh, earlier SAD’s president Sukhbir Singh Badal said they have defied the Hukamnama (edict) of 2 Dec 2024, which specifically ordered against setting up of breakaway factions to weaken SAD. Sukhbir alleged that the 'central agencies were trying to weaken the SAD' by propping up 'parallel' SAD implying Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). Current AT officiating Jathedar Giani Kuldeep Singh Gargajj said Giani Harpreet’s appointment as the chief of the SAD breakaway faction was 'ethically wrong' as it was made against the 'spirit of the decree' issued by the AT. Giani Gargajj also clarified that the contest is about individual factions and is not a fight of the Panth (Sikh Collective). In other news, Giani Gargajj has once again sought the reopening of the Kartarpur Corridor that facilitates devotees to pay obeisance at the historic Darbar Sahib Gurdwara in Pakistan. AT has also summoned Guru Nanak Dev University’s Vice-Chancellor Dr Karamjit Singh over linking Guru Nanak's philosophy with Vedanta (conclusion from Veda Hindu texts) in the presence of RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat. Meanwhile, as the Sikhs mark the 350^th martyrdom anniversary of the ninth Sikh Guru (Sovereign) Teghbahadar, Vallah—the neighborhood which opened its doors when the Sovereign was denied entry to Darbar Sahib (Golden Temple)—is grappling with poor civic infrastructure. After being punished by AT over ‘song and dance’ at the Sovereign’s anniversary in Srinagar, Panjab Education Minister Harjot Singh Bains has pledged USD 23K from his discretionary funds and one month’s salary for the cleaning and repair of the locality (earlier coverage).

Bo Richard Vitagliano, 44, was arrested in Los Angeles on 11 Aug for attacking 70-year-old Harpal Singh in North Hollywood, US. According to the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), the attack came after a brawl between Harpal and the accused. 'Witnesses said they did not see how the altercation began, but heard a loud commotion, then witnessed two men swinging metal objects at each other,' said the police report. The attack victim is a resident of the US state of California and suffered serious grave injuries who continues to remain critical and sedated. Sri Akal Takht Sahib (Eternal Throne, AT) officiating Jathedar (leader) Giani Kuldip Singh Gargajj has condemned the brutal assault demanding the LAPD and American investigative agencies ensure the accused person receives a strict and exemplary punishment. In another hate crime in the UK, two elderly Sikh men (both taxi drivers but names withheld) were assaulted by three teenagers 15 Aug outside a railway station in Wolverhampton. Viral footage of the incident showed the victims lying on the ground, being kicked repeatedly by one of the attackers until he was pulled away by another. The teenagers were arrested but were later released on bail. Meanwhile, a crash in Florida, US which killed three people, has become the latest flashpoint between the US President Donald Trump administration and California Governor Gavin Newsom. A semi-truck driver and an illegal immigrant Harjinder Singh made an illegal U-turn on the Florida turnpike, resulting in the trailer jackknifing and colliding with a minivan. Harjinder was issued a commercial driver's license by the California Department of Motor Vehicles despite his illegal status. The accident has drawn diverse views with Trump’s team calling for deportation of illegal immigrants. Concurrently, in New York, the state police had prohibited State Trooper Charanjot Singh Tiwana from growing facial hair in keeping with his religious beliefs. However, after pushback from the Sikh community, New York State Police is actively reviewing its policy to accommodate troopers of all religious faiths (earlier coverage).

The sarpanch (village council head) of Kalsana village in Panjab’s Patiala district, Gurdhian Singh, said that he was invited to the Independence Day function at Red Fort from where Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the country. However, Gurdhian was denied entry as he was wearing the kirpan (traditional sword), an essential article of Sikh faith. Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) president Harjinder Singh Dhami has strongly condemned the alleged denial of entry, saying it reflects a disturbing attitude of alienation towards Sikhs in their own country. The incident is within weeks of Gurpreet Kaur being stopped from appearing for the Rajasthan High Court (Jodhpur) Civil Judge recruitment exam in Jaipur. In that incident the state government later accepted that Sikh articles of faith are allowed. The security forces now may again accept that but this is ad hoc systemic discrimination against Sikhs. Meanwhile, on Independence Day, 15 Aug, in the Singhwada area of Darbhanga district, Bihar posters appeared in public spaces openly targeting Sikhs and Muslims. People took to the street carrying placards with slogans like 'Sikhs/Muslims Quit India' and 'Both are terrorists'. With state elections coming up in Bihar in a few months, it is suspected the attempt is to create communal unrest for political gain. Former Member of Legislative Assembly from Janata Dal (United) Rishi Mishra said, 'This has never happened in the Singhwada area. Communal forces are behind this, and they want to destroy the peace of our society.' Concurrently, the Uttarakhand Cabinet has approved the Uttarakhand Minority Educational Institutions Bill, 2025, which when enacted would extend benefits hitherto available only to Muslim educational institutions in the state to educational institutions of the Sikh, Jain, Christian, Buddhist, and Parsi communities. The study of Gurmukhi (script for Panjabi) and Pali (script not specified) languages in minority educational institutions will also be recognized. In other news, Aam Aadmi Party Member of Parliament Malvinder Singh Kang has written to India's External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, seeking his urgent intervention to resolve the problems being faced by several Indian nationals from Panjab stranded in Spain due to delays in passport renewal and re-issuance at the Indian Consulate there (earlier coverage).

After Leader of Indian Opposition, Indian National Congress’ (INC) Rahul Gandhi’s expose of massive irregularities in voter’s list, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Anurag Thakur has made similar allegations on opposition leaders. On 13 Aug, Thakur said irregularities in voter registration in Rae Bareli, Wayanad, Diamond Harbour, and Kannauj parliamentary seats, and demanded that the respective representatives Rahul Gandhi (INC), Priyanka Gandhi Vadra (INC), Abhishek Banerjee (Trinamool Congress), and Akhilesh Yadav (Samajwadi Party) resign as Members of Parliament. With BJP agreeing on vote theft, the integrity of the Election Commission of India—under whose watch the irregularities crept into the voter lists in favor of BJP—is fully compromised. It also raises the question on how the BJP leader got voter lists in machine readable format to compute the irregularities in a few days when it took INC six months to manually compute just one segment in one constituency. The opposition has persistently demanded that ECI provide them readable documents. BJP’s retort displays its underhand design which has been part of its strategy everywhere. The party uses individuals, state institutions and even political parties for its benefit but when time comes to stand up for them, it abandons them. ECI held a press conference but could not satisfactorily answer a single question raised by the opposition and media. Opposition parties from the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance have started the Vote Theft campaign all over the country. In Panjab, INC MP Dr. Dharamvir Gandhi carried out a protest march in Patiala. Similarly, INC Member of Legislative assembly Pargat Singh carried out a march in Jalandhar. Concurrently, in a first-of-its-kind exercise, the Supreme Court of India summoned Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) and other records of the election of sarpanch (village council head) of the gram panchayat (village council) of Buana Lakhu village, Panipat, Haryana, and held recounting of votes on its premises, leading to the reversal of results. For long there have been allegations about vote theft through EVM. The recount proved the allegations true (earlier coverage).

On 9 Aug, Panjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann launched an anti-drone system aiming to check the smuggling of weapons and drugs through drones from Pakistan. The CM said, Baaz Aakh (Hawk Eye) system will be deployed as the second line of defence in the border districts in coordination with the Border Security Force. He noted that Panjab will be the first Indian state to have its own anti-drone system deployed at the border areas. Panjab shares a 553 km border with Pakistan, spanning the districts of Amritsar, Tarn Taran, Pathankot, Fazilka, Ferozepur, and Gurdaspur. On 15 Aug, Mann addressed a state-level Independence Day function in Faridkot, focusing on the achievements of his three-year-old Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government. However, in Ludhiana, where AAP state chief Aman Arora was the chief guest, families of freedom fighters and martyrs walked out of the district level Independence Day function at Punjab Agricultural University even before the event commenced. They discarded the mementos and gifts given by the govt, leaving them at the venue to mark their protest. The aggrieved families accused the authorities of dishonoring their sacrifices by failing to provide even the most basic arrangements. ‘There were not enough chairs, the tent could not shield people from the scorching sun, and those sitting since morning were not even given water,’ said Chetandeep Singh, district president of the Freedom Fighters’ Dependents Association. Meanwhile, the Sikh community in Peshawar celebrated Pakistan's Independence Day on 14 Aug with enthusiasm, donning green turbans and white attire to symbolize the national flag. Concurrently, emboldened by the US President Donald Trump’s support, Pakistan's General Asim Munir has threatened to destroy any infrastructure India builds that could impede water flow to Pakistan. He warned that as a nuclear power, Pakistan will take half the world down with it if it faces an existential crisis. ‘We will wait for India to build a dam, and when it does so, we will destroy it,’ Munir said at an event in Tampa, Florida, US adding, ‘The Indus river is not the Indians' family property’ (earlier coverage).

The outbreak of the Southern Rice Black-Streaked Dwarf Virus (SRBSDV), which causes severe dwarfing in paddy crops, appears to be closely linked to recurring climate patterns. A preliminary study conducted by Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) has found that the weather conditions in 2025—marked by similar rainfall, temperature, and daylight hours—mirror those of 2022, when the last major virus flare-up occurred. Surveys conducted by PAU across 20 districts in July and August confirmed the presence of SRBSDV in sub-mountainous areas, including Pathankot, Gurdaspur, Ropar, Fatehgarh Sahib, and Patiala. Crops transplanted before 20 Jun 20 were more vulnerable, while those transplanted afterwards largely escaped infection. Meanwhile, the Panjab government recently gave nod to a Bill that would make the sale of spurious seeds a non-bailable offence. There are around 25K licensed seed dealers in Panjab, apart from govt and semi-govt bodies such as universities, cooperative societies, Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Limited, and Krishak Bharati Cooperative Ltd. Private dealers argue that they buy sealed, certified seeds from govt-approved manufacturers or packagers, and sell these sealed packets directly to farmers without any tampering or repackaging. Therefore, they are not responsible for manufacturing, breeding, or certification of the seeds. Quality assurance is the responsibility of the seed producers, who could be companies, universities, govt depts, and farmers (as big companies also engage farmers in their seed growing process), not the retailers. The outcome of the crop, they argue, also depends on weather, soil, human effort, and farming practices, not just the seed itself. Concurrently, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has granted a stay on the enforcement of the Panjab govt’s notification banning 12 pesticide molecules on Basmati paddy crops. The case was filed by the Crop Care Federation of India which challenged the notification on grounds of arbitrariness and lack of scientific evidence (earlier coverage).

In a compliance report filed at the Punjab and Haryana High Court on 4 Aug, the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) department disclosed that 1,420 food samples out of 11,657 tested in Panjab in 2024-25 failed quality checks. Panjab FDA also outlined enforcement and awareness measures taken across the state, including a ban on the sale of energy drinks to children near schools. The action comes in response to a 4 Mar order passed in a Public Interest Litigation filed by Kanwar Pahul Singh, following the death of a young girl, Manvi (no second name), in Patiala in March 2024 after she consumed a birthday cake ordered online. On 6 Aug, the Panjab government launched a statewide drive against food adulteration and substandard consumables. Panjab's Family Welfare minister Dr Balbir Singh said out of 531 samples of paneer (cottage cheese), 196 samples were found sub-standard and 59 were unsafe for consumption. On desi ghee (clarified butter), out of 222 samples, 20 were of sub-standard quality and 28 were unsafe for consumption. Balbir said, 'There is maximum adulteration in paneer and desi ghee.' The minister informed that in the last five years, 145 people were convicted and sentenced to six months’ imprisonment. He asked people to make use of the Food Safety on Wheels laboratory initiative—mobile vans equipped to test daily consumables—which has now been expanded to all districts. Meanwhile, a Guru Nanak Dev University study has found a worrying rise in childhood obesity (age 10-16 years). The study assessed lifestyle habits as possible risk drivers of overweight and obesity, such as dietary habits, physical activity, sleep time, and screen time. The study found 31% schoolchildren in the age group were battling excess weight, with boys and younger adolescents disproportionately affected. The study assessed 1,408 students from seven co-educational schools across urban and semi-urban areas in five cities of the state. It found that 18.6% children were overweight and 12.4% were obese based on Body Mass Index measurements. Boys consistently showed higher obesity rates than girls across all measures.

In July 2025, the Sirsari and Anokhpura panchayats (village councils) in Faridkot district, Manakpur Sharif panchayat in Sahibzada Ajit Singh Nagar district, and Ghal Kalan panchayat in Moga district passed resolutions against marriages between people from the same village. Panchayats cite violent disputes and family feuds to oppose same-village marriages as the reason for such diktats. For example, Jasbir Kaur from Ghal Kalan village was assaulted after her son eloped with a girl from the village and solemnized the marriage in May. While a case was registered when the Punjab State Commission for Women intervened, increasingly village panchayats are taking matters in their own hands. The Manakpur Sharif panchayat resolution says, 'If any boy or girl holds a court marriage without the approval of their families, they will not be allowed to stay in Manakpur Sharif or nearby villages. If any family member or villager is found helping the couple, action will be taken against him or her.' Similarly, the village Uppali panchayat in Sangrur district has banned energy drinks as part of a broader campaign to protect the health of its youth. Sarpanch (village council head) Jangir Singh said, the resolution says anyone who violates the ban will face social boycott. Shopkeepers have pledged their support. Large banners announcing the ban have been put up at every entry point of the village. Jangir Singh said, 'Initially, we started by requesting shopkeepers to stop selling energy drinks. At first, some expressed concern about losses, but they soon agreed, recognizing the larger benefit for children's health.' The trigger for the ban was the realization that many drug addicts were mixing narcotics with energy drinks, said Singh. The panchayat also resolved anyone caught selling or consuming drugs in the village will not receive community support for bail or release. Medical shops have been directed not to sell syringes without valid authorization, and violators will face legal action. The panchayat of Katorewala in the Malout has also passed a unanimous resolution banning the sale of tobacco and its byproducts, energy drinks and the use of drugs in their area.