Just a 100-odd days in power, and the honeymoon seems to be over. Even as the ghalooghara (genocide) week -- to mark Operation Blue Star -- passed off without incident, fissures have already appeared in the Shiromani Akali Dal -- BJP, coalition in Punjab.
Under tremendous pressure from the BJP, the Akali leadership ensured that the protest week was a low-key affair. Unlike Baisakhi in April, when Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and Jindal and Sukkha (the assassins of General K.S. Vaidya) were eulogised and their family members presented with siropas (scarves) at the Akal Takht, this time no speeches or eulogies were lavished on the 'martyrs'. However, AISSF leaders like Manjeet Singh Chawla and Rajinder Singh Mehta as well as maverick Akali leader Simranjit Singh Mann were present during the ardaas (prayers); but that was the extent of it.
The Slips Are Showing 
