Two words have dominated the political conversation in Punjab since Friday, when seven Rajya Sabha MPs from the Aam Aadmi Party announced that they were leaving the party to merge with the BJP. One is ‘Gaddaar’ – Hindi/Urdu/Punjabi word of Arabic origin for traitor. The second one is ‘Bahri’ of Persian origin, which means ‘outsider’.
Both words have a history beyond their etymology, and both are being deployed together by several political parties, with Raghav Chadha causing the latest rift in the party currently ruling Punjab.
How it played on the field in Punjab
on saturday, AAP workers spray painted ‘traitor’ – although they used different spellings – on the outer walls and main gate of former cricketer Harbhajan Singh’s residence in Jalandhar; On the walls outside the house of former AAP strategist Sandeep Pathak in Ludhiana; And at the main gate of the Phagwara campus of Lovely Professional University, owned by industrialist Ashok Kumar Mittal.
The protesters also raised slogans of ‘Punjab is a traitor’traitor of punjab‘) outside the residence of Rajinder Gupta, another industrialist who was sent to the Rajya Sabha by Arvind Kejriwal’s party.
AAP’s Punjab unit shared videos of the protests on Twitter, saying “intense protests” were organized at various places against the Rajya Sabha members who betrayed Punjab and fell at the feet of the BJP.
CM Bhagwant Mann, who became a leader through humor and satire, used the same words in Chandigarh on Friday – “Traitors of Punjab.” He said, “These six-seven MPs were not from the party. He was not a public leader. None of them is capable of becoming the Sarpanch of the village!”.
Man Ki Sabzi Chutki, Chadha’s rescue
He later posted in Punjabi on Facebook: “Ginger, garlic, cumin, fenugreek powder, red chilli, black pepper and coriander – these 7 things together make a dish great, but they alone cannot make a vegetable.”
He called the entire affair a BJP-run ‘Operation Lotus’, a popular term referring to the election symbol of the Centre’s ruling party.
In Delhi, where the change took place, AAP’s Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh said, “What did the public and AAP not give (these leaders)? We have been stabbed in the back. The people of Punjab will not forgive this betrayal.”
Manish Sisodia, posting on Twitter from Gujarat, saying he had been working for the party for three days, wrote that “some traitors have traded away the hard-earned money of the workers of Punjab”. He said, “Punjab never forgives traitors.”
Kejriwal posted just one line saying that ‘Punjabis have been cheated.’
Raghav Chaddha, on his part, outright rejected ‘Gaddaar’. “Those who are saying – especially Aam Aadmi Party leaders – that we have left the party out of fear: We have left the party not out of fear but after being disappointed with the party. We have left the party not out of fear but after being disappointed,” he told news agency ANI on Saturday. He called the party and its leaders “Corrupt and compromised”.
‘Bahri’ echoes even in 2022
‘‘external’ The argument has a long tail – which leads to March 2022, when AAP won 92 of the 117 Punjab Assembly seats, and filed its Rajya Sabha nomination.
Its first two selections were immediately criticized: Delhi resident Chadha, who is ethnically a Punjabi Hindu, and Pathak, who is from Chhattisgarh.
The other nominees were Harbhajan Singh, and businessmen Ashok Mittal and Sanjeev Arora, all Punjabi but largely outside the political or AAP sphere.
Navjot Singh Sidhu, then a Congress leader, posted on Twitter the same week, “New batteries for Delhi remote control. It’s shining.” He called Harbhajan an exception. Sidhu is also a former cricketer. “Betrayal of Punjab!” Sidhu wrote.
Moosewala’s poetry returns
Singer Sidhu Moosewala, who contested the 2022 assembly elections on a Congress ticket from Mansa and lost, had released a song titled ‘Scapegoat’ in April 2022, days after the nomination was announced.
Its two lines, in Punjabi – “Tell me, who is responsible for what happened to the Rajya Sabha? O people, now tell me, who is the traitor?” – posted without comment on Facebook on Friday by Moosewala’s father Balkaur Singh, hours after the defection was announced. The song, which has received over 65 million views on YouTube, was written by Moosewala, who was allegedly murdered by gangsters in May 2022.
Balkaur Singh had used the same lines in a similar political context in 2023 when Sandeep Pathak made a statement on the Sutlej-Yamuna Link Canal issue, drawing criticism in Punjab for allegedly giving political edge to Haryana on the issue.
‘Knew from 2022’
Opposition parties in Punjab on Saturday said there were fears of defection after the 2022 nominations.
Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Maheshinder Singh Grewal said, “They have failed to curb corruption and themselves are deeply trapped in it, Rajya Sabha tickets are said to have been sold… People are not blind; they have already made up their minds before the 2027 elections.”
Amarinder Singh Raja Waring, chief of Punjab Congress, the main opposition party in the assembly, said, “AAP has no ideology. It was natural.”
he adds, “These MPs have no relevance in Punjab. AAP should be careful – 50 of their MLAs may join BJP next!’
Leader of Opposition in the Punjab Assembly, Pratap Singh Bajwa described the defection as an internal power struggle for AAP “rather than an ideological shift”.
Some criticisms also came from within you.
Lok Sabha MP from Anandpur Sahib Malvinder Singh Kang told Indian Express On Saturday that the party was particularly wrong on Chadha.
He said, “I think the party made a mistake by giving him so much power.” We should have kept an eye on Raghav Chadha.” He said, “There is no doubt about it. We put Raghav Chaddha on a pedestal“
Kang also said that he had personally seen Chadha interfering in CM Mann’s decisions – something the party had denied in the past when Chadha was called a “super CM” by opposition parties.
Kang also said that the party should have considered “grassroots leaders from Punjab” for the Rajya Sabha seats.
One is left, why did the rest go away?
Only one of AAP’s original seven Punjab MPs is left in Rajya Sabha: Balbir Singh SeechewalThe Padmashree-winning environmentalist from Jalandhar district is known for organizing the cleaning of the 160-km long Kali Bein drain. He has not yet given any public statement on the defection.
Among the seven who defected, Rajinder Gupta is also a Padma Shri awardee, who received the honor in 2007 for his contribution to business and industry. Gupta, founder of Trident Group, was elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha from Punjab in November 2025 after Sanjiv Arora became a minister in the state government and became an MLA.
Political analyst Harjeshwar Singh, professor of history at Sri Guru Gobind Singh College, Chandigarh, said that when there is no strong ideology, “and people are selected on the basis of wealth, professional background or influence… then it is natural for such situations to increase”.
For example, Mittal, Recently faced raids by central agency ED In his businesses, after Chadha was made AAP’s deputy Rajya Sabha leader.
What benefit does BJP get from what Bittu said?
The BJP, which currently has two MLAs in the 117-seat Punjab Assembly, welcomed the defection MPs. Punjab BJP chief Sunil Jakhar said he had “decided to leave the sinking ship of AAP at the right time”.
However, note that Union minister Ravneet Singh Bittu – a BJP leader who, like Jakhar, came from the Congress – had said only last week that there was “no need” for Chadha to join the BJP as he was “already doing the work he is doing.” He also made fun of Chadha “A man who walks the catwalk” – A reference to Chadha walking the ramp at Lakme Fashion Week in 2022.
The BJP has announced that it will contest the 2027 Punjab Assembly elections alone, as Union Home Minister Amit Shah had said at a Moga rally in March.
The BJP, contesting the 2024 Lok Sabha elections alone, secured around 19% of Punjab’s votes, but did not win any seats. Now it has six MPs from the state, rather suddenly. The seventh AAP MP to join AAP is Delhi’s Swati Maliwal, who has been at loggerheads with Kejriwal for two years.
AAP’s Punjab youth wing leader Parminder Goldy led a protest outside Rajinder Gupta’s residence on Saturday, saying the BJP was “attempting to destabilize” the party.
Meanwhile, the party has filed a complaint with the Rajya Sabha Chairman demanding disqualification of the seven MPs. Legal experts have noted that the two-thirds limit imposed by the group is likely to protect them from action under tenth schedule Of the Constitution.
