India, July 13 -- The 2027 election should be fought over jobs, water, drugs and fiscal repair-not by turning Punjab's unresolved traumas into campaign material.

Punjab is still months away from the assembly election, but the campaign has begun. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) will seek a second term. The Congress and the Shiromani Akali Dal are trying to recover ground they once considered their own. The Bharatiya Janata Party, which leads the Union government, and most of the states, wants Punjab to believe that access to New Delhi can succeed where successive state governments have failed.

That is legitimate democratic competition. What is not legitimate is the temptation, and emotional upsurge, visible once again, to make Punjab's most pa...