Firstly, "==" is numeric comparison - use "eq" for string comparison. I'm also assuming that title isn't "Polictical Animal", which is never going to match "Political Animal", however you handle the comparison... ;)

As an extra, this looks like a messy way to handle this sort of case.

Try (untested):

%linkhash = (
  'Political Animal' => 'pa',
  'Newslink' => 'nw'
);

if(defined $linkhash{$q->param('title')}){
  $link = $linkhash{$q->param('title')};
}
else{
  $link = 'err';
}
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