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Akali veterans remember party patriarch Parkash Singh Badal as a visionary
Parkash Singh Badal was admitted to the Fortis Hospital in Mohali on April 16 after he complained of uneasiness in breathing. He died on Tuesday aged 95.
The leaders of Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Wednesday remembered party patriarch and five-time Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal as a man of commitment, kind-hearted, humble and one who managed to hold the party and its leaders intact and contented.
Badal senior passed away on Tuesday after a brief illness and will be cremated at Badal village in Muktsar district on Thursday.
“I can narrate stories about Badal Saab for hours and days as he treated me like his younger brother or maybe as his son,” said the party’s senior leader in the present times, Balwinder Singh Bhundar. According to him, Badal made him agriculture minister in 1977, when he was elected MLA for the second time. The move came as a big surprise to Bhundar.
“It was a surprise for me when he offered me to choose from the list. I left the decision to him, and Badal Saab offered me the portfolio, which he told me was close to his heart,” Bhundar said, who is also known as Badal’s right-hand man and has been working in the party for more than 50 years. Badal was a positive person who used to choose his way, had a vision and was hardworking, recalled Bhundar.
Former Rajya Sabha member Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, who separated ways with the Badals after the party’s debacle in the 2017 state elections, fondly remembered Badal senior as a believer in consensus politics.
“We had a long association since 1977 and have dealt with many difficult situations together,” remembered Dhindsa. He recalled that in 1996, ahead of the 1997 state polls, Badal held a meeting with all the senior leaders of the party to discuss a possibility of an alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which had then formed government in the Centre. “When everyone agreed, Badal offered support to BJP, and it was a start of a fruitful alliance,” said Dhindsa. According to Dhindsa, Badal was a strong-willed person who would never antagonise anyone.
Former president of Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) Bibi Jagir Kaur said she owes her career to him. Then a school teacher and head of a religious dera in Begowal, Bibi Jagir Kaur, said she was in the USA in 1996 when he got a call from Badal senior to contest the SGPC election. Bibi remembered him as a well-behaved and decisive leader who knew what was good for the party.
“I never knew he (Badal) wanted me to head the SGPC, replacing (Gurcharan Singh) Tohra Saab in 1999. All this happened so suddenly, and I realised much later that he had planned my career much in advance,” said Bibi Jagir Kaur, adding that she was just 45-year-old when she was made the first woman president of the gurdwara body and given the responsibility of leading the tercentenary celebration of the Khalsa panth the same year.
“Before that, he had tested my abilities by making me successfully contest the assembly election and then inducted me as a minister. He motivated me to take part in religious functions,” said Bibi, who quit the party last year ahead of the elections of SGPC office bearers in November, owing to differences with the present leadership.
According to former president of Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) Paramjit Singh Sarna, the former CM had political finesse with which he could disarm his opponents. “He had differences with us, but after being released from the jail in 1977 for opposing emergency, Badal Saab came straight to our home in Delhi and asked Sikhs in Delhi to contribute funds to support the party’s election campaign.”
“We wholeheartedly contributed, and Akali Dal, under him, won the state elections in Punjab, leading to the formation of a government. Then he invited us and asked us what we want from him. That was a great gesture which is rare among the leaders now,” said Sarna, who has joined hands with SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal, to head the party’s unit in Delhi.
Sidelights:
Told me that I am his sister, Bhattal
Former CM and Congress leader Rajinder Kaur Bhattal said when her father, Hira Singh Bhattal, died, Badal was among the first few to reach her home. “He told me that we may be from different political parties, but a daughter of a freedom fighter was our sister. He said he was available in case I needed any help,” Bhattal recalled.
People like him are rare, Gurdass Maan
Punjabi singer Gurdas Maan who reached the SAD office to pay tributes to Parkash Singh Badal, said people like him are rare and take birth once in several years. “He acted like a father figure when my mother had died, and reached our home to pay condolences without announcing,” Maan said.
My father’s brother, says Chautala
Parkash Singh Badal and my father Devi Lal were like real brothers and used to sit together for hours on end, said former Haryana CM Om Parkash Chautala. “When Badal Ji used to come to our home, life used to come to a standstill. My father and Badal ji used to be engrossed in their conservations,” he remembered and termed Badal’s death as a big blow to his family.
Former DGP sat with Sukhbir
A large number of retired and serving officers of the Punjab and civil administration reached SAD headquarters to pay tributes to Badal senior, and immediately left the venue. However, former DGP Suresh Arora sat with Sukhbir till the end of the programme.
Stood beside his Grandfather
Anantbir Singh, son of Sukhbir Singh Badal, stood beside the glass casket in which his grandfather’s body was kept for people to pay tributes. He thanked everyone with folded hands who came to pay tributes to his grandfather. Sukhbir sat with members of his family and party supporters.
