Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal, who is steering the party’s election campaign in Punjab, said in an interview that there is no one among the Opposition parties who can be considered prime ministerial material. Mr. Badal, whose party is contesting 10 out of 13 Lok Sabha seats in Punjab in alliance with the BJP, spoke on how the Congress government in the State has let down the people and why the SAD (Taksali) faction is no threat to the Akali Dal. Excerpts:
The Akali Dal recently saw a few senior leaders revolting and floating the SAD (Taksali). Do you think it would impact the party’s prospects in the parliamentary election?
I seriously believe and even have reliable information that they [SAD-Taksali leaders] are regretting their decision to leave the party. Now they are being disgraced by petty political figures half their age and with no political base. As far as our prospects are concerned, let me remind you that these [Taksali] leaders lately had not been able to win even their own seats despite being in a major political party. Minus the party base, they are zero. We will only gain from their exit because when these leaders were with us, we had to keep so many energetic leaders away out of respect for the seniority of these leaders. Now, those energetic young leaders are working hard and there is a new spring in the step of the party cadre.
What would be the issues on which the SAD-BJP combine will fight the parliamentary polls?
There are three main issues. First, the country needs a strong, clear-headed and decisive Prime Minister, and there is no match for Narendra Modi in this regard. The Opposition just cannot get its act together, and frankly there is no one among them, certainly not Congress president Rahul Gandhi, who can be considered prime ministerial material. Secondly, in Punjab, the Congress has set new records in neglect of the State and its people. The people want to punish the State government for its non-performance and they see the Lok Sabha election as an opportunity to express themselves. Thirdly, people have begun to contrast the development and welfare work done by the previous SAD-BJP government with the misrule of the current Congress regime. They want to teach the Congress a lesson.
How do you assess the Congress government’s work in Punjab so far?
The fact is that the Congress government in the State has betrayed the people. Capt. Amarinder Singh promised on oath during the 2017 Assembly poll campaign that he would waive the debt of all farmers. But after coming to power, he backed out on this promise and the scheme has not benefited even 1% of the farmers. The Congress promised jobs to every household in the State, unemployment allowance of ₹2,500 to the youth, hike in pension amount from ₹500 to ₹2,500, and increase in Shagun scheme amount from ₹5,100 – which we used to give for wedding of daughters of Dalits, to ₹51,000. None of these promises has been fulfilled. In fact, welfare schemes for the poor started by us have been shelved and development activities, which were going on during our tenure, have come to a standstill. The only development that Punjab has seen in the last two years is that Capt. Amarinder has graduated from being totally “inaccessible CM to becoming a totally invisible CM”.
What’s your view on the Chief Minister’s security concerns while dealing with Pakistan on the Kartarpur Sahib corridor? Would you give Punjab Cabinet Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu any credit for headway in the project?
Every Sikh has been praying for the last 70 years for the Khalsa Panth to get free access to the holy shrines from which the community had been weaned away after the 1947 Partition. And no, there are no security concerns involved in the Kartarpur Sahib corridor. This will be a regulated passage with security agencies registering every devotee. Security threats never come from regulated access. It never comes from the Wagah check post; it will never come from the Kartarpur Sahib corridor. As for Navjot Singh Sidhu, he has himself stopped talking about it now, realising that people have seen through his bluff.
Do you think that the Aam Aadmi Party, which bucked the national trend in favour of the BJP and its allies in 2014 in Punjab, will again pose a serious challenge in the parliamentary polls?
AAP is no longer relevant in Punjab. It is now reduced to being a B-team of the Congress, like some other parties such as Punjabi Ekta Party, the so-called Taksalis, the Simranjit Mann faction and the Bargari Morcha. They are all adjuncts of the Congress and are there to be used only to promote the Congress cause.
