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Acting as president, now Sukhbir is acting
president
WSN Bureau
 CHANDIGARH:In
days of yore, emperors used to pass on the power to their progeny,
cutting through a maze of palace intrigues and demolishing anyone
with an aspiration for the throne. Nothing much has changed in
Punjab politics where the hankering for power is still pursued in
ways feudal, though the electoral politics has come in handy as a
cloak to hide shame.
Ruling Akali Dal supremo Parkash Singh Badal has been expected for
years to hand over the power to no one else but his son Sukhbir
Singh Badal. He did not disappoint the students of Punjab politics.
This week, without an iota of debate preceding, the Political
Affairs Committee of the party stuck to a pre-scripted drama.
The brat-turned-politician-turned-parallel power centre in the Akali
polity, Sukhbir Singh Badal, the only son of CM Badal, was declared
the ‘acting president’ of the SAD Shiromani Akali Dal. Badal himself
presided over the meeting. "Junior Badal Sahib", as he is called by
the second rung leaders and workers and referred to as "Kaka ji" by
those with a closer rapport, Sukhbir was recommended "because of his
great work in campaigning and inducing a new life into the party."
He is a sitting MP of Lok Sabha from Faridkot.
The step is a clear percursor for eventual handing over the reins of
the party and the government to Sukhbir. Sukhbir in case was
dominating the party and the entire line up of senior leaders
squirmed before him without any hint of resistance.
Badal took extra care to stress that it was not him but rather the
PAC which has taken the decision but did not say whether he had
tried to prevail upon the PAC for a different choice. As the
80-year-old Badal appointed 44-year-old Sukhbir, many had a private
chuckle at the fact that MP Sharanjit Singh Dhillon, president of
Youth Akali Dal was 55.
Badal reasoned that after becoming chief minister he was not able to
devote enough time to running the party affairs. Senior Akali leader
Ranjit Singh Brahmpura proposed the name of Sukhbir Badal while
Gurdev Singh Badal (no kin of CM Badal) and Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa
seconded it. One of the maximum recall images from the day was
Jagdev Singh Talwandi presenting Sukhbir with a sword, thus
announcing the end of an era and the beginning of a new secular Dal
with a modern face. Incidentally, Sukhbir will be the first
president to sport a tied beard. Dhindsa was rewarded later with
chairmanship of party' Parliamentary Board.
Sukhbir has been widely perceived as having already commandeered the
party, pushing aside many senior leaders, and was projected as an
architect of the party’s recent return to power.
Seen at 44 as young, brash and effervescent, he is famous for his
sharp tongue – he used to refer to then CM Amarinder Singh as
‘hankaari raja’ – and drives around in a Mitsubishi Pajero in a
cavalcade of siren blazing cars, holds dinners for journalists at
upscale hotels and frequently referred to as the 'super CM'.
Recently, a number of stories appeared in the media projecting the
notion that Sukhbir has changed a lot over the last five years -
becoming milder, mature and politically correct. There are no prizes
for guessing the source for such perceptive analysis of Sukhbir.
He certainly has shunned the traditional image of Akali Dal being a
party of 'jathedars' (Sikh clergymen) with flowing white beards,
though he had to make some concession in 1999 by sporting a flowing
beard himself. It has beeen tied back since. It is anyone’s guess
how much his sculptor's skills - his profile mentions having won a
north-zone clay modelling competition once – have helped him shape
the new profile of the Akali Dal.
The friend circle of this management graduate from Los Angeles'
California State University includes influential people from North
India - from Chandigarh, Ludhiana, Delhi and other places.
From asserting his authority on the state police and bureaucracy -
some of whose members were responsible for the corruption cases and
the prison days that Sukhbir and his father faced under the previous
Congress government led by Amarinder Singh - Sukhbir's stamp is
being felt in most decisions that his chief minister father is
taking.
It was visible in the choice of Sukhbir's brother-in-law Bikram
Singh Majithia, a first-time legislator, who became a cabinet
minister due to "Kaka ji's pressure". The 18-member council of
ministers has five ministers, including the CM, from the Badal
family.
In the run up to the state assembly polls on Feb 13, Sukhbir was all
over the Akali campaign, be it political rallies, ad campaigns,
crisis management or getting people to switch loyalties.
His wife, Harsimrat, who otherwise manages home and their three
children studying in Delhi schools, gave him the back-up this time
for the ad campaign and PR work for the party. Harsimrat is now all
over in the 'dhanvaad' advertisements appearing in newspapers, a
trend begun by the Akalis.
Sukhbir, who joined mainstream politics after being elected to the
Lok Sabha in 1996, was a minister of state for industries in the
Atal Bihari Vajpayee government in 1998-99. He was re-elected to the
Lok Sabha in the 1998 general election. He was a Rajya Sabha member
during 2001-2004 before being elected again to the Lok Sabha in May
2004.
14 March, 2007
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