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Meet Badals’ Men in Service of the Panth
WSN Bureau

All is fair in love, war and politics.  This is the adage religiously, or shall we say secularly followed by the Shiromani Akali Dal led by Parkash Singh Badal and Sukhbir Singh Badal.  In the race to occupy the corridors of power, right from the start of the elections, money power, muscle power and drug power is extensively used.  Everybody in Punjab knows this.  The two main parties –the Shiromani Akali Dal and the Congress party are squarely guilty of this. Only the Election Commission of India either turns a blind eye or seeks proof from innocent complainants.

Surprisingly, the people in the Revenue Intelligence did not want to turn a blind eye.  So they caught red handed Purshottam Lal Sondhi, a senior functionary, a general secretary of the Youth Wing of the ruling party -Shiromani Akali Dal led by Sukhbir Singh Badal.

Purshottam Lal Sondhi had on his person 23 kilogram of heroin and was on his way to the Rajasansi Airport, so that the million dollar contraband, which would harm thousands of lives, could be transported to Canada and other places.

Contained in 26 plastic packets and wrapped in carbon sheets, the heroin was meticulously laid out between dozens of suiting. The anti-narcotics cell suspects that Mr Sondhi was part of a big racket which can involve others whose identities are under investigation.  

It took two days for the party president to swing into action, only after media photographers caught party workers on the wrong foot white-washing and cleaning-up posters and hoardings to obliterate Sondhi’s name from them. The dashing president of the party then roared ordering the screening and checking of credentials of party workers to identify persons with "shady character" and this activity was to be carried out at district levels.
    
Whether the Shiromani Akali Dal is serious about rooting out such elements from the party would be clear within the next two months when the Panchayat elections would be held.  If Sukhbir Singh Badal succeeds in having a drug-free and alcohol-free elections, his credentials may be accepted otherwise it will be left to the people to decide who needs to be weeded out. 

26 March 2008
 

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