IT Correspondent
Chandigarh, Apr 26:
Parkash Singh Badal, five times Punjab Chief Minister, who was considered as the patriarch of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) passed away on Tuesday evening at a private hospital in Mohali, where he was being treated since April 21.
He was 95 and is survived by his son SAD President Sukhbir Singh Badal, daughter Parneet Kaur (married to former Cabinet minister Adeish Partap Singh Kairon). His wife Surinder Kaur Badal died due to cancer in May 2011.
The mortal remains of former Punjab Chief Minister and chief of Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) Parkash Singh Badal have reached the party office in Chandigarh. Prime Minister Narendra Modi reached SAD party office around 12.30pm to pay final tributes to the leader. The last rites will be performed at Badal village in Muktsar district on Thursday.
All government offices, departments, boards, corporations and educational institutions in the state will remain shut on Thursday, according to an official order.
National Mourning
In a message to all the state governments and Union Territory administrations, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) stated that “Shri Parkash Singh Badal, former Chief Minister of Punjab passed away on April 25. As a mark of respect to the departed dignitary, the Government of India has decided that there will be state mourning for two days on April 26 and April 27 throughout India.”
Early Beginning
Belonged to a Jat Sikh family, Badal was born on December 8, 1927, in Punjab’s Abul Khurana near Malout. He was elected as a sarpanch of the village in 1947 at the age of 20. In 1957, he was elected as an MLA for the first time from the Malout seat which he contested on a Congress party ticket. Badal became the Punjab CM in 1970-71, 1977-80, 1997-2002, 2007-12 and 2012-17. Besides, he was elected a member of the Lok Sabha and served as the Union Agriculture Minister during the Morarji Desai government in 1977.
He was elected MLA 10 times. He lost two Assembly elections- first to Harcharan Singh Brar from Gidderbaha in 1967 and thereafter in 2022 to Gurmet Singh Khudian from Lambi.
Blue Star
Badal was accused of going underground at a farmhouse in Uttarakhand, during Blue Star Operation ordered by the then Prime Minister late Indira Gandhi between June 01 and June 06, 1984, to flush out militant religious leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and his armed followers from the Golden Temple, Sikh’s holiest shrine in Amritsar. Bhindrawale and his associates were killed in the operation.
During the 1977 elections, he again won from the Gidderbaha constituency and became the chief minister of the SAD-Janata Party government. He was again elected to the state assembly in June 1980 and September 1985 elections from the Gidderbaha assembly constituency.
Badal, after shifting to the Lambi constituency, was elected legislator in 1997 and became the chief minister on February 12 that year as the leader of the SAD-BJP government.
During this tenure, his government took the decision of providing free electricity and waiving land revenue for farmers. Badal was re-elected from Lambi seat in 2002, 2007, 2012 and 2017.
In 1967, he lost the Gidderbaha seat to Congress’ Harcharan Singh Brar by a margin of just 57 votes. This was his first electoral loss. The second came last year when lost to AAP candidate Gurmeet Singh Khuddian.
Similarly, in 2007 he was criticized for his alleged failure to prosecute Dera Sacha Sauda head Gurmeet Ram Rahim over allegations of sacrilege levelled by the Akal Takht.
He was the patron of SAD, a Sikh-centred regional political party, and served as its president from 1995 to 2008. Later, he handed over the reins of the party to his son Sukhbir Singh Badal. As a patron of the SAD, he exercised a strong influence on the Amritsar-based Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) and Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC).
In 2015, he was awarded “Padma Vibhushan”, the second-highest civilian award by the Government of India. After the 2022 election results, he gave up participation in political activities and was largely resting at his home in Lambi and his farmhouse at Balasar village in Haryana.
Taking to Twitter, PM Modi said, “Extremely saddened by the passing away of Shri Parkash Singh Badal Ji. He was a colossal figure in Indian politics and a remarkable statesman who contributed greatly to our nation. He worked tirelessly for the progress of Punjab and anchored the state through critical times”.
