Cong sticks to memorial politics, switches brand

CHANDIGARH:IT’S quite a Congress budget, if one goes by what the party claims to stand for. That is, on the question of religious extremism and secularism. In the outlays announced by finance minister Manpreet Badal for Punjab on Saturday, Rs 2 crore was set aside for the memorial to Beant Singh, who was assassinated in 1995 when he was the chief minister in a Congress regime that dealt with Khalistani militancy with an iron hand.

This aspect of CM Captain Amarinder Singh’s “memorial politics” is different from that of the SAD-BJP regime that mostly had a ‘panthic’ (religious) tone. Though work on the 14-acre memorial in Sector 42, Chandigarh, began in 1999, it remains incomplete due to shortage of funds. Successive governments, particularly of the SAD-BJP regime of 2007-17, never gave much attention to it. The project is a joint venture of the state and the UT administration, and there have been issues over Punjab not depositing its share, as was reportedly acknowledged by Manpreet last year too.

The focus on Beant Singh is being seen in line with the CM’S hardline approach against Khalistani separatism. He had raised the issue of Sikhs abroad fuelling separatism, when Canadian prime minister and that country’s Sikh ministers visited Punjab. Also among the claimed achievements of the government is the cracking of an alleged Khalistani module behind a series of murders in the state over the past two years.

On the express political front, too, the move is being seen as an effort to bring Beant Singh’s family closer to the regime; his grandsons Ravneet Singh Bittu and Gurkirat Kotli, who are now MP and MLA, respectively, have been critical of Captain in the past. “Beant Singh was a Congress party General (Oho san Congress party dey jarnail),” said Manpreet in his budget speech.

Allocations for other memorials, too, are in line with focus on a larger bouquet of communities and sections while keeping Sikhism in focus.

These include Rs 1 crore for a memorial at Saragarhi in Ferozepur, underlining the CM’S love for the armed forces. In 1897, 21 Sikh soldiers as part of the British army had died fighting 10,000 raiders on in the North West Frontier Province. After Independence, this memorial was built in Ferozepur.

The budget also has Rs 38 crore for completion of memorials and their maintenance, and for setting up a new one to the Jaito Morcha, the name given to the agitation for restoration to his throne of Maharaja Ripudaman Singh of Nabha, a Sikh princely state.

It announced to start two research chairs at Punjabi University in the names of Maharaja Agrasen and Maharana Partap. In the budget speech, the FM allocated Rs 7 crore to “document the role played by the Agrawal community in economic development of Punjab” and made an outlay of Rs 2 crore. The same allocation and outlay were done for Maharana Partap Chair.

While the CM let the FM do the talking, SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal asked in the House, “Why funds for his (Beant Singh’s) memorial, and why no mention of funds for a memorial in Khuralgarh started by our government?” The one at Khuralgarh village near Hoshiarpur is to saint Ravidass, considered the guru by various Dalit sections.

In the previous budget, too, Congress government scrapped the Mukh Mantri Tirath Darshan Yatra scheme for pilgrimage started by the SAD-BJP regime.

~100 CR FOR GURU NANAK BIRTH ANNIVERSARY

But the state has committed Rs 100 crore for celebrating the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev next year. The budget provides initial grant of Rs 10 crore each for Sultanpur Lodhi and Dera Baba Nanak.