Man of the masses with winsome humility

“T is all in pieces, all coherence gone” Donne As if Punjab hadn’t lost enough already and as if we had not had our painful share of explosive paradoxes, here comes another: Sardar Parkash Singh Badal has left us just when Punjab needed his soothing and calming presence and sagacity the most.

For one who had walked in his calming and unflappable fragrance for almost half a century, this is an hour when thoughts, feelings, sentiments, even emotions flood one’s whole being, obliterating completely the power to discern pain from peace, turmoil from composure, words from words. At times like these, words are nothing but dumbstricken creatures staring the writer in the face. The pain is too profound even for tears, not just for words.

And yet, how I wish the pain was only personal and only confined to me.

It’s not that Badal sahib, who was so appropriately described by both Khushwant Singh and Kuldip Nayar as a “gentle giant in a world overflowing with violent pygmies” has left us for what will certainly be a place of blissful peace in the abode of the sublime. After all, everyone has his turn at life and everyone must face the moment when the show stops, even if only to go on. What is the most worrying and painful is the timing of his departure.

In an age of when politics of gutter has drowned out statesmanship and when social media frenzy masquerades as divine wisdom, Badal sahib (as I always addressed him) refused to abandon his infinite humility, his ingrained courtesies, patience and his boundless forbearance. He thrived on challenge and loved to brave odds.

But he wasn’t equipped to deal with pettiness. And yet, even as storms of wild allegations, none of which is even close to proving valid, Badal sahib kept his calm and kept advising me to “have faith in the ultimate justice of Guru Sahiban and the sublime forces of nature which he always addressed as “Akal Purakh. Even when cruel and wild winds were unleashed against him --- not once, not twice but times without number --- he never let that amiable and charmingly modest and almost shy smile disappear from his otherwise calm face. Not even once did I hear him complain against those who had stabbed him in the back after making careers as much out of eulogising him as later out of ugly bad-mouthing against him.

Where I saw adversaries or even enemies, he saw nothing more than estranged friends or relationships gone wrong or men guided by their own legitimate interest. I don’t recall him even once calling anyone

PUNJAB DESPERATELY NEEDS A RETURN TO DECORUM, DECENCY AND DIGNITY --- QUALITIES THAT BADAL SAHIB EXHALED AS A ROSE EXHALES FRAGRANCE

wicked --- not even his worst critics or political opponents. And he was never heard nit picking over anything against anyone --- friend and foe.

The day before yesterday, just when Badal sahib was sharing his trademark pleasant Malwai dialect knickknacks with the nurses attending on him, I was already having dreams of his recovery and hoping to persuade him to provide a direction to Punjab’s politics gone berserk --- politics in which there are no ideological rivals or critics, or even opponents --- simply enemies.

Punjab desperately needs a return to decorum, decency and dignity --- qualities that Badal sahib exhaled as a rose exhales fragrance. That alas! was not to be.

Being the five-time chief minister of Punjab was the smallest of Badal sahib’s achievements. He never liked to be addressed as ‘CM sahib’ --- he enjoyed being called by his name (not to forget that he is the only CM before whom even prime ministers loved to bow before).

His true glory and achievement lie in his unswerving faith in and adherence to the path of harmony among people from different faiths in Punjab and in the rest of the country. He was one of the very few I ever met for whom the religious or caste identity

--- Muslim, Hindu, Sikh or Christian --- of the person in front of him simply did not exist In front of him always stood a human being. His commitment to peace and communal harmony went far beyond his politics: It flowed from the emotional fabric of his being. He loved to love human beings for being human. The central component of his political vision therefore was ‘Sarbat da bhala’ and ‘na ko beri na hi begaana, sagal sang hum ko ban aayee’.

I am deeply saddened to think that the flow of events in Punjab and the rest of the country in recent times had left him in profound anguish.

Badal sahib was the last of the leaders we call “men of the masses”. He loved to mingle with them and go to the remotest nooks and corners of villages and towns to be at their doors. He saw in them his true masters and befittingly called them Sangat. This was the sentiment and faith that drove his approach to politics best summed up in two words --- ‘Sangat Darshan’. He went to them for darshan.

Now, one last time, they will come to him --- those countless poor and needy --- for a last darshan of the man who loved to be with them like no politician ever has, a man anticipated by the Bard Sublime. “His life was gentle; and the elements so mixed in him, that nature might stand up and say to all the world, THIS WAS A MAN!”