Every Punjabi could relate to Badal Saab
Idid not know Sardar Parkash Singh Badal. My information is all second-hand, courtesy my husband. But when the phone rang in our house, and my husband stood up to attention, we knew it was chief minister Badal Saab. My husband, who lost his father when very young, looked up to him, with tremendous affection and great respect.
Badal Saab was an old school politician. Ready at the crack of dawn and slept late. He had a disciplined lifestyle with a simple frugal diet of dal roti. His life was devoted to his constituents. He always had a ready ear for people and rarely refused a request to meet, always made time for a wedding, a birthday, an anniversary, or a bhog. And the people loved him back, making him the CM five times.
His greatest quality perhaps was his ability to empower his officers and give them space to work with a clear mandate. He wanted PUDA to provide competition to colonisers so when put PUDA put forth a request for land acquisition he was blunt and said do what needs to be done but don’t burden the exchequer, its dry. That was when the government tied up with banks to pay them upfront in lieu of allotees who would repay in installments. Soon PUDA was cash surplus. And if I, who had never worked with him, or interacted with him, can feel such a deep sense of loss, I can imagine how his family and the millions of Punjab government employees --- teachers, PSEB employees, bureaucrats and babus must be mourning with a sense of personal loss.
He was a nationalist who went to prison for 17 years. There was never a whiff of inappropriate behaviour or language. Having studied in Lahore, he boarded the Vajpayee bus for peace in 1999. His aura was always charged with humility and nobility. He held together a very fractious people- ‘Punjabis’. He never favoured the Jatt community he belonged to, treating all shades of Punjabis as an integral part of state’s ecosystem. And every Punjabi, including the diaspora, could relate to him and his very rustic sense of humour. A father, grandfather, brother, son, he was a politician and human extraordinaire. He was everybody’s and everybody was his.
Rest in peace Sir. Oprah Winfrey has said, “Your legacy is every life you touch”, and your legacy is Punjab. In your lifetime, you touched the lives of almost every Punjabi in India and abroad, and I hope every Punjabi will have the grace to honour that legacy.
HIS LIFE WAS DEVOTED TO HIS CONSTITUENTS. HE RARELY REFUSED A REQUEST TO MEET, ALWAYS MADE TIME FOR A WEDDING, A BIRTHDAY, AN ANNIVERSARY, OR A BHOG