His son’s body his theme, a father scripts a poll campaign in Punjab

Kaffan vaala banda.

That’s the name people here have given to 46-year-old Mukhtiar Singh, an assistant lineman in the Punjab power department. The name stuck after Mukhtiar’s son Manjit Singh died last March. He marched on Patti’s streets carrying Manjit’s body, and sat on dharna with it outside the SDM’S office, wrote a letter on his son’s kaffan to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“I sought the Prime Minister’s intervention to save Punjab from drugs...i also wrote a complaint against the Punjab government because I hold this government guilty of not doing enough...these Akali leaders know it all, but yet they don’t do anything. I am not a politician. I am a father who has carried his young son’s body to the crematorium. I don’t want other fathers to go through the same pain,” Mukhtiar Singh said.

He doesn’t know if the shroud reached Modi. “I submitted it to the SDM office, who asked me to hand it over to DSP, Patti. Through RTI, I learnt that the shroud had reached the office of DGP (Intelligence) on June 28. I don’t know if they forwarded it to the PM or have dumped it somewhere,” Mukhtiar adds.

Manjit, who was 28 years old whenhedied,wasaheroinaddict. He died of an overdose, after two or three years of futile visits to rehab centres. Manjit was a college dropoutandcouldnotgetanyjob. Since losing Manjit, Mukhtiar has taken it upon himself to educate the youth of Patti about the dangers of drug addiction.

Kamaldeep Singh Brar Mukhtiar with the medal he gifts those who overcome addiction.