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Pathetic Picture of an Akali
regime
MLA
abuses minister, Akali hoodlums beat, strip official, BJP boycotts
Cabinet meet, Badal trudges with ‘sorry’ MLA to seek reconciliation, Punjab
a picture of lawlessness.
Gian Inder Singh
 LUDHIANA/CHANDIGARH:IN
a rather pathetic picture of how a party that used to proclaim
itself as the panthic party is running its government, an MLA of the
ruling Akali
Dal landed up at
the residence of a senior BJP minister and abused him right, left
and center, all because the minister had delayed clearance of a
couple of files which would have resulted in direct monetary benefit
of lakhs of rupees to the Akali MLA.
This happened in
the same week in which an Akali Dal councilor Kamaljeet Singh Karwal
alongwith some 30 hoodlums of the Akali Dal beat up, stripped,
kicked, dragged and humiliated a senior revenue official, a
tehsildar, right inside his office in full public view.
Another Akali
councilor Simarjeet Singh Bains also reached there and obstructed
the police from saving the official, Major Gurinder Singh Benipal,
largely known for being an honest upright official specially deputed
in Ludhiana to stem malpractices in the system. His fault was merely
to refuse to do illegal works of the Akali councilors.
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The drama
Major Gurinder Singh Benipal, a whistle- blower in the fake
stamp paper scam and the main complainant, was resisting some
illegal registries that Akali councilors Karwal and Simrajit
Bains often pushed for. It is common knowledge that ruling party
councilors are invariably involved in shady land deals. The
official reason given by Karwal and his men for the fracas was
that Beniwal did not give them preferential treatment! The Akali
hoodlums beat up Beniwal who sustained a fracture in his right
leg and was badly bruised. He was admitted to Dayanand Medical
College and Hospital. He was beaten with sticks and rods,
stripped naked, and was even fired at. |
The two
incidents brought unprecedented shame for the Akali Dal government.
But perhaps neither the Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal nor his
Akali Dal president son Sukhbir Singh Badal realize the amount of
illwill such incidents create towards the very concept of being an
Akali. Across India and the world, a large number of common people
are little aware of the broad and subtle distinctions between
various Akali groups and factions and end up lumping together such
incidents as typical of the Akalis.
Shame was writ
large as the media carried shocking pictures of the tehsildar,
stripped to his underwear and bleeding, and reports of the two
councilors virtually daring the police to arrest them. Councilor
Bains is widely known to be very close to Sukhbir Singh Badal and
has been known to be riding roughshod over even the traditional
Akali leaders.
Many of Sukhbir
acolytes share this trait, and it is time the so called taksali
leadership of the Akali Dal paid attention to where such deviations
and aberrations will land the party a few years from now.
The shame saga
was unstoppable ever since the fracas on Friday with revenue
officials striking work and a crescendo of protests raging in the
state. Meanwhile, the BJP ministers boycotted a Cabinet meeting,
made public their stance, exposed Akali Dal MLA Sarabjit Singh
Makkar in public for being corrupt and seeking personal favours from
minister, and narrated a tale of continuous sidelining of the BJP.
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Strange sense
of family
When Prakash Singh Badal had to suffer the humiliation of
carrying Makkar by his arm into the residence of Manoranjan
Kalia and seeking forgiveness from the BJP, the official
shame-faced explanation and description from the Akali Dal camp
took the cake. "It was a family matter between the Akali Dal and
the BJP and the two have resolved it like a family," said an
apologist of the Badal family to the reporters, probably
thinking that he has hit upon a great piece of spin doctoring.
Shame is
a virtue that Akal Purakh blesses perhaps only on the chosen
ones. Neither this spin doctor nor any of the worthies present
could care to explain how a fracas at a minister's home, public
accusations by five ministers of being humiliated, a boycott of
the Cabinet meeting and umpteen protests in the streets
including burning of effigies was a "family matter" of the Akali
Dal or the BJP. Unless of course the two parties admit that
Punjab
is under family rule. |
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They took their
woes to the BJP high command and later forced Prakash Singh Badal on
Tuesday to trudge to the official residence of BJP Minister
Manoranjan Kalia in Chandigarh, Makkar in toe, to say sorry. A
shamefaced Makkar apologised to Kalia in the presence of Punjab BJP
president Rajinder Bhandari, senior BJP leaders Balramji Das Tandon
and Madan Mohan Mittal. Badal had taken along Ranjit Singh
Brahampura and Balwinder Singh Bhoonder to send signals that he
indeed was aware of the gravity of the crime.
In simple
shorn-of-all-frills interpretation of the turn of events, the Punjab
BJP leadership was able to flex enough muscles to make the Akali Dal
and its supreme leader bend and beg for reconciliation, a picture
that sent out a message that the saffron knew finally how to handle
the incorrigible senior Akali alliance partners.
Damage control
was on in the other matter too. After days of dilly dallying and
having much egg on the face, Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal
expelled Karwal from the Akali Dal while Simrajeet Singh Bains, who
had cocked a snook at law for many years now, had to be arrested by
the police on Tuesday.
But what the
incident brought out were a few facts so shameful that they will
last for a long time even after the common people forget the
incident.
 *
The Akali MLA abused the BJP minister at his home. So who is safe in
the state?
* The Akali MLA
did all this because he wanted to directly milk the government.
* The Minister
later admitted that he indeed cleared the file that would accrue
benefits of Rs 50 lakh plus to the Akali MLA. So much for resisting
pressure!
* The MLA
shamelessly admitted that he indeed had abused the minister, and
yes, it was all because his own personal work was being delayed.
* The MLA
actually told the Ajit newspaper that he indeed spewed out abuses in
the name of mother, sister. "Punjabi hundiyan thorri bahut Maa Di,
Bhen Di ta ho hee jaandi hai (Being a Punjabi, a little bit of
mother, sister related abuses are normal)," Makkar was quoted in the
Ajit.
The state
meanwhile witnessed many other similar incidents including beating
up of a few Congressmen in Nawan Shahr by Akali Dal workers, beating
up of Punjab State Electricity Board officials by Akali activists in
more than two places.
24
June 2009
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