Amrinder Singh is set to regain Punjab

India Today ORG opinion poll

By Mail Today Reporter
Punjab is set to repeat history by voting out the incumbent government in the upcoming polls.
Projections by the INDIA TODAY ORG opinion poll, conducted in the first week of January, show the Congress is heading for a comfortable majority by securing 69 seats in the 117-member House.
Fifty-nine is the half-way mark in the Punjab assembly. Led from the front by an aggressive former CM Captain Amarinder Singh, the Congress is expected to add two per cent to its vote share that results in a gain of 25 additional seats to its current tally of 44.
The ruling Shiromani Akali Dal-BJP (SAD-BJP) combine faces the prospect of seven per cent swing away from the alliance.
This, the poll indicates, could result in a drop of as many as 27 seats from its current tally of 67. The alliance will thus be arrested at 40, 19 short of the half-way mark.
Significantly, the Congress is not the only beneficiary of the seven per cent vote swing away from the SAD-BJP combine.
While the state's main opposition party is attracting only two of the seven per cent erosion in the ruling alliance, it seems the 'others' in the fray have more to gain in terms of vote percentage.
However, the Congress remains the main beneficiary in terms of seats, going well past the half-way mark by a gain of only two per cent.
The main factors contributing to the SAD-BJP alliance's decline is not just the traditional anti-incumbency factor, which remains evident in 61 per cent of the respondents polled in the survey rating the ruling alliance's performance as 'average' or 'poor'.
Adding to anti-incumbency, a constant in Punjab politics, are political factors such as a split in the Akali votes by the departure of Manpreet Singh Badal and a visible popular discomfort with the prospect of current CM Parkash Singh Badal's son Sukhbir as CM.
Only 14.3 per cent of the voters surveyed favour Sukhbir as CM, while 28.6 per cent still want his father back in the saddle. But Amarinder is the most popular choice for CM, with 32 per cent voters favouring his candidature.
Forty-four per cent believe only the Congress can best serve Punjabi interests. The Captain, however, has no reason to be complacent as his party is encumbered because of the negative impulses towards the central government and the scams that have hit the UPA in the past one year.
There is resentment against the UPA, perceived as it is as either unwilling or too incompetent to tackle corruption. Anna Hazare's campaign has just added to the Congress's woes.
Manpreet is the untested weapon expected to damage the Akalis in their stronghold in southwestern Punjab, the region popularly referred to as Malwa.
The survey shows Manpreet's People's Party of Punjab has contributed to the erosion of SAD's base in its traditional pocketborough.
In the eventual analysis of poll projections, the Congress seems to have a clear advantage despite internal fights. The Captain, it appears, is all set to be honoured by the voters once again - only the second CM to achieve such a feat after Pratap Singh Kairon.



INDIA TODAY-ORG OPINION POLL: THE METHODOLOGY
The INDIA TODAY-ORG opinion poll was conducted in 20 randomly selected representative assembly constituencies across Punjab.
A total of 4,012 voters were interviewed by means of a structured questionnaire. The sample was proportionately allocated to urban and rural areas.
Similarly, a quota size was fixed to obtain a suitable proportion of SC voters. The survey was carried out between January 3 and 10.
The findings are subject to a margin of error of 3 per cent. The projection of votes and seats was done by measuring the shift in votes for each party/alliance (by eliciting answers on voting intention and recording how the same voters voted the last time) and extrapolating this shift onto the actual votes polled in the last election.



Congmen project Preneet as 'next CM'

By VIKAS KAHOL
A section of Congress leaders in Punjab are projecting Preneet Kaur, the MoS for external affairs and wife of PPCC chief Amarinder Singh, as the CM candidate.
With party chief Sonia Gandhi campaigning in the state, some leaders expect her to name the CM nominee and allay 'speculation' that Preneet would be given the top post if the Congress won the assembly poll.
Another group wants Sonia to declare Amarinder as the the next CM and strengthen his hands.
Several Congressmen call Amarinder the party’s lucky mascot, under whose leadership the party managed to win the 2002 elections.
Preneet, on her part, is not contesting the polls but her son, Raninder, is a Congress nominee from the Samana constituency.
A faction in the party is speculating that Raninder would vacate the seat (if he won) to pave the way for his mother’s active entry into state politics.
But Preneet and Raninder dismissed all such talk. 'I am contesting the elections under the leadership of my father Amarinder. I pledge to serve the people of the constituency, if I win,' Raninder said.
Some others in the Congress claimed that it was not the party’s tradition to announce the CM nominee’s name before the elections.
The assertion was countered by Amarinder’s loyalists. 'In several states, including Haryana and New Delhi, the Congress had declared the CM candidate before the elections.'
According to former CM and senior party leader Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, Sonia will not declare the CM candidate for Punjab.
'The AICC president can entrust the responsibility of leading the state to anyone within the party. This is also the party’s tradition,' she said.
Reacting to the speculation that a segment of the party was projecting Preneet as the 'next CM' and thereby causing confusion within the Congress, Bhattal said everyone in the political arena aspired to become CM.
'But it is Sonia Gandhi’s final call,' she said.



Sonia Gandhi accuses Punjab government of neglecting poor

By VIKAS KAHOL
Congress chief Sonia Gandhi kickstarted her poll campaign in Punjab’s Doaba belt on Thursday by lashing out at the ruling SAD-BJP alliance.
At a rally in Kapurthala, she alleged that the state did not allow the welfare schemes launched by the UPA to reach the poor. 'In this government, those in the corridors of power were benefited. The poor were pushed to the margins,' Sonia said.
Calling the SAD-BJP government as 'the biggest block in the development of Punjab', she claimed: 'Whatever little is happening here is being done with the funds sent by the UPA.'
Sonia, who was forced to cancel her scheduled visit to Moga in the Malwa region because of bad weather, added: 'Of the Rs5,000 crore earmarked for the NREGA scheme in Punjab, this state government could spend only Rs526 crore. This is a matter of shame for those running the government.'
Attempting to strike a chord with the electorate, she started her rally by invoking the name of the first Sikh guru, Nanak Dev, and said she bowed to the sacredness and holiness of the land.
Sonia claimed the Congress was not contesting elections to gain power.
'Our fight is not for power but for an ideology which underlines (the need) to work for the poor and bring the state in a progressive mode,' she said.
She also alleged that the SAD-BJP alliance committed atrocities on women, did not protect the interests of farmers, was involved in the PDS scam and was in debt.
'The government in the state even failed to disburse salaries to its employees... How do they claim a government exists here? There is no government worth its name in Punjab,' the Congress president said.
Quoting the statistics of the last five years, she said the number of poor had increased manifold in the state.
According to Sonia, who noted that Punjab had made rapid progress under the Congress’s leadership, PM Manmohan Singh was eager to set up a refinery in the state.

With Gaddafi gone, who will run the new Libya?

In their fight to topple Gaddafi, Libya’s rebels were united in a common cause, but with his death the revolution enters a defining stage.

We could see children playing in the streets as William Hague’s heavily protected six-vehicle convoy hurtled through central Tripoli for a meeting with Mustafa Jalil, chairman of Libya’s National Transitional Council. But the air of normality on show in Tripoli earlier this week was at least partly deceptive. For the past month, Libya has been in limbo. None of the really big issues could be resolved until Sirte fell, and Gaddafi was killed or captured.

Now, at last, “national liberation” can be declared, and a transitional government formed. But many have been dreading this moment, because they see it as the moment of truth. Consider this: all recent Western interventions, from Afghanistan to Iraq, started suspiciously well. Regime change was the easy bit. Only afterwards did trouble start – and this may yet prove to be the case in Libya.

The militiamen who have been fighting in Sirte will be drifting back to Tripoli. There they will come into contact with the heavily armed militias that already control the streets. These soldiers, many of whom were shopkeepers or unemployed before the revolution, do not represent anything like a unified army. Berbers from the western mountains control Tripoli’s central square, while the port is dominated by Misratan rebels, the same force that is claiming the credit for killing Gaddafi. Yet another group of rebels control the airport.

Heavily armed and intoxicated by their famous victory, all these militias – who have already marked out their own territories – represent different regions and in some cases rival ideologies. Already, street fights are breaking out spontaneously in Tripoli, and there is a real danger that as time passes, these encounters could turn into battles.

Each of these rebel bands is heavily armed, proud of its new status, and confident that it represents the real power in post-Gaddafi Libya. Their attitude to chairman Jalil, the scrupulous and well-educated former judge who impressed William Hague in an hour-long meeting last Monday, can border on the contemptuous. I am told by reliable sources that some of the rebels have already made it known that they will not serve under him for long.

At stake is the Gaddafi legacy – above all, more than £100 billion in the Libyan sovereign wealth fund treated for so long as a private bank account by Saif Gaddafi, who was courted and wooed by Western bankers and politicians for a slice of the action. Who will control that money now? Who will take over the luxurious urban and rural retreats that were lived in by members of the extended Gaddafi family? Who will run the state monopolies and enjoy the lucrative commission payments for government contracts? Who will form the new political elite?

These questions could be safely left unresolved while the liberation war was being fought and the biggest militia leaders were away at the front. The rebels were united by a common cause – the destruction of the most notorious and brutal Arab leader since Saddam Hussein. That will now change. The NTC has long promised that the fall of Sirte – the last seaport to remain loyal to Gaddafi – would mark the moment when the revolution would be placed on a formal footing and a transitional government declared.

According to Jalil’s schedule, this government will prepare the way for elections in eight months’ time. It looks promising on paper, but everything may yet turn out far more complex in practice. The problems facing the new administration are massive. Gaddafi’s military barracks have been emptied of their weapons, which are, as a result, available on the black market at rock bottom prices – the price of a Kalashnikov has plunged from $4,000 to $800 over the last few months.

The new army chief, Suleiman Mahmoud, formerly Gaddafi’s commander in the Tobruk region, is concerned about the proliferation of weapons on the streets, and is studying ways of stripping the militias of their guns. One plan is to buy back the weapons, a scheme that failed in Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban in 2001 – the Afghan warriors pocketed the money and bought cheaper rifles or machine guns on the black market.

Another plan is to provide grants for militiamen to return to civilian life and start new businesses. Some of the rebels can certainly be absorbed into a new national army. But all of this is very difficult. Worryingly, Mahmoud enjoys little or none of the popular legitimacy of the militia commanders.

The problem is not just confined to Libya. Already the armaments stockpiled by Gaddafi are pouring into neighbouring countries through Libya’s porous and unpoliced borders, a potent menace in a region already destabilised by popular revolutions and the rise of al-Qaeda through the Maghreb.

The biggest nightmare, however, concerns Gaddafi’s anti-aircraft missiles. The late Libyan leader is believed to have stockpiled some 20,000 of these so-called Man Portable Air Defence Systems, known colloquially as Manpads. These formed a burning subject for discussion between Mr Hague and chairman Jalil – and no wonder. Each of these weapons, which can fit into a car boot, can down a commercial airliner. Indeed, missiles like these have been used in attacks on some 40 aircraft over the past four decades, causing more than 800 deaths.

Already, US security sources are warning that some have left the country, to be put to lethal use elsewhere. I have been told that barely 600 are so far accounted for, leaving more than 19,000 at large. There are fears that they could end up being used in the Middle East, perhaps even in London.

So it is essential that Gaddafi’s forces are brought into the new transitional government. If the weapon-rich tribes loyal to Gaddafi are excluded or victimised, they could continue guerrilla operations. They may well form lethal coalitions of convenience with the terrorist groups already operating in the area, particularly in the vast southern Libyan desert.

The NTC leaders are aware of this and are determined to embrace all but the most murderous Gaddafi supporters. Yet at ground level, the signs are troubling indeed, with reports of a fresh wave of reprisal killings over the past few days.

So the killing of Gaddafi has not brought the Libyan revolution to an end. In the words of one Tripoli-based Western diplomat: “The question now is: who owns the revolution?” Britain and France have our own narrative. We believe and hope that Gaddafi’s overthrow is an essential moment in the advance of democracy and freedom, not just in Libya but throughout North Africa and the Middle East.

This vision, shared by many Libyans who simply want security and the rule of law, is possible. With its immense oil wealth, Libya has every prospect of becoming a secure, well-ordered, prosperous Mediterranean state.

But there are other agendas. The militias are certain to demand, as a reward for their role in the overthrow of Gaddafi, a share in Libyan wealth and power. Then there are the foreign actors whose motives remain sinister or mysterious. China is seeking contracts from the new government and access to Libyan mineral resources – and is unscrupulous about how it achieves them. Most of all, the motives of the Qataris, who funded and supplied weapons to the rebels in the early days of the liberation struggle, remain troubling. What will they ask for? Will they throw their weight behind the strong Islamic elements among the rebels, who will also be disappointed if they do not play a strong role in the new Libyan state?

There was never any doubt, once Nato entered the fray, that Gaddafi would at some stage be defeated. The great question was what would happen once he went. Revolutions notoriously devour their own – and we have now entered the defining stage. Elections are scheduled for the early summer of next year. If they do indeed take place peacefully and fairly, then David Cameron and French President Nicolas Sarkozy will be able to claim, tentatively, that their joint Libyan intervention has been a true success.

Soil to soul

Son of the soil Jagjit Singh not only became a ghazal legend but also did a lot for other genres of music

S. D. Sharma

Bade shauq se sunn raha tha zamana, hum hi so gaye dastan kehte kehte...

With five decades of musical excellence, Jagjit Singh, the maestro who enraptured the world with his incredible contribution to film and ghazal singing, Punjabi folk, devotional, and popular music, would have regaled music lovers for more times to come but destiny willed otherwise.

Very few maestros have elicited the love and affection of music lovers the world over as Jagjit Singh, who continued to be in the limelight since his childhood days at Sriganganagar.

Jagjit Singh was born in Sriganganagar, Rajasthan. His father, Amar Singh Dhiman, a government employee, was a native of Dalla Behrampur in Punjab, and his mother, Bachchan Kaur, hailed from Ottallan village, Samrala. Out of his four sisters, only Inderjit Kaur is alive, while his elder brother Jaswant Singh and younger brother Kartar Singh are settled in Jaipur and Delhi, respectively.

He studied at Khalsa High School and later at Khalsa College, Ganganagar, topping in inter-science in college before joining DAV College, Jalandhar.

His father had engaged Pandit Shagun Chand Joshi and Ustad Jamal Khan for grooming Jagjit, but his music skills blossomed during his formative years at DAV, Jalandhar, and later at Kurukshetra University. He moved to Bollywood in 1965 and the rest is history.

"Some persons are born to lead and so was Jagjit, affectionately called Jeeti in our family," says his elder brother Jaswant Singh (75). "As a school student, Jagjit was crowned Bul Bul-e-Rajashan and he maintained his tradition of excellence in music till the end," adds Jaswant.

"Ours is a God-fearing family. Once our Satguru visited us and observed that his real name, Jagmohan, did not match his pratibhashali persona and renamed him Jagjit Singh, saying he was bound to win the world," recalls Jaswant, a former senior education officer.

Jagjit Singh was a complete artiste with a perfect understanding of the deepest emotions inherent in poetry, song or blank verse and believed that poetry lay at the heart of a ghazal, a film song or any other composition. "Jagjit Singh was completely involved in the production of his over 50 albums and film songs, and he left nothing to chance," says Nida Fazli, a popular film lyricist. "The film industry has lost a gem of a person and the loss is certainly irreparable."

Unable to come to terms with the tragedy, Hans Raj Hans, the rajgayak of Punjab, who was with Chitra at Lilavati Hospital a little before Jagjit Singh’s demise, termed it as "a great loss." Recalling his close association with the maestro while being a judge for reality show Mohe Rang Lay on Pragya channel for three months and other projects, he describes him as an institution in himself. "During the past 50 years, I have never come across a maestro with such a profound depth of knowledge of music, a soulful voice with khairaj so prominent. I am indebted to the babbar sher of Punjab, who had taken music, particularly the ghazal, to such a spectacular level on the world stage. Such pioneers of music are born once in a span of centuries," feels Hans, a prominent sufi, folk and playback singer.

A foremost disciple of Jagjit Singh and eminent ghazal singer, Vinod Sehgal, who spent 24 years with his guru, is a custodian of his legacy. A simple person from Ambala, Vinod could sing in 58 films and serials under the blessed tutelage of Jagjit Singh and looked upon him as his godfather. Says Vinod, "I was the only disciple who shared the stage with Jagjitji and Chitraji during the tours in the UK, the USA and other countries. Guruji immortalised my voice in serials like Mirza Ghalib, Kahkashan, Ravan and others," says the shattered disciple.

Equally admiring of the gayaki and human values of the legendary Jagjit Singh, Dolly Guleria, acclaimed folk and ghazal singer, remembers their family association with him and enjoying of his ghazal concerts at Delhi. "He was very disciplined and serious, but humorous during leisure time. He always addressed me as a ‘moti with bareek voice," shares Dolly. He did a lot for promoting saaf-suthri Punjabi gayaki, she adds.

"Jagjit Singh always rued the fact that while the musical arts in Punjab had been at the top, with legends like Bade Gulam Ali Khan, K. L. Saigal and others reigning supreme, somehow the film industry in Punjab had not come of age," recalls Neena Tiwana, a former Punjabi actress and wife of thespian Harpal Tiwana. Jagjit had scored music for her two hit films Laung da Lishakara and Deeva Bale Saari Raat, and certain plays. "A founder trustee of the Harpal Tiwana Foundation, Jagjit Singh was to perform on October 13 at the opening ceremony of the Rs 14.3-crore foundation a Patiala," says Neena with a tinge of sadness.

His childhood friend and close family associate, Ashok Bhalla, a Ludhiana businessman, who was witness to the rise of the maestro from a mediocre background, remembers that Jagjit fought the adversities of life with courage and conviction. Recalling the sudden death of his only son Vivek on July 28, 1994, he says, "Jagjit accepted it as the will of WaheGuru and continued to serve humanity with his melody, leanings towards devotional music, while Chitra chose to abandon it. Despite attaining celebrity status Jagjit remained the same old guy for us, cracking jokes and sharing our joys and sorrows alike."

The Sangeet Natak Akademi chairperson and an old associate of Jagjit Singh, Kamal Tewari, prominent vocalist and flautist Ravinder Singh, who had performed with him on many occasions, call it an "irreparable loss." "The maestro has left behind an eternal treasure of music to be relished for centuries to come," they feel.

Pandit Yashpaul, an Agra gharana stalwart, and Vijay Vashisht of All India Radio were his old associates from DAV College, Jalandhar.

Caught on Camera

'84 Witness pressurised to save Sajjan Kumar
Senior Congress Leader HS Hanspal caught on camera mediating on behalf of SajjanFor more than 26 years, the victims of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots have been fighting a long and lonely battle for justice. Justice is not only being delayed but virtually denied by powerful Congress leaders - ironically even by those whose job is to protect the interests of the minorities.
Former member of Parliament Sajjan Kumar has been accused of instigating mobs to kill innocent Sikhs in 1984 in the aftermath of Indira Gandhi's assassination. However, Harinder Baweja, Editor, investigations, has exposed the ugly, uncomfortable truth about him.
A special investigation by Headlines Today has found that Nirpreet Kaur, a key witness against Sajjan Kumar, was being pressurised by H.S. Hanspal, a senior member of the Minorities Commission.
Hanspal, a prominent Congressman, who was the chief whip for the party in the Rajya Sabha in the early 80s, can be seen, sitting in his office, speaking to Nirpreet Kaur, who saw Sajjan Kumar come to Raj Nagar locality in Delhi Cantt during the riots and say, "Ek bhi sardar zinda nahi bachna chaheye (Not a single sardar should remain alive)."
In the meeting in his office, he tells Nirpreet to sit down "aamne saamne (face-to-face)" with the person she was to soon testify against. Headlines Today accompanied Nirpreet to Hanspal's office. The Minorities Commission member was a bit wary of a stranger but that doesn't stop him from trying to persuade Nirpreet to have a meeting with Sajjan Kumar.

Hanspal (in Punjabi): Compensation wali gal karni heh yaan doosri gal karni heh (You want to talk about compensation or the other thing?)
Nirpreet: Tussi unha nu puchho, ko o ki chande neh (You ask him (Sajjan Kumar) what he wants.
A little later...
Hanspal (gesturing towards the Headlines Today reporter): Can we talk for two minutes?
koi nahi, enna nu patta hai sab kuchh kyon ki mein kuchh witness toh chuppana nahi chandi jo vi hoyega enha de samne hoyega. (Never mind, he knows everything because I don't want to hide anything from the witnesses).
A little later...
Nirpreet: Dekho, marya taan hai unha ne. Uthe aa ke meri gal khadi ho jaandi heh. Chalo, thwade kehan the, mein case vapas vi ley laine haan, par o kuchh taan karan, public apology. Kuchh mehsoos taan karan (See, he has murdered.. that is where I get stuck. Even if I withdraw the case because you are telling me to, he should also do something, some public apology. He should also feel that he has done a wrong).
Hanspal: Amne saamne baith ke gal kar lo (Sit in front of each other and talk).
Nirpreet: O court vich aande ne, hasde khedde, mera haur man sarda heh. Unha nu bilkul vi sharma nahi heh ki assi enna vada kam keet heh. (He (Sajjan) comes to court smiling and it makes me feel worse. He has no shame; no realization that he has done such a big crime.
Hanspal: Baith ke gal karan ge.
Hanspal is not speaking about compensation, as his job profile demands. He continues to exert pressure on Nirpreet. He wants her to sit face-to-face with Sajjan Kumar and he keeps telling her, not once but three times, to call Ahulwalia, a common friend.
Hanspal: Should I call Ahluwalia?
Nirpreet: Hearings are on in the court. I'll call him.
Hanspal is keen on an early meeting and once again says he could call Ahluwalia.
Nirpreet: Can you give me his number?
Hanspal: Shall I call Ahluwalia? I have his number.
Nirpreet: Yes please call.
Hanspal: Tussi mainu shaam nu das deyo (Let me know by the evening). Kal ya parso beh jao (Sit down tomorrow or the day after).
Nirpreet has not just given graphic details of how her father, Nirmal Singh, was killed, but has now also testified in court on what exactly happened that morning in 1984, when Sajjan Kumar came to the Raj Bagh locality, where she stayed with her parents.
Nirpreet Kaur says, "The mob caught hold of my father. Balwan Khokhar and Mahendra Yadav were there. They sprinkled kerosene over him and started looking for a match box and a policeman told them, 'doob maro, tum se ek sardar bhi nahi jalta' and then the policeman gave them a match box to set my father on fire. My father jumped into a nearby nullah to save himself, but the mob came back and Khokhar hit my father with a rod."
The next morning, on November 2, Nirpreet saw Congress leader Sajjan Kumar standing in a police jeep and addressing a mob. "I saw a mob and heard the noise of slogans. Our vehicle stopped there and I saw that in the police vehicle Sajjan Kumar was standing and was addressing the mob, saying 'Ek bhi sardar jinda nahi bachna chahiye, jo ghar sardaron ka bacha hai, use bhi jala do. In sardaron ko maron, inhone hamari maan ko mara heh, ye saanp ke bachche hain"
This is the testimony, Sajjan Kumar and his mediators wanted to stop. Nirpreet's startling claim is that she was offered as much as Rs three crore to turn hostile.
Headlines Today tried to contact senior Congress leader Sajjan Kumar, but he refused to comment.
Says Nirpreet, "I was offered Rs three crore to change my testimony. Hanspal kept telling me to not mention Sajjan Kumar's name."
Headlines Today Bureau


Sikh bodies seek action against Sajjan Kumar, Hanspal
Various Sikh bodies are demanding action against Congress leader Sajjan Kumar and Minorities Commission member H.S. Hanspal in the 1984 riots case in the wake of an expose. The action has been sought after Headlines Today had exposed how efforts were being made to influence a key witness to not name Sajjan Kumar in the anti-Sikh riots case.
The Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee and the Akali Dal have both called for strong action against Hanspal, whom Headlines Today cameras caught trying to influence a 1984 riots witness.
While the SGPC has demanded that Hanspal be immediately removed, the Akali Dal has petitioned President Pratibha Patil demanding custodial detention of Sajjan Kumar and Congress leader Jagdish Tytler. It has also said all 1984 riot witnesses should be given protection.
Meanwhile, a large number of people from the Sikh community protested in front of Sajjan Kumar's residence on Friday.
A special investigation has found that Nirpreet Kaur, a key witness against Sajjan Kumar, was being pressurised by Hanspal.
Hanspal, a prominent Congressman, who was the chief whip for the party in the Rajya Sabha in the early 80s, can be seen, sitting in his office, speaking to Nirpreet Kaur, who saw Sajjan Kumar come to Raj Nagar locality in Delhi Cantt during the riots and say, "Ek bhi sardar zinda nahi bachna chahiye (Not a single sardar should remain alive)."
In the meeting in his office, he tells Nirpreet to sit down 'aamne saamne' (face-to-face) with the person she was to soon testify against. Headlines Today accompanied Nirpreet to Hanspal's office. The Minorities Commission member was a bit wary of a stranger but that doesn't stop him from trying to persuade Nirpreet to have a meeting with Sajjan Kumar.
Nirpreet had said, "I was offered Rs three crore to change my testimony. Hanspal kept telling me to not mention Sajjan Kumar's name."

Earthquake and tsunami 'Japan's worst crisis since second world war'

Prime minister Naoto Kan speaks as Japanese struggle to avert nuclear disaster and police say death toll could top 10,000

Japan is facing its biggest crisis since the second world war, the prime minister Naoto Kan has said, as the country battled to avert a nuclear disaster after the devastasting earthquake and tsunami.
Police have warned that the death toll could rise to 10,000 in one prefecture alone and national broadcaster NHK reported that more than 1,100 people were now confirmed dead. Most are thought to have drowned.
Authorities were fighting to keep temperatures down in multiple reactors at two plants in Fukushima prefecture, warning that a partial meltdown was possible in one and that there was a risk of a second hydrogen explosion in another.
Neither would necessarily breach the reactor's containment vessel, and authorities played down the likelihood of a substantial release of radiation. As many as 190 people had already been exposed, a Japanese official told Reuters, with 22 confirmed to have suffered contamination.
"The earthquake, tsunami and the nuclear incident have been the biggest crisis Japan has encountered in the 65 years since the end of world war two," Kan told a news conference.
"We're under scrutiny on whether we, the Japanese people, can overcome this crisis."
Friday's 8.9 magnitude earthquake - the worst in Japan's recorded history and the fifth worst worldwide in the last century - caused a tsunami up to 10 metres high.
As aftershocks continued to shake the north-east region, the Japanese meteorological agency warned that there was a 70% possibility of a magnitude seven or greater tremor in the next three days.
There was some relief for the battered coast as the agency lifted the tsunami warning, although it said aftershocks could cause further waves.
Tokyo has doubled the number of troops in its rescue and relief team to 100,000, but damage to roads and bridges has hampered their efforts.
Survivors in the disaster zone huddled in public shelters for a third night in near freezing temperatures. About 300,000 people have been displaced or evacuated due to the tsunami and radiation fears.
At least 10,000 people were feared killed by the earthquake in Miyagi prefecture alone, its police chief told NHK. The broadcaster said 550 people were confirmed dead there, 335 in Iwate and 285 in Fukushima.
With phone services still down in many areas, survivors made their way to civic centres to check boards with names of others known to have survived and those who had died.
Etsuko Oyama, who was rescued by a neighbour after the wave swept her 400 metres from her home, struggled to hold back tears as she spoke to NHK.
"I grabbed my daughter's hand but I lost my grip when I was swept away by the debris and water," she said.
"I managed to survive but my daughter was washed away ... I hope she is still alive somewhere." There were welcome moments of celebration as survivors were reunited, but no good news was unalloyed by grief.
Japanese troops rescued a 60-year-old man found 10 miles out to sea on the roof of his home. But Hiromitsu Shinkawa said his wife had been swept away when the tsunami hit as they returned home to gather possessions after the quake.
International relief teams from countries including China, the US and the UK are arriving to help Japanese troops. Almost 70 countries have offered anything from sending nuclear experts and sniffer dog squads to shipping in food and blankets.
Donors included the city of Kandahar in southern Afghanistan. "I know $50,000 is not a lot of money for a country like Japan, but it is a show of appreciation from the Kandahar people," mayor Ghulam Haidar Hamidi told Reuters.
News agency Kyodo reported that more than 20,000 buildings nationwide were either destroyed or badly damaged. Some 2 million households were without power, and 1.4 million without drinking water, Japan's ministry of health, labour and welfare said - although electricity was restored to some parts of Sendai city.
Power generation has fallen sharply due to the closure of nuclear plants and officials have ordered rolling three-hour blackouts across Tokyo and the surrounding area from tomorrow. Demand is substantially higher during the week than at weekends.
"We have to avoid at all costs a sudden power shortage whose scale could have devastating consequences for the economy and people's lives," Kan told a press conference.
NHK reported that the blackouts could last until the end of next month.
The nuclear crisis has prompted many to reassess the use of nuclear power in other parts of the world.
Chris Huhne, the energy secretary, said he had asked British regulators to study the Japanese situation to "learn any lessons" for UK power stations.

No politics, no crime, no liquor in this unique Punjab village

Balwant Garg

FARIDKOT: In Punjab where the political rivalry at village level is at its pinnacle as most of people are divided between Akali-Congress camps, the use of alcohol and other drugs is raging in the rural areas and so is the crime graph-with high land disputes and other wrongs, Gajjan Singh Wala is a distinct and unique village in Faridkot district of Punjab. Rising above the political straitjackets, the residents of this village have a unique spirit of friendliness and this is reason that they never cast a vote to choose a sarpanch. The election of the sarpanch is always an amicable selection of a resident in the village for the post.

Not only the sarpanch election but the election for the members of cooperative societies in this village never seen any campaigning or voting but the members are elected cordially. Rather than calling it 'election', the residents of this village prefer to call it 'selection', an agreeable 'selection, so there was never a need for residents of this village to have an electoral contest for the sarpanch post but they agree on a amicable name, said Karamjit Kaur, the village sarpanch who herself was 'selected' for the post, three year back, without any electoral voting.

Not only this political amicability to its credit, this village is known as a no-crime land. The name of a resident of this village never finds any mention in any police station's record in the last three decades, as this is a crime free village. Last time it was in 1970s that there was a murder in this village and the accused man got life imprisonment. But this case was a big lesson for the residents of this village and their next generations, so now not even a tiff is heard about in this village, said Jaswinder Singh, a resident of this village.

In the last 30 years there is no criminal case against any resident of this village having about 375 residents. Even in civil disputes about the division of land or any other property disagreement, the resident of this village have no need to go to the legal courts but an agreeably settlement is reached in the village under the guidance of panchayat members and sarpanch, said Jaswinder Singh. Faridkot SSP, Surmeet Singh Randhawa said the image of Kothe Gajjan Singh Wala is very clean in police record and there was no crime reporting from this village in the last 30 years. With such an affable and agreeable atmosphere, 375 residents of this small village are endowed with a particular cherished thing in this region -there is no liquor vend in this village. The liquor consumption is most of the time restricted to the marriage parties or any other celebration functions, Sukhdev Singh, the husband of village sarpanch said.

This small village have a primary school and the education standard in this government school is known to be so good that even the students of the adjoining villages prefer to get enrollment here for quality teaching. With high literacy rate, about 85% residents are qualified and over one dozen youths of this village are settled in foreign countries, tells Jagdev Singh, a former sarpanch. Agriculture is the main occupation and most of the farmers prefer to do the menial farm job themselves with the migrant labour. In assembly or parliament elections, the Akali and Congress leaders visit this village to seek their votes. But rising above their political affiliation, the residents of Gajjan Singh Wala wholeheartedly welcome every party leader but when it is voting, is always as per their personal choice, said Sukhdev Singh.

Still No Country For Good Men

The Binayak Sen story has been about sending out a message, not facts or justice. Tehelka Correspondent KUNAL MAJUMDER & ANIL MISHRA pick out the shocking holes in the case

ON 24 DECEMBER 2010, Dr Binayak Sen — a man who has now become a cause célèbre across the country — was sentenced to life imprisonment by a sessions court in Raipur, Chhattisgarh, for “conspiracy to commit sedition”. Sen had worked for 30 years with the tribal poor in the state both as a doctor and a human rights activist. According to the Chhattisgarh state, however, Sen is a dangerous Maoist leader who is a serious threat to national security.

There was a spontaneous surge of outrage in civil society and the media over this scandalous miscarriage of justice. But there was little that could be done. The State had timed itself well. It was a day before Christmas. The high court and Supreme Court were on vacation; most lawyers were away. It would be at least two weeks before Sen’s family could appeal. Enough time for the dread to sink in; the message to go out.

The case against Binayak Sen is so weak, a few days after the judgement, eminent lawyer Ram Jethmalani thundered that he would resign from the BJP if Sen was not released. But from the very beginning, the case has only been about sending out a message; not about facts or justice.

Three years ago, when many in the media were still sceptical about the rights and wrongs of Sen’s case and no one was ready to stand up for him, TEHELKA had done a cover story on him laying bare the fictitious case that had been concocted against the doctor (No Country For Good Men: The Doctor, the State, and a Sinister Case, 23 February 2008). Chhattisgarh Director General of Police (DGP) Vishwa Ranjan had admitted to TEHELKA then, “Left to myself, I would have kept Binayak under surveillance, not arrested him.”

On 27 December 2010, speaking to TEHELKA again after Sen was sentenced, he claims he was misquoted. “What I actually said was I would have kept Binayak under surveillance and nailed him with more concrete evidence.” Ranjan, who spent most of his career with the Intelligence Bureau is now the face of the Chhattisgarh government’s ‘war’ against Naxals.

But in the three years that elapsed between the two conversations, neither DGP Vishwa Ranjan nor the state’s prosecution team could come up with any clinching evidence. What they relied on instead was creating baseless paranoia. In its closing arguments, for instance, the prosecution argued that both Sen and his wife Ilina should be put away for life because, among other dangerous affiliations, they had links with the ISI. Their basis for saying this? An email from Ilina Sen to Walter Fernandes, director of ISI, which happens to be the Indian Social Institute in New Delhi!

This was not a stray gaffe. The whole prosecution case built against Sen is littered with such malevolent faux pax. In fact, the primary charge itself is ludicrous. On 19 December, during his closing arguments in court, special public prosecutor TC Pandya admitted that there is no direct evidence of conspiracy against Sen. But that did not stop him from having a thesis. This, in brief, is what it is. According to the prosecution, Binayak Sen, who is national vice-president of the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) (set up by Jayaprakash Narayan in 1976 during the Emergency) had met the jailed Naxal ideologue Narayan Sanyal 33 times in prison, between 26 May and 30 June 2006. During this time he had smuggled out seditious letters from Sanyal and passed them on to tendu leaf contractor Piyush Guha, who was supposedly acting as a courier for the Maoists. Three of these letters were supposedly seized when Piyush Guha was arrested on 6 May 2007. Based on this, Pandya argued that Sen was trying to establish an urban network of the banned extremist group, the CPI (Maoist).

However, none of this bears scrutiny. The three “seditious” letters are themselves ludicrous. They are addressed to a “Dear Mr P”, a “Friend V”, and a “Friend” and are unsigned. They could have been written by anybody and planted on Guha. In any case, their content is far from explosive. They complain about jail conditions, the onset of age and arthritis. They also congratulate P, V and Friend that the “ninth congress” has gone well and urge them blandly to expand “work” among the peasantry and urban centres. Sufficient basis to jail a doctor of peerless reputation for life? But that is not all. Even the jailers testified against the prosecution’s argument, saying there was no way Sen could have passed these letters on from Sanyal to Guha because their meetings were held under such close supervision.

There are other glaring discrepancies. After Sen was first arrested in 2007, the police had built such a miasma around him that he was denied bail twice both by the Chhattisgarh High Court and the Supreme Court. During the bail hearing in the Supreme Court, investigating officer BBS Rajpoot had claimed in his affidavit that Guha was arrested from Mahindra Hotel in Raipur, where he was meeting Sen. But when both witnesses from the hotel turned hostile, the prosecution suddenly changed its position. In the trial court, it claimed the police had arrested Guha on Station Road, near the Raipur railway station and that Mahindra Hotel had been a “typing error”! The court accepted this patently laughable assertion. The prosecution then introduced a new witness — Anil Kumar Singh, a clothes vendor — who they claimed was “passing by” when Guha was arrested on Station Road. Singh said he had “heard” Guha telling the police during his arrest on Station Road that Binayak Sen had passed the letters on to him. Even a novice would find that a thin assertion. (Singh’s address was listed vaguely as Noorani Chowk, Raja Talav — a little akin to saying someone lives in Dharavi, Mumbai. TEHELKA, however, tried to track Singh down in this locality but found no one who had heard of him.)

But that is the least of it. Three years ago, when DGP Vishwa Ranjan had spoken to TEHELKA, he had said confidently that since they had seized Sen’s computer CPU, they were sure to find a lot of evidence against him. The irony of his assertion seemed to have escaped him: Sen had already spent more than a year in jail by then and here was the DGP talking futuristically about the evidence that they would now surely find against Sen.

Despite all that delayed effort, this is the ‘key’ evidence that was marshalled against Sen: again, an unsigned typed letter allegedly written by the Maoists thanking Binayak Sen for his ‘service’, which the police claims to have seized from his house. However, unlike other items that were seized from Sen’s house during the search, this typed letter does not have either his or investigating office Rajpoot’s signature as proof that it was found in his house. “The judge simply accepted the police version. When we asked him to check the video footage of the seizure, he asked for a printout of the video!” recalls Ilina. This footage was shot with the permission of a District Magistrate when Sen’s house was searched by the police on 19 May 2007. Even the three letters to P, V and Friend allegedly seized from Guha do not bear his signature to prove it was taken from him, nor does Guha’s arrest memo mention the seized documents. However, DGP Vishwa Rajan claims, “If we had to plant evidence, we would have planted something more incriminating.”

But the ludicrous holes in the case go on endlessly. A postcard written by Ilina Sen addressing Kusumlata Kedia of the Gandhi Institute in Varanasi as ‘Comrade’ becomes evidence of Ilina’s Maoist ideology. “Comrade ussi ko kehte hai jo Maowadi hai (Only Maoists address each other as comrades),” argued special prosecutor Pandya. Investigating officer Rajpoot claimed to have seen a video of Sen meeting Naxalites inside a forest, but when questioned by the defence whether those Naxalites were armed and uniformed or just ordinary tribals, he could not give a clear answer.

Another police officer claimed Sen had participated in Maoist meetings in the jungle, but on cross-examination, conceded it could be hearsay. Deepak Choubey, son-in-law of Narayan Sanyal’s landlord in Raipur, testified that Sen had recommended Sanyal for the house. The defence claims this to be totally untrue. Its position is stengthened by the fact that Choubey claimed that Sanyal was arrested from Raipur in January 2006. However other police testimonies assert Sanyal was arrested in Bhadrachalam in Andhra Pradesh.

The prosecution had also claimed that Sen met Sanyal 33 times in less than 35 days, lending their meetings a kind of false urgency. However, Sen’s family claimed the meetings were spread over 18 months and each time Sen had filed an application to the jail authorities on the PUCL letterhead. The meetings took place in the jailer’s room, and instead of conversing in English or Bangla, they stuck to Hindi, so that every word could be understood by the supervising officer. Jail officials confirmed this.

Most crucially, back in 2007, when news had first started appearing in local papers that the police had declared “Naxal leader Binayak Sen” as absconding, far from running away or seeking anticipatory bail as his well-wishers had urged, Sen, who was visiting his mother in Kolkata, came racing back to Raipur. “There must be some misunderstanding,” he said. And driven by his idealistic belief in Indian democracy, his own good intention and years of public service, he went voluntarily to the police station to clear the air. They arrested him instead. The Chhattisgarh Police, therefore, did not arrest some dreaded combatant on the run, they arrested a citizen who had gone to them in good faith.

Despite all this, on 24 December 2010, at around 1 pm, Justice BP Verma pronounced Sen guilty of criminal conspiracy to commit sedition under Section 124(a) read with 20 (b) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), and sentenced him to life imprisonment. In his 92- page judgement in Hindi, Verma declared Sen and Guha had aided and supported the Communist Party of India (Maoist) by carrying three letters written by Sanyal. The three were also convicted under Section 39(2) of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act 1967, and Sections 8 (1), (2), (3) and (5) of the Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act 2005, which charged them with supporting, aiding and abetting the activities of a banned organisation.

Justice Verma, who had replaced Justice BS Saluja midway into the trial and had only become a judge a year-and-half ago and is still on probation, announced: “The way that terrorists and Maoist organisations are killing state and Central paramilitary forces and innocent Adivasis and spreading fear, terror and disorder across the country and community implies that this court cannot be generous to the accused and give them the minimum sentence under law.”

Rather than justice, was the judge handing out deterrence?

“Two days before the verdict, the newspapers had screamed about the police bandobast being lined up for the judgement day,” Ilina told TEHELKA. “How did they know the verdict is going to be in their favour?” A week later, at a Delhi press conference, her disillusionment is even clearer. “My faith in the judiciary is weakening,” she said. “Sometimes I do think about walking into one of the embassies of a liberal democracy and asking for asylum.”

She might be wise to do that. The effort to nail Binayak Sen has included attempts to implicate the PUCL, of which he is the national vice-president. In 2004, when the Maoists had called a ban against voting, Ajay TG, a photographer-cum-filmmaker, had accompanied a fact-finding team of social activists that included Delhi University sociology professor Nandini Sundar and Binayak Sen, to south Bastar to assess the impact of this ban. A group of Maoists had accosted them and seized Ajay’s camera. Weeks later, a man visited Ajay at his home and apologised on behalf of the Maoists, saying they had mistakenly thought the team was from the government. However, they were willing to buy him a new camera if he could write down the make of his destroyed equipment. In all innocence, Ajay wrote a letter addressed to the Maoists asking his camera be replaced. In 2008, the police seized this letter during a raid on the house of Malti Rao, the wife of Gudsa Husendi, Maoist spokesperson. Ajay admitted to writing the letter explaining the circumstances under which he had done so. But he too was arrested for being a Naxalite. The police then claimed that Malti worked with Binayak and Ilina’s NGO Rupantar. Rupantar’s Malti, however, turned out to be a different person. (Speaking at a conference in Berkley in California in 2008, DGP Vishwa Ranjan admitted that arresting Ajay TG may have been a mistake. “It is possible he may not have been a Naxalite. There might have been some kind of technical error.”) Ajay is now out on bail.

Ram Jethmalani is not the only lawyer incensed by the judgement against Sen. At the press conference in Delhi on 3 January, Supreme Court advocate Prashant Bhushan pointed out that in the Kedar Nath Singh vs State of Bihar case (1962), the Supreme Court had ruled that provision 124(a) in the Indian Penal Code was a relic of a colonial, pre-Constitution era, and that it infringed on the individual’s right to freedom of speech and expression. “The Supreme Court had ruled that if, and only if, there is incitement to violence and public disorder, will the charge of sedition be said to be complete. The Raipur judge completely disregarded this important judgement in Dr Sen’s case,” Bhushan said.

He also questioned the very premise of the case. “The letters that Sen allegedly couriered, on which the charges against him were based, do not contain any conspiracy to commit crime or violence, but are routine letters written by somebody in prison. No acceptable, legally tenable evidence exists to back up this charge. Even if there is evidence, does it warrant life imprisonment?”

That is the key question. Why has the State been so adamant in making a lesson out of Binayak Sen? The answer lies outside the court.

BINAYAK SEN turned 61 on 4 January in jail. A gold medallist from the prestigious Christian Medical College in Vellore, he had moved to Chhattisgarh exactly 30 years earlier to work with Shankar Guha Niyogi, the legendary mine workers’ unionist. Sen helped set up the Shaheed Hospital at Dallirajhara, built with the workers’ own money. Later, he moved to the Mission Hospital in Tilda, and then, in 1990, joined his wife Ilina in Raipur to set up Rupantar, an NGO that has for 18 years trained village health workers and run mobile clinics in remote outposts.

As Dr Suranjan Bhattacharji, director, CMC Vellore, says, “Binayak walked the talk. He was an inspiration for generations of doctors. He reminded us that it takes many things — access, freedom, food security, shelter, equity and justice — to make a healthy society.” In 2004, the medical college honoured Sen with its prestigious Paul Harrison Award. The citation read, “Dr Binayak Sen has carried his dedication to truth and service to the very frontline of the battle. He has broken the mould, redefined the possible role of the doctor in a broken and unjust society, holding the cause much more precious than personal safety. CMC is proud to be associated with Binayak Sen.”

Even DGP Vishwa Ranjan calls Sen “a good doctor”. However, all of that changed in 2005 when the State launched its infamous Salwa Judum initiative — raising and arming a tribal civil militia to fight the Maoists, triggering a kind of civil war. Sen, whose work straddled both medicine and human rights, protested strongly against the excesses of the Salwa Judum and the State’s atrocities against the tribals. This earned him the State’s ire. Anyone who opposed the Salwa Judum was deemed a Maoist. You were either with Us or with Them. The State wanted to send out a message: Fall in line. Even a man as illustrious as Binayak Sen can be put away.

The irrational doggedness with which the police has pursued the case has only driven the message home harder. On 31 December 2007, seven months after he was arrested, the Indian Academy of Social Sciences conferred the RR Keithan Gold Medal on Binayak Sen. On May 2008, still in jail, he was given the Jonathan Mann Award for Global Health and Human Rights. Around the same time, 22 Nobel Prize winners appealed to the Indian government for his release. But none of that was enough to keep Binayak out of jail.

Now, as the fight for his release stretches in the months ahead, he will become a test case for pulling back some of the draconian laws that are threatening to change the very fabric of indian democracy. As Amartya Sen says, “Democracy has to be judged not just by the institutions that formally exist but by the extent to which different voices from diverse sections of the people can actually be heard.’’

The first step woud be for the Chhatisgarh High Court to suspend the trial court judgement against Binayak Sen.

Badal vs Badal‎

Mubarak, This is Sukhbir Badal's Akali Dal

Manpreet Badal walks out of Akali-Bjp Govt

PARTING SHOT Accuses Sukhbir of misleading people, says Dy CM should resign

The ruling Shiromani Akali Dal was plunged into a fresh political crisis on Wednesday with Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal dropping his nephew and Finance Minister Manpreet Badal from the cabinet and the latter severing his ties with the party. “It is no longer the Shiromani Akali Dal I have known,” said a bitter Manpreet Badal at a press conference. “It is now Sukhbir’s Akali Dal,” he said while referring to his cousin and Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal.
While senior leaders of SAD tried everything to put up a ‘business as usual’ facade, and the state government announced a financial bonanza for the employees to gloss over the crisis, the presence of as many as three ruling party MLAs by the side of Manpreet would cause concern to the leadership.
While only time will tell if other SAD MLAs join the rank of the rebels, the presence of Charanjit Singh Channi (independent), Sant Ajit Singh, Jagbir Brar and Manjinder Kang (all SAD) at the residence of the ‘sacked’ finance minister sent ripples through the party and the leaders lost little time in launching a rearguard action to win them back. Also conspicuous by his presence was the sacked minister’s father, Gurdass Singh Badal, who happens to be the Chief Minister’s younger brother.
The Chief Minister’s office said in a cryptic note on Wednesday morning that in deference to the unanimous recommendation of the SAD disciplinary committee, the CM had recommended to the Governor that Manpreet Badal be dropped from the ministry. In view of his suspension from the party, the statement added, the continuance of Manpreet Badal had become untenable.
The Chief Minister has retained departments of Finance, Planning and Programme Implementation, held by the dropped minister.
Manpreet Badal, who returned from New Delhi this morning, also claimed to have forwarded his resignation to the Chief Minister and the Governor. While Governor Shivraj Patil was away to Tirupati on a pilgrimage, he had spoken to the Governor on phone and informed him of his resignation, added the former finance minister.
He could barely hide his bitterness while alleging that his telephones are tapped and his house is bugged. It, however, no longer mattered what came first, his resignation or his dismissal because he was finished with Akali Dal, he declared.
His residence, which looked desolate in the morning, filled up on his return with mediamen jostling with his supporters from his constituency and a few former MLAs.
Rubbishing charges of indiscipline and anti-party activities, for which he had been suspended yesterday from the party, Manpreet Badal declared that he was guilty of no such thing. He produced a sheaf of documents in support of his contention that talks were indeed being held with the Centre on the possibility of waiving a substantial part of Punjab’s growing debt.
The defiant former minister declared that he would not be responding to the show cause notice issued to him by the party, as he had decided to part ways with the SAD. “My expulsion form the party was expected and a logical fallout of the events over the past fortnight,” said an emotional Manpreet.
“I was born an Akali, my conscience and soul are Akali. The SAD was my religion till it remained under the command of my uncle Parkash Singh Badal, but under Sukhbir the party atmosphere has become stifling. Believe me, I am finished with SAD, the party I left today is not the Akali Dal I grew up in, this is Sukhbir’s Akali Dal”, he added.
Demanding Sukhbir’s resignation for “misleading the people and the party on the debt-waiver issue” he added, “I will now go to the people; knock at every home, if need be and seek their support to take Punjab out of the present financial debt”.
As finance minister, he had raised his concerns over the rising debt Punjab faced. “As finance minister if I don’t talk about finance then what do I talk about ?” he wondered aloud, adding, “Even though I have left the job, I would appeal to the Chief Minister to take an approval in the next cabinet to continue the dialogue with the Centre to get Punjab’s debt waived. It is in the interest of Punjab to rid its future generations of debt”.
Manpreet’s ouster from the government has caused a vertical split in the Badal family, which has remained at the helm of SAD affairs ever since chief minister Parkash Singh Badal took over its command. Manpreet’s departure from the party at this juncture, which started as a war of succession within the Badal clan, is unlikely to bring curtains down on the war of succession though. It may have just begun.

Cousin conflict
Manpreet Singh Badal is the son of Gurdas Singh Badal, Punjab CM Parkash's brother and a former MP and MLA. The brothers together worked out a strategy for the functioning of the Shiromani Akali Dal.
Manpreet, an honours graduate from Delhi's St Stephen's College and barrister at law from London, was given a party ticket by Parkash in 1995 for contesting the Gidderbaha bypoll. He retained the seat in 1997, 2002 and in February 2007.
Gidderbaha has been a pocket borough of the Badals since the 1960s, except on two occasions. Parkash's son Sukhbir returned from the US and joined politics.
He was defeated in the 1999 Lok Sabha polls and he was given a Rajya Sabha seat. Ever since the cousins joined politics, there were reports of tension between them. Parkash and Gurdas stepped in to defuse tension.