Sukhdeep Kaur is an assistant editor with the Punjab bureau. She covers politics, social issues and special projects, including on-the-ground reporting during critical situations.
Articles by Sukhdeep Kaur
'I demolished Jaitley’s strategy to sell his national image'
For this erstwhile maharaja, it was as gruelling as it could get. It has been five weeks of nerve-wracking poll campaign in a constituency that grabbed national media attention as he took on the collective might of Punjab’s ruling SAD-BJP regime and exchanged virulent potshots with his poll rival.
Updated on May 02, 2014 09:09 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Sukhdeep Kaur, Chandigarh
AAP weans away voters in Punjab: who will it damage more, Cong or SAD-BJP?
Behind the record polling in Punjab, there was an 'aam aadmi' surge. By the time voting ended in the state on Wednesday, the trend was clear – a big chunk of first-time voters, rural voters and sections of middle and working class had gone the Aam Aadmi Party way.
Updated on May 01, 2014 11:26 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Sukhdeep Kaur
Over 1 lakh Punjab govt staff on poll duty
The ‘right to vote’ — the Election Commission’s multi-crore awareness drive to propel voters to get inked — seems to have cut little ice with the employees of the Punjab government.
Updated on Apr 30, 2014 12:36 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Sukhdeep Kaur, Chandigarh
Retiring babus request EC for farewell peg
Punjab government bureaucrats due to retire this month-end are in unusual low spirits. The reason: their much-awaited farewell parties have fallen on a ‘dry’ day. With Punjab going to Lok Sabha polls on April 30, no liquor can be served as per the orders of the Election Commission of India. Expecting the polling to wrap up by 6pm, some babus delayed their farewell dos only to learn that the dry hours have been extended till 10 in the night.
Updated on Apr 30, 2014 12:36 PM IST
None | Sukhdeep Kaur, Chandigarh
Retiring babus in low ‘spirits’, request EC for farewell peg
Punjab government bureaucrats due to retire this month-end are in unusual low spirits. The reason: their much-awaited farewell parties have fallen on a ‘dry’ day. With Punjab going to Lok Sabha polls on April 30, no liquor can be served as per the orders of the Election Commission of India.
Updated on Apr 30, 2014 12:06 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Sukhdeep Kaur, Chandigarh
Served sizzling contests, Punjab votes today
Punjabis love potboilers, and the Congress seems to have whetted their appetite by stirring up a few in the state for the Lok Sabha Verdict 2014. Add to that the Aam Aadmi Party masala, and you have a lip-smacking fare.
Updated on Apr 29, 2014 10:42 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Sukhdeep Kaur, Chandigarh
In Bajwa-versus-Khanna virtual war, Facebook is not WhatsApp boss
Facebook may have bought mobile phone-based messaging application WhatsApp in a 19-billion-dollar deal, but the social networking site is not a boss to WhatsApp, at least not in the high-voltage poll war between Punjab Congress president Partap Singh Bajwa and Bollywood actor Vinod Khanna of the BJP in Gurdaspur.
Updated on Apr 29, 2014 01:09 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Sukhdeep Kaur, Gurdaspur
Stirring up potboilers, Cong keeps Punjab on tenterhooks
Punjabis love potboilers and Congress seems to have whetted their appetite by stirring up a few for Mandate 2014. The party seemed unsure of which candidates to field after its sitting MPs Manish Tewari and state chief Partap Bajwa were dithering on contesting, but changed the state’s pollscape by lining up all its top guns.
Updated on Apr 29, 2014 10:09 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Sukhdeep Kaur, Chandigarh
Vote for us silently, Congress tells Majitha
You see the Congress flags and posters of Capt Amarinder Singh only on the party office as you enter Majitha. In the wards and hamlets of the constituency which has itself earned notoriety for being the undisputed kingdom of Punjab’s firebrand revenue minister Bikram Singh Majithia, the Congress is heard only in whispers and its posters and flags are few to none.
Updated on Apr 28, 2014 12:45 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Sukhdeep Kaur, Majitha
Amritsar tourism: ‘taxed’ by Badals, Jaitley promises sops
It is the world’s 10th most visited city. But unlike other tourism hotspots, visitors do not prefer to stay back in Amritsar. If they do, a room above Rs 200 a night costs them 8% luxury tax — doubled from 4% by SAD-BJP’s previous regime — that goes to the state’s kitty.
Updated on Apr 28, 2014 12:01 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Sukhdeep Kaur, Amritsar
10,000 Amritsar govt staff on poll duty, 7% ‘apply’ to vote
By the daily protests, it seems the anti-incumbency sentiment is high among the government employees. By this argument of the Congress, most of them should be willing to come out and vote. But of Amritsar’s more than 10,000 employees, including police, on poll duty on April 30, just 7% have, so far, received election duty certificates (EDC) or postal ballots.
Updated on Apr 27, 2014 10:15 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Sukhdeep Kaur, Amritsar
Anti-incumbency vs Badal might in rural Amritsar
“For four months, I have not got any pension. The gover nment employees have not received their salaries. The arrears of dearness allowance have not been paid. When women protest, the police pull them by the hair and drag them,” says Karnail Singh, a retired teacher of a government school.
Updated on Apr 25, 2014 10:52 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Sukhdeep Kaur, Ajnala
Jaitley relishes poking game with Captain
As a legal hawk, he knows how to tie his opponents in knots in court debates. Fighting his debut election from the highstakes seat of Amritsar, Arun Jaitley is doing just that with poll rival Capt Amarinder Singh of the Congress. Jaitley starts his day by taking a fresh dig at the Captain in his campaign dairy forcing Amarinder to respond.
Updated on Apr 25, 2014 07:57 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Sukhdeep Kaur, Amritsar
Cong’s new ‘plot’: Modi gifted Jaitley land in Gujarat
The plot thickens in the high-stakes poll battle between the BJP and Congress stalwarts in Amritsar. As second-richest candidate in the Lok Sabha elections in Punjab, BJP nominee Arun Jaitley was quick to buy a mansion in Amritsar to shed the “outsider” tag.
Updated on Apr 24, 2014 08:30 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Sukhdeep Kaur, Amritsar
Jaitley banks on heavy ammo, Capt yet to invite PM, Sonia
In the epic clash for the Amritsar Lok Sabha seat, BJP heavyweight Arun Jaitley is relying on heavy artillery to take on Capt Amarinder Singh of the Congress. Of all its seats, the BJP has lined up the maximum number of celebrities in Amritsar, including Bollywood actors, cricketers and TV artistes.
Updated on Apr 22, 2014 09:48 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Sukhdeep Kaur, Chandigarh
‘Trials’ in the day of lawyer-turned-politician
It is 9 am and the office of the Aam Aadmi Party at Sarabha Nagar in Ludhiana is buzzing with people — retired colonels, lawyers, NRIs, students, professors, auto-rickshaw drivers and daily wagers the aam aadmi. HS Phoolka’s 29-year-old daughter Prab Sahay Phoolka is busy coordinating the day’s campaign schedule as complaints of administrative and police “excesses” pour in.
Updated on Apr 21, 2014 09:39 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Sukhdeep Kaur, Ludhiana
PPCB takes industry on ‘trip’ to Rajasthan
Punjab deputy chief minister Sukhbir Badal held a meeting and had high tea with the chamber of industries in Ludhiana on Friday. But an earlier meeting of Ludhiana industry with Congress candidate Ravneet Bittu had cost them dear.
Updated on Apr 20, 2014 12:55 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Sukhdeep Kaur and Vishal Rambani, Ludhiana/patiala
Stalwarts try to shed ‘outsider’ tag with cyber war
As they clash for the prestigious Amritsar seat, stalwarts Arun Jaitley of the BJP and Capt Amarinder Singh of the Congress are trying to shed the “outsider” tag not just on the battleground but also through a raging virtual war. With Amritsar boasting of nearly 4.4 lakh active Facebook users, the cyber teams of both the leaders are vying for more likes and comments on the social networking site to beat the poll rival in the cyber war.
Updated on Apr 18, 2014 09:18 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Sukhdeep Kaur, Chandigarh
Amarinder, Jaitley keep tabs on each other
In the hotly-contested Amritsar seat, the Congress and Akali-BJP are busy playing spy games. As much time, if not more, is going into monitoring the daily campaign schedule of each other by both the main rival camps as planning their own.
Updated on Apr 16, 2014 12:31 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Sukhdeep Kaur, Amritsar
Capt, Jaitley keep tabs on each other’s ‘hits & misses’
In the hotlycontested Amritsar Lok Sabha seat, the Congress and the Akali-BJP alliance are busy playing spy games. The rival camps are spending as much time, if not more, on monitoring each other’s daily campaign schedule as on planning their own.
Updated on Apr 15, 2014 08:13 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Sukhdeep Kaur, Chandigarh
On ‘not-so-aam’ Kejri’s bandwagon: We, the people
At 1.30 am on Saturday, Arvind Kejriwal and his close aides are busy discussing the day gone by and planning the next day’s road show. Upbeat at an impressive road show at Amritsar and Gurdaspur on Friday, the team is dismayed by a news report in a section of print and electronic media on his “regret” at having resigned as Delhi CM.
Updated on Apr 14, 2014 10:28 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Sukhdeep Kaur, Nawanshahr/ludhiana
Mrs Jaitley richest among leading candidates wives
Together in love and poll war, they are not the proverbial “better halves” when it comes to sharing the bounty of their husbands. The affidavits of Punjab’s rich and famous candidates show that most wives fare “poorly” in the asset tally, mainly in terms of title to property.
Updated on Apr 10, 2014 09:11 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Sukhdeep Kaur, Chandigarh
For royal couple of contrasts, politics the meeting point
The erstwhile Patiala royals are fighting the same war, from different battlefields. The country’s only MP-MLA couple contesting the Lok Sabha elections — former Punjab CM Capt Amarinder Singh, 72, and his wife, union minister Preneet Kaur.
Updated on Apr 08, 2014 01:09 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Sukhdeep Kaur, Patiala
PM in demand in Sikh-dominated constituencies
He has taken a backseat in the high-pitched parliamentary elections after 10 years in office but Prime Minister Manmohan Singh seems to be in “demand” in Punjab’s Sikh-dominated constituencies.
Updated on Apr 05, 2014 11:39 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Sukhdeep Kaur, Chandigarh
‘We will give biggest defeat to Akali-BJP coalition, buck national anti-incumbency’
Having crafted the Congress strategy to bring stalwarts in poll fray after being cornered into a contest himself, Punjab Congress chief Partap Singh Bajwa says it was the only way to boost the morale of workers.
Updated on Apr 02, 2014 09:36 AM IST
None | Sukhdeep Kaur, Chandigarh
Bajwa's new poll pitch: Vote for Punjab's future CM
Pitted against Bollywood actor and three-time MP Vinod Khanna, Punjab Congress chief Partap Singh Bajwa is selling his voters in Gurdaspur a new dream having a chief minister from the area who will "undo the injustice".
Updated on Apr 02, 2014 05:30 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Sukhdeep Kaur, Chandigarh
Amarinder’s unusual ally in battle against Jaitley: BJP’s Sidhu camp
As he takes on BJP stalwart Arun Jaitley in Amritsar, former Punjab chief minister and now Congress Lok Sabha candidate Capt Amarinder Singh seems to have found an unusual ally in the opposition camp.
Updated on Apr 01, 2014 09:53 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Sukhdeep Kaur, Chandigarh
Badals’ Bathinda, Muktsar lead tally of ‘true-blue’ poor
It is politics over hunger at its most blatant. After hijacking the Congress-led central government’s Food Security Act (FSA) by merging it with state’s own atta-dal scheme, Punjab’s SAD-BJP regime has diverted the subsidy meant for families with low annual income — up to Rs 60,000 as per the criteria — to the politically important Bathinda and Muktsar districts, the home turf of the ruling Badals.
Updated on Mar 28, 2014 11:51 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Sukhdeep Kaur, Chandigarh
Kirron, Gul spare Bansal over corruption, Railgate controversy
Coming face-to-face for a debate for the first time at Candidatetalk @ HT programme on Friday, Kirron Kher of the BJP and Gul Panag of AAP confronted the Congress MP over various issues concerning Chandigarh but steered clear of directly attacking Bansal over corruption or Railgate.
Updated on Mar 29, 2014 08:50 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Sukhdeep Kaur, Chandigarh
Congress outwitted Akali-BJP cocktail with heady mix of stature, winnability
The ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) may revel in their string of poll victories, but much of it was served to them by the opposition Congress on a platter. For the poll-weary party and its cadres, nothing short of shock treatment would have worked to bring them into the fighting mode.
Updated on Mar 28, 2014 08:34 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Sukhdeep Kaur, Chandigarh