‘People trust SAD for a proven track record of development’: Sukhbir Singh Badal

SAD(B) president Sukhbir Singh Badal speaks to Ramesh Vinayak on a range of issues ahead of the Punjab assembly polls due early next year. Edited excerpts:

What is your reading of the electoral landscape in Punjab?

People want a stable, strong government and a decisive chief minister. The CM face is going to make a lot of difference. 

A right choice can take the state forward and a wrong one will push it backwards as it happened in the last five years. So, the Congress is completely out. 

The people of Punjab don’t trust (AAP chief Arvind) Kejriwal. Half of his 20 MLAs have left him. Others also want to follow suit, but there are no takers. In 2017, people had put some faith in him, but they now feel disappointed. The AAP has since been dipping. 

Today, Kejriwal comes and goes, hardly anyone in Punjab cares. Last time (in 2017), his rallies used to draw a big gathering but now they are marriage palace affairs. 

People still trust the Shiromani Akali Dal because we are the only Punjab party with a proven track record of development, be it power plants, airports, roads, urban infrastructure or social welfare.

The Punjab assembly contest is shaping up as a four-way fight. Who do you see as your main challenger?

It appears a multi-cornered only from an academician’s perspective. In reality, it is not. On a majority of the seats – I will say, 110 out of 117 – the SAD and the Congress will fight for pole position. On some, it would be the SAD versus the AAP.

How serious is the setback of an FIR against senior leader Bikram Singh Majithia in a drug case?

There is no setback. The Congress government in 2002 had put a false case against my father and me, too. Yet, people voted us to power in 2007 because they knew it was vendetta. 

In Bikram’s case, I have never seen a more false FIR that can ever be registered. Three director generals of police (DGPs) were changed because they were not ready to file an FIR. Three chiefs of Bureau of Investigation were shifted because they gave in writing that it is a false case. 

Then, they brought in Siddharth Chattopadhyaya who has been rejected by the UPSC for the DGP post. He agreed to do his political master’s bidding only to become the DGP. There is no credibility. 

The case in which Bikram has been framed has been settled by the court five years ago. Neither was he made an accused nor did his name come up in the trial.

But, these arguments centered on the political vendetta allegation didn’t find favour with the Mohali court which denied him anticipatory bail?

I don’t want to comment on the local court. We have full faith in the judiciary. Remember what happened in the case of Shah Rukh Khan’s son who was implicated in a false case. He got relief from the higher court. We will fight the judicial battle and use all our legal options.

How has Charanjit Singh Channi’s elevation as the state’s first Dalit CM impacted the SAD’s alliance with the Bahujan Samaj Party?

Punjab’s SC (Scheduled Caste) samaj does not consider Channi a part of them because he never stood for them when he was minister in the Capt Amarinder Singh-led Congress government. 

He never raised his voice when SC students were denied scholarships for five years. An individual doesn’t represent a community. If I’m a Jat Sikh, that doesn’t mean all Jat Sikhs will vote for me.

How do you look at the alliance between Capt Amarinder Singh and the BJP?

Zero plus zero is equal to zero. People of Punjab don’t like the BJP. Captain is a lost case. He was removed for being an incompetent CM. How can he now ask for another five years? Punjab is a highly aware state.

How do you look at the 22 farm unions’ decision to contest the Punjab polls? Will this impact the SAD’s base in the peasantry?

Everyone has the right to test waters. So they are most welcome. It won’t impact us. Our cadres had supported the kisan morcha for a cause, not farm unions.

What if the unions forge an alliance with the AAP?

Then they will be seen to be backing out from their stand to stay away from political parties.