‘Sacrilege no issue, rivals raking it up’

TWO-TIME Bathinda MP and Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal is seeking re-election with development as her poll plank. In an interview with The Tribune reporter Perneet Singh, she talks about how she intends to carry her agenda forward. Excerpts: 

What is the focus of your campaign? What do you aim to achieve on being re-elected?

I have been focusing on work that I have done over the past one decade and how to take it forward. My topmost priority is to get AIIMS, Bathinda, running to its full potential at the earliest. I have already got the medical college started at the transit campus of Baba Farid University of Health Sciences. I will try to ensure that local people are employed at AIIMS as the objective is to make sure whatever is supplied to AIIMS is manufactured locally. The aim is to somehow turn it into an industry, rather than just a hospital.

Your rivals allege that development in the constituency has been lopsided. They mention the urban-rural divide. 

What do you have to say?

I have equally focused on urban and rural areas. The villages have witnessed unprecedented development, whether it is setting up power grids, upgrading government schools, establishing new waterworks, building dharamshalas, streets and sewers. I have facilitated grant running into crores for villages.

You have been mingling with women during your campaign, which wasn’t so in the past. What is the thought process behind it?

There isn’t any. Yes, there were security issues when I became minister in 2009. I had to balance between home, constituency and ministerial duties. I would try to cover maximum area while touring the constituency, which left me with very little time for interaction. Now, I’m neither a minister nor an MP. That is why I spend as much time with them as I want.  

Why have national issues taken a back seat in the poll campaign?

When you’re in Punjab, you talk about national issues with educated people. You can’t do so with the lower middle class for whom eking out a living is a daily struggle, particularly when welfare schemes launched by us have been halted. They are coming to me with all sorts of problems, whether it is old age pension or hefty power bills. How can I talk national issues with them?

How do you see the ‘commoner vs rich’ narrative built by Congress rival Amrinder Singh Raja Warring?

I don’t think anybody buys that. They can keep calling me rich, but people are not foolish. The voters are aware of his house and many cars. I have helped everyone who approached me with their problems.

Do you think sacrilege is an issue in these elections?

Our rivals are unnecessarily raking up the issue. It is like flogging a dead horse. I feel the people can see through their designs. There is not a shred of truth in what the Congress is saying. Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh swore on ‘Gutka Sahib’ that he would wipe out the drug menace in the state within weeks. That has not happened. This is the party which attacked Akal Takht Sahib and massacred Sikhs in 1984.

Do you sense any anti-incumbency against you? What of people raising questions at your public meetings?

I have ensured transparent functioning and have not duped anybody or made false promises. People are welcome to raise issues. I have got answers for everything. Here, I am not talking about troublemakers who are purposely being sent to my meetings.

How different is this election from the last two you fought?

This is a lot dirtier. People backed by the Congress are showing us black flags and intruding into our meetings. We have never done it. Our rivals are stooping low and resorting to false propaganda. The bottom line is they can’t match the works that we did during our rule in the state.