He was force behind Badal’s meteoric rise

Jupinderjit Singh

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Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 15

Gurdas Singh Badal, known as Dass Ji, who breathed his last in the wee hours of Friday, was perhaps the only person with whom the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) patriarch and his elder brother, Parkash Singh Badal, shared his heart.

Father of Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal, Dass Ji’s writ used to run in the state, especially in the Malwa region, before the families turned estranged due to differences between Manpreet and his cousin Sukhbir Badal. People close to both siblings reveal they were the epitome of brotherly love, which remained unaffected by the events in their lives.

Harcharan Bains, Adviser to ex-CM Parkash Singh Badal, said there was no doubt that Dass Ji was a pillar around which Badal sahib’s psychological and emotional life revolved. “Even when the political differences arose in the family, hardly any week went by without both meeting each other, mostly at Dass Ji’s home. He was a man singularly free of any bitterness and one who never allowed politics to disfigure the innocence of relations.”

Local scribes recall in 2012 when Manpreet formed his own party and his father Dass Ji had to contest elections, that too against his elder brother Parkash Singh Badal from Lambi, it was known to all that he rarely went out for campaigning.

Known as the man who devised election strategy of Parkash Singh Badal in almost four of his five terms as the Chief Minister of Punjab and handled his home constituency Lambi for several decades, Gurdas was the force behind the rise of his elder brother from a village sarpanch to the state’s Chief Minister. He also remained an MLA from 1967 to 1969, besides representing the Fazilka parliamentary constituency in 1971.

Fond of playing cards in his free time, he is said to have confided to his friends that the division of his family was the biggest remorse of his life. “The sons have walked on different paths, but there can never be any emotional wedge between Parkash and me,” he told this writer in an interview in 2012.

Bakhtaur Dhillon, a senior journalist and a distant relative of the Badal family, said Gurdas was the one who took important decisions and decided appointments before the next generation took over.

Vijay Pal Brar, another journalist and aide of Dass Ji, said he was in touch with him for over three decades, but never saw him getting angry. “I remember he would never give direct answers to journalists or supporters at meetings, but would hint at facts. He had a remarkable eye for future leaders and it would not be any exaggeration to say most of the Akali leaders in the Malwa belt owe their success to Dass Ji, who not only spotted them, but also guided them.”