Punjab Diary: Meeting ‘very productive’

Gurdaspur: Dinanagar AAP halqa incharge Shamsher Singh has become the butt of jokes. Minutes after he met former minister Dr Inderbir Singh Nijjar in Chandigarh, the latter was sacked. In his posts on social media platforms, Shamsher said, “A very productive meeting with the Local Bodies Minister.” A former Congress minister, for long his bête noire, told reporters, albeit with a tinge of sarcasm, “It was actually a counter-productive meeting. Let us hope Shamsher continues with his run of meeting ministers. Little do they know that he carries a jinx with him.”

‘When powerful turned powerless’

Muktsar: When the Badals were in power, hardly anyone could dare to lodge a protest in front of their residence at Badal village. However, when the Badals are neither in power in the state, nor in the Centre, some farmers recently did what no other could even think in the past. They had gathered to hand over their memorandum in support of woman wrestlers lodging a protest in Delhi and highlighting other issues, being faced by the farming community, but both Sukhbir Badal and Harsimrat Kaur Badal were not present there and the farmers pasted two copies of memorandums at the main gate of the Badals’ mansion. On this, the politicians of other parties said this was the difference between being powerful and powerless.

Real ‘badlaav’

Muktsar: After assuming the charge, Cabinet Minister Gurmeet Singh Khudian visited his home turf Lambi and addressed a public rally at Mandi Killianwali on Saturday. However, one thing was different from other political parties that his son Ameet Singh Teema Khudian was sitting amid the public on a mat placed on the floor. The public present there was saying that this is the real ‘badlaav’ (change).

Talk of the town

Amritsar: The resignation of Inderbir Singh Nijjar and ‘clipping of wings’ of minister Kuldeep Dhaliwal during the recent Cabinet reshuffle has become a talk of the town. There is a buzz in political circles that Dhaliwal with his statements was trying to “overshadow” Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann. Though Dhaliwal has lost prominent portfolios, he is still trying to find favour with the senior leadership of the party.

Jalandhar West MLA ‘missing’

Jalandhar: Ever since AAP won the Jalandhar Lok Sabha bypoll, its MLA Sheetal Angural (Jalandhar West) has gone “missing” from the party’s proceedings. Angural was not seen during AAP’s flagship ‘Sarkar Tuhade Dwar’ initiative held right after the byelection. The MLA was also not seen during the first press conference of Local Government Minister Balkar Singh, who was accompanied by MP Sushil Rinku, Jalandhar (Central) MLA Raman Arora and Punjab State Container and Warehousing Corporation chairperson Rajwinder Kaur Thiara. A recent summon from the court (to appear on June 12) in an old gambling case (when he was in the BJP) has made the matters worse for the MLA. 

Contributed by Ravi Dhaliwal, Archit Watts, Charanjit Singh Teja and Aparna Banerji