Scrutinising the two brutal attacks on Shiromani Akali Dal chief and former Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal reveals that in both cases the attackers tried to deliver vigilante justice.
Meanwhile, the ruling AAP and Congress are trying to politicise these incidents, squarely blaming the Shiromani Akali Dal for failing to protect the religious interests of the people of Punjab despite calling itself a Panthic party. Congress president Amrinder Singh Raja Warring too echoed the sentiment, attributing the incident to the anger among Sikh devotees. The Shiromani Akali Dal, by contrast, has cast the episode as part of a larger conspiracy. “Congress President Amrinder Singh Raja Warring and AAP Spokesperson Baltej Singh Pannu did not even utter a single word of sympathy. The incident took place in Nanded, and AAP is making comments as if they want to burn Punjab. What do you want to do? He is the son of the late Parkash Singh Badal, five-time Chief Minister of Punjab, and the late Surinder Kaur Badal. He is married to Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Member of Parliament from Bathinda and former Union Cabinet Minister. The couple has three children: daughters Harkirat Kaur and Gurleen Kaur, and son Anantveer Singh. He later represented the Firozpur constituency. He has also been elected three times as MLA from the Jalalabad Assembly constituency.
They are trying to give the incident a new colour and narrative, suggesting that it happened due to sacrilege. Just look at their background, 26 of our candidates were murdered when Punjab was disturbed. Sukhbir Singh Badal was born on 9 July 1962 in Faridkot, Punjab, into one of the state’s most prominent political families. Sukhbir entered electoral politics in the mid-1990s and was elected to the Lok Sabha three times from Faridkot in 1996, 1998 and 1999. During the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, he served as Union Minister of State for Industry between 1998 and 1999. Sukhbir Singh Badal became the president of the Shiromani Akali Dal in January 2008. However, in November 2024,he resigned as party chief after the Akal Takht declared him tankhaiya. The party’s working committee formally accepted the resignation in January 2025. Following the completion of his religious punishment, he returned to the post and was unanimously re-elected on 12 April 2025 at a general delegate meeting held at Teja Singh Samundri Hall in Amritsar.
Spokesperson and Senior General Secretary Dr Daljit Cheema, while condemning the statements of AAP and Congress leaders, said that instead of expressing concern, they wanted to burn Punjab. The AAP and Congress should tell what their relationship was with this incident,” Dr Daljit Singh Cheema said.
