Former Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal passes away at 95

Parkash Singh Badal, a former Chief Minister of Punjab and leader of the Akali Dal, has passed away at the age of 95 in Mohali. He started his political career as a village sarpanch and went on to contest assembly elections for the first time in 1957 as a member of the Congress party. He became the youngest Chief Minister of Punjab at the age of 43. Badal was born in Abul Khurana, a village in Punjab near the Rajasthan border, and received his education at Lahore’s Forman Christian College.

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Today’s programme on the demise of Parkash Singh Badal

• The Bharatiya Janata Party-led central government, declared two days of national mourning following the demise of former Punjab Chief Minister and Shiromani Akali Dal patron Parkash Singh Badal.
• The government of Punjab has announced a public holiday on 27th April, in honour of the former Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal.
• In 2015, Prime Minister Narendra Modi called Badal the Nelson Mandela of India.

Political Career of Parkash Singh Badal

• Throughout his political career that spanned over seven decades, Parkash Singh Badal lost only two elections – one in 1967 and another in the 2022 Punjab assembly election.
• He was arrested during Operation Bluestar in June 1984, when the Indian Army entered the Golden Temple complex in Amritsar to flush out militants.
• Badal’s party ended its alliance with the BJP in 2020 due to the farmers’ agitation against new agricultural laws introduced by the Centre.
• In protest against the treatment of protesting farmers by the Central government, Badal returned the Padma Vibhushan award, the second-highest civilian honour in the country, that he had received from the government in 2015.
• As a leader of the Akali Dal, Parkash Singh Badal strongly opposed the proposal for the Sutlej Yamuna Link (SYL) canal, which was intended to share river water with the neighboring state of Haryana. During his tenure, the Punjab state assembly passed the contentious Punjab Sutlej Yamuna Link Canal (Transfer of Proprietary Rights) Bill in 2016, which was led by Badal.

Parkash Singh Badal served as the Chief Minister of Punjab for the following five terms:

1. 1970-1971
2. 1977-1980
3. 1997-2002
4. 2007-2012
5. 2012-2017

Life of Parkash Singh Badal

• Prakash Singh Badal and his wife Surinder Kaur have two children Sukhbir Singh Badal and Preneet Kaur. His wife Surinder Kaur died in 2011 due to illness.
• Son- Sukhbir Singh Badal is an MLA from Fazilka constituency of Punjab and has also been the Deputy Chief Minister of Punjab. Prakash
• Singh Badal’s daughter is married to the son of former Punjab Chief Minister Pratap Singh Kairon.

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