Akali Dal patriarch’s death unites Badal cousins, albeit momentarily

While both came together on his death, the senior Badal left this task unfulfilled (to unite them both) as this separation had rankled with him forever. Only recently, when Manpreet Badal joined BJP after quitting Congress in January this year, it is learnt that the senior Badal wanted him to join SAD. But Manpreet Badal finally chose to be with the saffron party.

Last time, it was at senior Badal’s younger brother and Manpreet’s father, Gurdass Singh Badal’s death that both Manpreet and Sukhbir were seen together. And that was on May 15, 2020. At the time Sukhbir was seen carrying the mortal remains of his uncle along with Manpreet on Gurdass Badal’s last journey. A picture of Badal bowing and breaking down on the glass casket in which Gurdass Badal’s body was kept, and Sukhbir Badal watching helplessly had gone viral.

Badal was quoted in a tweet by SAD as saying, “I am speechless today. It’s a loss that no language has words to describe. Never felt lonelier in my life. Hard to even think that he won’t be by my side now. My thoughts go to Manpreet and other children. Praying for peace to him and strength to us.”

Badal had once in a TV interview stated that he and his brother were known as ‘Ram-Laxman Ki Jodi’. He had said politics had separated their families, but both the brothers were still together. They were neighbours in Badal village and often met. Gurdass Badal had once said that whenever senior Badal visits his house in Badal, he makes it a point to “visit my house in the village first”.

Manpreet Badal was once considered the blue-eyed boy of Parkash Singh Badal, but a gulf appeared between the two families. Manpreet Badal drifted apart in 2011, when he was the finance minister in the SAD-BJP government, quit SAD and floated his own People’s Party of Punjab (PPP). Gurdass Badal then contested against his brother from Lambi but lost. During that campaign, Gurdass Badal wore an overcoat, presented to him by the senior Badal. He often said this was to keep feeling the love of his elder brother even when he was contesting against him.