For Badal villagers, Parkash Singh Badal was their sarpanch till his last breath

The SAD patron will be cremated in his agriculture land on Thursday. A part of kinnow orchards has been cleared and a raised platform has been made in the fields for cremating the body. The senior Badal will be cremated around 1 pm on Thursday as per the details available from the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) office.

Meanwhile, a pall of gloom has descended on Badal village since the passing away of the Akali patriarch. The villagers are yet to come to terms with the sad news, as the senior Badal used to stay most of the time in his native house in this village.

A number of villagers regularly work in their (Badals) kinnow farms and a few in their house as well, while many had got government jobs during the tenure of the Badal government. Parkash Singh Badal was a five-time chief minister of Punjab.

Ramesh Sethi, a Dabwali (Haryana) resident who worked in Dashmesh senior secondary girls school in Badal village, said, “The senior Badal would often drop on the campus and interact with the students and staff so as to know their requirements, if any, for the school. One day he came and asked the volleyball players if they need anything; they (players) asked for a television, then they asked for a van for going to tournaments. To our delight, a month later, we got two buses from his side.”

The village with about 3,000 votes has a government primary and senior secondary school, a civil hospital, a sewa kendra, a bank, a Sports Authority of India wing, a sports stadium, one ITI, a government nursing college, apart from private institutions like Dashmesh girls senior secondary school, Dashmesh degree college, Dashmesh college of education, two more schools under Dashmesh management and one private nursing college.

Dashmesh girls college has a shooting range – one-of-its-kind in the state – where Olympian Avneet Kaur Sidhu used to practise. Sidhu, at present, is posted as SSP Fazilka and she is an alumnus of Dashmesh degree college.

Recalling her association with the senior Badal, she said, “It’s really sad to hear about his demise. But his vision had helped in shaping careers of many women who studied in Dashmesh school or college. He got that shooting range built in his village which helped many students like me to make it big in life. Otherwise it used to be only at Punjab Police Academy in Phillaur. Students like me got a chance to take up this sport here itself and excel later at international level. He was the chairman of Dashmesh group of educational institutions and so he regularly visited these schools and colleges. At times he used to randomly walk into the campus to interact with students as the college was just a stone’s throw from his house.

He even used to take feedback from hostellers, ask about their well-being and the condition in hostels. Whatever demands were raised by the students, he ensured that they were fulfilled at the earliest.” Ramesh Sethi said that a gardener used to work in the kinnow orchards of the Badals, but he unfortunately passed away. But the Badals did not leave his family in the lurch. They still look after the gardener’s wife Kalawati and her family, Sethi added.

“The struggling villagers used to meet ‘Badal Saab’ with their problems – be it the issue of someone sick in the family, fund shortage, job of son, daughter’s wedding or any other personal issue – big or small, and the senior Badal never disappointed them. He lent them an ear and solved their problems,” said a woman working in the kinnow orchards of the Badals. The village now has a Congress-supported sarpanch Jabarjang Singh Badal who too is a distant relative of the Badals.

Ranjodh Singh Lambi, an Akali Dal worker, said, “The senior Badal used to meet the public on a regular basis and so, for the villagers he was still the sarpanch whom they could approach any time. He lost election from Lambi constituency in the Punjab Assembly polls in 2022 by about 11,000 votes, but still he went to people to thank them for their support. After all he got more than 55,000 votes.”

He added, “No-one in the village cooked food after hearing the news of Badal Saab’s death. There won’t be a house in the constituency which the senior Badal would not have been visited. He was a big man but had the common touch. He used to visit people on occasions like marriages, birth of a child, deaths, etc.”

He said, “The village has so many facilities like educational institutions, sports complex, petrol pump on the outskirts, well-maintained roads, etc.” The residents of Lambi were pampered a lot by the senior Badal. “When the Badals were in power, we could meet the CM in the village, and he would hear us out.” Ranjodh added.