Parkash Singh Badal: When Lahore that lived in his heart, never died

When riots broke out in 1947, Badal failed to board a train from Lahore to reach his native village in Muktsar. A special military train finally took him back home and he never visited Lahore again. Badal passed out from FC College in 1947, the Partition year that marked his last visit to the land of his alma mater in ‘lehenda’ (West) Punjab, till he became the chief minister in ‘chadhda’ (East) Punjab years later.

Visiting Pakistan with Vajpayee in 1999, Badal was accompanied by veteran journalist Kuldip Nayar, writer-poet Javed Akhtar, and actor Dev Anand, among others handpicked by Vajpayee.

Harcharan Singh Bains, Badal’s political advisor for over four decades, says that there were several things about him which never came out during his lifetime and one such memory was when the former CM had visited FC College, Lahore, away from public glare. “He used to get so emotional even on the mention of FC College, Lahore. On his visit to Pakistan, he did not inform anyone that he was going to visit his college and went there privately. He took a round there and did not meet anyone. He just wanted to feel that place, without public glare. He said he did not want to go there as CM of Punjab but as a commoner. One of his batchmates’ son was posted as police officer in Lahore and except him no-one knew about his visit to the college,” says Bains.

A strong advocate of opening more trade routes with Pakistan despite his party being BJP’s ally, relaxing visa norms, people-to-people exchange between both Punjabs and promotion of cross-border cultural exchange, Badal however never refrained from calling out Pakistan when it came to national interest. From telling the neighbouring country “to control the terrorism breeding on its soil” to a warning to “refrain from creating roadblocks in Kartarpur Corridor”, Badal hardly minced words when it came to Pakistan.

Former Haryana MP Tarlochan Singh, who had accompanied Badal on Vajpayee’s Lahore bus entourage, said, “Then Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif and his brother Shehbaz Sharif had hosted us for breakfast and there were several nostalgic talks regarding both Punjabs. Badal saab too got emotional when his college days were discussed. Soon, Kashmir was also on the table and our effort was to bridge the gap. He (Badal) tried his best to end the conflict and was very clear on it. He told them that whatever you have it remains with you and let us keep what we have but they said their people had different aspirations.”

In 2013, when Shehbaz Sharif, the then CM of Pakistan’s Punjab had visited India, Badal while hosting him had called for relaxing visa norms “to give the much-required impetus to economic activity in the region”.

Asserting that none can understand the pain of separation better than Punjabis, Badal had said, “Both the Eastern and Western Punjab had to pay the greatest price during the Partition. No two sides in the world have more shared culture, history, social bonds and spiritual legacy as the people of the two Punjabs have.”

Pouring his heart out on how much he misses his days in Lahore, Badal had said to Sharif, “Even today I wish to visit Pakistan to relive my memories of college days. Even today I am very fond of the delicious Pakistani food. Just as you feel strongly about your native village Jatti Umra (Sharif’s native village in Tarn Taran district), I feel the same for Lahore.”

Speaking to The Indian Express over phone, Adeel Riaz, alumni director, FC College, Lahore, said, “Parkash Singh Badal was a proud Formanite, and not just India, but we on the other side have also lost a family member.”