Veteran SAD leader Maluka, voice of farmers, now all praise for PM Modi

Maluka’s latest move against SAD political standings assumes significance as his daughter-in-law Parampal Kaur Sidhu Maluka, retired IAS officer, is contesting from Bathinda on a BJP ticket. She was in Patiala on May 23 when PM Modi had come to address a poll rally in support of Preneet Kaur and other candidates.

“I know many may not be liking what I say. But I strongly feel that PM Narendra Modi has done a lot for the Sikh community and we must learn to appreciate that. If something good is being done by someone, we must appreciate that as well,” he told The Indian Express, even as the Sikh-centric political party failed to reach a poll pact with the BJP for the Lok Sabha elections, mainly due to the ongoing farmers’ protests,” said Maluka who has been with Akali Dal for more than 50 years.

Maluka who is the chairman of SAD’s disciplinary committee, however, has remained silent throughout the poll campaign after his daughter-in-law joined BJP on April 9. Until the first week of April he had been campaigning for Akali.Dal’s Harsimrat Kaur Badal but later he neither campaigned for SAD nor BJP and preferred to stay silent.

The former Punjab’s education minister has called upon the Sikhs to do away with confrontations and rallies and instead “meet PM Modi after the poll results and discuss all our demands point by point and get them fulfilled.”

“PM Modi repealed the three farm laws, he waived off GST on langar, he opened the Kartarpur Sahib corridor. He also announced Veer Bal Diwas in memory of Chhote Sahibzade and much more…So I feel that Modi did a lot for the Sikh community. It is high time to sit and do introspection and move ahead with the second way of talks rather than confrontation,” said Maluka who was appointed the president of Kissan Call of SAD when farmers’ protests broke out in the country.

“Our community (Sikhs) has been fighting struggles for centuries now. If we look at the situation after Independence, our community has sacrificed a lot and have hardly got any of our demands met. So somewhere, there has been a fault in the leadership. A good leader is the one who gets results more than the damage done to the community. In our case, damage was more than achivement….now let’s adopt a second way…like-minded people of Punjab must gather and make a memorandum of our main demands like the Punjab’s rivers’ water sharing issue with Haryana, Rajasthan, the issue of Chandigarh as our capital, demands of farmers and many other important issues,” said Maluka who has been with Akali Dal for more than 50 years.

When asked how confident he was about Modi’s hattrick victory, he replied with a smile, “I have a gut feeling that he will form the government for the third consecutive time.. or in other words.. whosoever will be the PM of the country..we must present our demands before them.”

Maluka added, “The Prime Minister came on a two-day visit to Punjab and I listened to his speeches on television. He said very valid points…that after 1971 war when Pakistan was down and out…why were the issues of Kashmir and Kartarpur Sahib Gurdwara not resolved at that time itself. Leadership of that time failed somewhere.”

Maluka hailed PM Modi for visiting Patna Sahib Gurdwara and doing ‘langar sewa’.

“It is a great message to the world and we must appreciate this. We as a community are in minority and hence, we need to feel proud about this as he is telling the world about the langar sewa being done by Sikhs in the gurdwaras in which he too contributed a bit. More doors are open…I feel that we must talk about our demands,” the SAD leader said, while mentioning that he doesn’t feel that PM Modi did this keeping in mind the vote bank, but out of his respect for the Sikh community.

Maluka, however, did not name his daughter-in-law when asked whether he was indirectly seeking support for her by praising PM Modi. “I am genuinely praising the works done by PM…it shouldn’t be read as something else. I am still an Akali. I am not part of any campaign of my daughter-in-law. Hence, no comments on that.”

Meanwhile, Parampal Kaur had sought voluntary retirement from service in the first week of April before contesting polls. However, the matter remained in controversy as the Punjab government had rejected her resignation, and asked her to join duty. Finally, on the day prior to her filing of nomination, Punjab government had given an NoC.

Punjab is going for polls on June 1 on all the 13 Lok Sabha seats.

Maluka was the Maur constituency incharge for Akali Dal. But after his daughter-in-law joined BJP, he was replaced with former SAD minister Janmeja Singh Sekhon.