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Journalism of Courage
The blazing sun has set but the heat lingers in the summer evening. In the Muslim-majority Dugni village of Dhuri in Sangrur district, Parveen Begum, the wife of the sarpanch, is busy arranging flower petals and garlands. The flag of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) flutters outside the house.
A few metres away, under a tent pitched for a nukkad meeting, a crowd that is getting restless is told that Dr Gurpreet Kaur, the wife of Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, will reach anytime now. While several young women say they are here just for a selfie with her, Muksaan Khan, 23, a postgraduate working as a chemist, says: “CM sir or Gurpreet madam, it means the same. If we can speak to her, it means the message has reached the CM.”
Minutes later, a cavalcade consisting of SUVs and security vehicles drives in. Gurpreet, accompanied by Mann’s sister Manpreet Kaur, alights from a Toyota Fortuner. Dressed in a blue suit, head covered with a dupatta, she makes her way through the crowd, smiling, hugging women and obliging children with photos.
This is the coming out election of Gurpreet, a practising doctor who got married to Mann in July 2022 (months after he became CM) and gave birth to their daughter two months ago.
From the stage, a party worker welcomes the 34-year-old, talking of her “dedication to Dhuri (Mann’s constituency, which is part of the Sangrur Lok Sabha seat)”. “Eh apne nikke je bachhe nu, jigar de totey nu, ghar chadke aayee ne. Iss to hi hisaab laalo (She has come here leaving her little baby, a piece of her heart back home. What more proof is needed).”
Gurpreet took up the responsibility of looking after Dhuri soon after their marriage, relieving Mann of tension regarding his constituency, as CM duties kept him busy. Local leaders say she kept visiting the seat till the eighth month of her pregnancy. And that, soon after delivering their daughter Niyamat in March, joined the campaign trail of AAP Sangrur candidate Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer, after party supremo Arvind Kejriwal’s arrest in the Delhi excise policy case saddled Mann with additional responsibilities.
Hayer is a sitting Punjab minister, and hopes to repeat the AAP’s victory in the last two Lok Sabha elections from the Sangrur Lok Sabha seat, when Mann was the party candidate.
Gurpreet starts her meeting speaking in fluent Punjabi: “Aam Aadmi Party de auhdedaar sahibaan, mere vadde veer, behnan, meriyaan maawan, aao fateh di saanjh paaiye (The mighty soldiers of AAP, my elder brothers, sisters, mothers, let’s help the party to victory).Waheguru ji da Khalsa, Waheguru ji di fateh.”
She tells people how her husband, whom she calls “Mann saab”, likes being among voters the best. “We have been married two years… he hardly stays home,” says Gurpreet, who herself hails from Pehowa in Haryana.
The Mann government has fulfilled almost all the promises it made ahead of the 2022 Assembly elections, Gurpreet adds. “Haven’t your electricity bills gone down to zero, haven’t you got mohalla clinics?” she says.
She then addresses the question hanging in the air, which has been trailing the AAP through the campaign: When will the Mann government keep its promise of a monthly stipend of Rs 1,000 to every woman in the state?
Gurpreet tells women they should not worry till she, their “messenger”, is around. “Behnan da laamba haiga haley tak ki hazaar-hazaar milya nahin. Assi tuhadi sifarish karan nu baithyan haley (I know the complaint of my sisters that they haven’t got their Rs 1,000. But don’t worry, we are here to convey your demand),” she says, to loud cheers.
Attacking the BJP, Gurpreet says voters should not fall for parties which are trying to divide “the Diwali, Eid and Lohri” of Punjab. “Such divisive politics is not in Mann saab’s principles,” she says.
Speaking at length with The Indian Express after the meeting, Gurpreet says transformation to a public life was not easy. “I learnt everything slowly… Speaking in public was a challenge, but I picked up.” It was her own call to take on a more public role, she adds, “after seeing Mann saab working for the people”.
Keeping a close watch at every step is Manpreet, who has also been a regular presence in Mann’s political journey. Gurpreet attributes her sister-in-law accompanying her to their “close bond”.
Gurpreet sees her role as ultimately acting as a “bridge” between the people and Mann. “I have to convey honest feedback from the ground to him. The relationship of a husband and wife is such that nothing is possible without each other’s support,” she says. While she doesn’t see herself resuming her medical practice, she adds: “Serving people is fully satisfying in its own way.”
The one controversy that has trailed Gurpreet in this new role is the Mann government’s decision to upgrade her security cordon from 15 to 40 personnel, and assign her an escort of special police vehicles. Videos of her being welcomed by the State machinery – from deputy commissioners to senior police officers – have gone viral. Opposition parties have underlined how shunning VIP culture was among the AAP’s pre-poll promises in Punjab.
Gurpreet admits the criticism initially disturbed her. “But CM saab told me: ‘Focus on your work, don’t dwell on what the world says’… We have to keep the people happy, not the Opposition.”
Gurpreet adds that the involvement of Mann’s family is, in fact, a plus. “Mann saab is perhaps the only CM whose family is so active among the people. The previous ones never came out of their shells.”
Dismissing the censure over the amount of security to Gurpreet, Manpreet says: “The security of his family is the least that Mann can ask for being the CM.”
Talking about the CM as a father, Gurpreet says that every time he comes home, “once in two-three days”, the first thing Mann does is play with Niyamat. “Every time he holds her, he is sure she has grown an inch,” laughs Gurpreet.
While Mann had registered landslide victories from Sangrur in the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha polls, getting 48% and 37% of the votes respectively, AAP candidate Hayer is expected to face an uphill task against firebrand Congress leader and Mann’s bete noire Sukhpal Singh Khaira and SAD(A) chief-cum-sitting MP Simranjit Singh Mann.
Simranjit Singh won the seat in the bypoll held after Bhagwant Mann vacated it to contest the 2022 Assembly elections.
So will Gurpreet take the next step and take the political plunge herself, as the AAP fights on many fronts? She rules out any such ambition, as of now. “Like Mann saab, I have just dedicated myself to serving the people. My only focus is to serve the people who have elected him,” Gurpreet says.
