History will not be kind to you - 16/05/2008

Ref.No: QRLD/2007-08:

S. Prakash Singh Badal Ji,

Hon. Chief Minister Punjab

CM Punjab Residence

House 45 Sector 2,

Chandigarh.

16 May 2008

Dear Mr. Badal,

History will not be kind to you.

I’m sure that you started in politics with good intentions, high hopes and aspirations and, above all, a desire to accelerate development.

Now in your fourth term the realities of politics and governance have fundamentally changed your views.

Neither of your first two administrations were characterised by violence or suppression, which only appeared in your third term and have now reached unpalatable lows, as witnessed by the shocking violence and state sponsored terrorism in the just concluded PRI elections.

Surely the violence perpetrated against Congress workers and leaders is merely a tool to create a fear psychosis within your own party to ensure a smooth transition of power to your son.

You are leading Punjab headlong into an abyss from which there will soon be no point of return.

The whole world has witnessed the true face of your government. Brazen use of weapons, widespread death and destruction, not to mentions your shameful intimidation of innocent sarpanches, panches and voters.

Which NRI will now dare to invest in Punjab?

Let there be no delusion: the myth of your current popularity will be fully exposed in the forthcoming parliamentary elections when Punjabis will vote as decisively against your ruling alliance as they did in 1998.

You may seek to acquire or usurp every private bus and cable network in Punjab but you will not be able to buy people’s hearts and minds. They will speak through the electronic voting machines to deliver a crushing defeat to your politics of violence and intimidation.

It is creditable that this is your fourth term. I doubt that this feat will be repeated. Yet, your last 3 administrations were decisively elected by the electorate. Your fate this time will be no different.

You have squandered a great opportunity to be remembered as the best Sikh leader since Sardar Partap Singh Kairon with the hallmark of equitable development and poverty alleviation.

Sardar Partap Singh Kairon, some 44 years after this premature demise, is still remembered fondly, nationally and internationally, for his tremendous vision that propelled this land locked state to the pinnacles of every measure of Indian human development.

Yet, there is not a singular achievement from your first 3 administrations that finds mentions today.

The last administration to be re-elected in Punjab? That of Sardar Partap Singh Kairon in 1962. You will never match his stature, humility, integrity and efficacy.

In 44 years time, if at all you are remembered, it will be as the first CM who truly criminalised Punjab politics with a law and order machinery more akin to the Hitler’s SS or Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge and as a CM who undermined every institution of state.

There is still time to change, but I am equally certain that familial compulsions, more than your age, will not allow you to do so.

Kind regards,

Yours sincerely

JASSI KHANGURA MLA

HALQA QILA RAIPUR