Religious functionaries loyal to the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal padlocked the doors of a gurdwara to prevent former finance minister Manpreet Badal from addressing a congregation.
Barely a day after his ministerial chambers were ransacked in Chandigarh, Mr Badal said he was shocked to find locks on the gurdwara at Kahnuwan (Gurdaspur district) where a religious function had been scheduled months in advance when he was still a minister. Sources told this newspaper that senior Shiromani Akali Dal functionaries, including a Cabinet minister from the Gurdaspur area, had ordered the shrine’s management to close its door to Manpreet Badal since he was no longer “in favour.”
Distressed by the unprecedented step of locking a Sikh shrine only to serve political ends, Mr Manpreet Badal was apparently unfazed but did make his point by addressing the religious congregation on the street outside the gurdwara. Later, he told reporters in Jalandhar city that the incident was “unsavory” and “unnecessary.”
He said, “in a democratic setup, everyone has the right to have his say and people have to right to listen to whom ever they choose.” Curiously careful not to name either his cousin deputy chief minister Sukhbir Badal or his uncle chief minister Parkash Singh Badal, he said “all this has only made my resolve stronger.”
Meanwhile, as the inquiry into the ransacking of his office got underway, senior police officers claimed “his own secretarial staff had merely gone in to get the premises ready for a possible new incumbent.”