Panjab Politics Thread

[Premi5]

Badal going strong

https://www.hindustantimes.com/elections/punjab-assembly-election/not-just-parkash-singh-badal-punjab-polls-will-also-have-this-80-year-old-candidate-101643868505833.html

Not just Parkash Singh Badal, Punjab polls will also have this 80-year-old candidate

Punjab assembly election 2022: Om Parkash Jakhu, a cobbler, will fight his 20th election, contesting from Hoshiarpur for the ‘Bharatrashtra Democratic Party.'

 

Former Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal. (HT Photo)

Published on Feb 03, 2022 11:55 AM IST

 

Byhindustantimes.com, New Delhi

At 94, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) patriarch and former Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal will contest the single-phase Punjab assembly elections, due to be held on February 20. This will make Badal India's oldest person to contest an election.

 

[proactive]

6 hours ago, Premi5 said:

Badal going strong

https://www.hindustantimes.com/elections/punjab-assembly-election/not-just-parkash-singh-badal-punjab-polls-will-also-have-this-80-year-old-candidate-101643868505833.html

Not just Parkash Singh Badal, Punjab polls will also have this 80-year-old candidate

Punjab assembly election 2022: Om Parkash Jakhu, a cobbler, will fight his 20th election, contesting from Hoshiarpur for the ‘Bharatrashtra Democratic Party.'

 

Former Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal. (HT Photo)

Published on Feb 03, 2022 11:55 AM IST

 

Byhindustantimes.com, New Delhi

At 94, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) patriarch and former Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal will contest the single-phase Punjab assembly elections, due to be held on February 20. This will make Badal India's oldest person to contest an election.

 

Politicians in India never retire gracefully, they only leave in a box. 

[5aaban]

 

Vote for party that rules at Centre: Pak Sikh MLA Arora advises Punjab voters

One of two Sikh MLAs in Pakistan’s Punjab assembly, Ramesh Singh Arora, has asked the electorate of Indian Punjab to give a decisive mandate in favour of the party that rules at the Centre

Updated on Feb 08, 2022 01:34 AM IST

There is a piece of advice to the Punjab voters from an elected Sikh representative on the other side of the border. One of two Sikh MLAs in Pakistan’s Punjab assembly, Ramesh Singh Arora, has asked the electorate to give a decisive mandate in favour of the party that rules at the Centre. “A state government having a bonding with the Centre brings prosperity,” he told HT in a telephonic conversation.

 

Arora, who represents Narowal, one of the nine constituencies reserved for the minority candidates, was upbeat over opening of the Kartarpur corridor with the efforts of both Indian and Pakistan governments. He stressed for reopening of direct trade routes between the two countries.

“East Punjab is key for India and Pakistan relations, so there needs to be a stable government,” he said. In case the geo-economy opens up, Punjab on both sides will be benefitted, said Arora, who was in Indian Punjab in 2014 to attend the NRI Sammelan.

He is the general secretary of the minorities’ wing of Nawaz Sharif-led Pakistan Muslim League and also runs an NGO. Pakistan Punjab’s assembly has 372 MLAs, out of which nine are from the minority communities.

“Indian Punjab is an agrarian state that supplies food grain to the entire country and if borders open up for trade, both sides will be benefitted,” he said, citing the example of free trade in European countries.

https://www.hindustantimes.com/elections/punjab-assembly-election/vote-for-party-that-rules-at-centre-pak-sikh-mla-arora-advises-punjab-voters-101644264242275.html

 

[5aaban]

https://www.aninews.in/news/national/politics/as-long-as-im-alive-no-one-can-cast-an-evil-eye-on-christianity-punjab-cong-chief-sidhu20220211023644/

As long as I'm alive, no one can cast an evil eye on Christianity: Punjab Cong chief Sidhu

As long as I'm alive, no one can cast an evil eye on Christianity: Punjab Cong chief Sidhu

Punjab Congress President Navjot Singh Sidhu on Thursday said that no one can cast an evil eye on Christianity as long as he is alive. 

Addressing people in Amritsar East, Sidhu said "I went to Church, Masjid and Gurdwara and recently visited Vaishno Devi because of one universal law. As long as I'm alive, I assure you that no one can cast can evil eye on Christianity". 

Sidhu's statement comes just days ahead of Assembly polls in the state....
 

 

[5aaban]

https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/two-transgenders-in-fray-for-punjab-poll/article38409965.ece

Two transgenders in fray for Punjab poll

 

In Punjab’s electoral fray there are two transgenders, 93 women and 1,209 male candidates for the 117 Assembly constituencies. The Assembly election is slated for February 20.

Punjab Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) S. Karuna Raju on Thursday said that among all the candidates, nine candidates are 25 years old and six are above 80. A 94-year-old candidate contesting from Lambi in Muktsar Sahib is the oldest one. Former Punjab Chief Minister and Shiromani Akali Dal patron Parkash Singh Badal is in the fray from Lambi seat.

The CEO said that there are a total of 21,499,804 registered voters in the State, of which 11,298,081 are male, 10,200,996 female, 727 third gender, 1,58,341 PWD voters, 1,09,624 service voters, 1,608 NRI voters and 509,205 voters are above the age of 80.

Mr. Raju said that there are 24,740 polling stations in 14,684 polling locations across the State, of which 2013 are identified as critical. He added that all polling booths will be covered under webcasting on the polling day. He said that a minimum half section of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) and remaining force from Punjab Police will be deployed at critical polling locations as per norms prescribed by the Election Commission of India (ECI).

Mr. Raju said that to ensure free, fair, transparent and peaceful elections, as many as 972 flying squad teams (FSTs), 857 static surveillance teams (SSTs), 479 video surveillance teams (VSTs), 159 video viewing team (VVTs) and 119 accounting teams have been deployed across the State and are working round the clock.

[proactive]

I hope at least Simranjeet Singh Mann wins from his seat. Social media has been active and people are waking up to how he has been pretty much been ignored by the Sikh electors even though he has given so much to the Panth. 

 

[proudkaur21]

12 hours ago, proactive said:

I hope at least Simranjeet Singh Mann wins from his seat. Social media has been active and people are waking up to how he has been pretty much been ignored by the Sikh electors even though he has given so much to the Panth. 

 

I really hope he wins.

[proudkaur21]

Punjab is the only land that still has some sikh influence and where we can form our nation but these dirty Christians even after having half of the world dont want sikhs to have a safe place. This girl is a Christian but pretends to be a Sikh sometimes. She was posting jesus quotes before this farmer protest started. In our land of punjab, so many sikhs have become shaheed. Why do these people have so much problems with us sikhs? Why cant we have our land that we died for to ourselves? If ever punjab becomes free one day I hope sikhs dont make the mistake of showing leniency to all these religions. They all hate us.

[proactive]

All those idio.ts who were calling Deep Sidhu as a BJP agent have been shown to the liars they are. Deep Sidhu has been going from village to village to get people to vote for Sardar Mann and other candidates of his party. I hope Sardar Mann wins and Deep Sidhu is able to bring new life to Akali Dal (Amritsar).

 

I was in Punjab in 1989 when Sardar Mann won from Tarn Taran by a record margin of 480,000. 

Simaranjit Singh Mann 527,707     88.1% Shiromani Akali Dal (SIMRANJIT SINGH MANN)

Ajit Singh Mann   47,290   7.9%    Indian National Congress

 

Quote

N PUNJAB, VOTE IS REFERENDUM ON HISTORY

 

 

 

By Steve Coll

November 20, 1989

BASERKAY, INDIA -- Just before sunrise one recent morning, policemen reportedly burst into Sikh farmer Meja Singh Manavan's house, searched for militants, and took away his two sons for questioning. When the boys came home a day later, Manavan said, they said they had been beaten and tortured during a 12-hour interrogation. On the same night that Manavan's sons were reportedly taken in, Hindu shopkeepers in a nearby village traded machine-gun fire with Sikh youths. One of the shopkeepers, who asked not to be identified, said the youths were separatist Sikh militants who regularly extort money from Hindu businessmen. The Hindus responded with weapons because they believed the police were too corrupt to be trusted, he said. Manavan and the shopkeeper are on opposite sides of a civil war that has claimed about 2,000 lives in India's Punjab state this year. Both are trying to decide who to vote for when India goes to the polls Wednesday for the first national elections in five years. Across India, the election has been dominated by issues such as inflation, strife between Hindus and Moslems, and charges of corruption in the administration of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. But in Punjab, the vote is a referendum on history -- the legacy of former prime minister Indira Gandhi's assassination by Sikh bodyguards five years ago, an event that sparked bloody clashes between Hindus and Sikhs, and disrupted this once prosperous and stable farming region. The choice voters face is stark. The leading candidate for parliament in this district near India's border with Pakistan is Simranjit Singh Mann, presently in prison on charges that he conspired to assassinate Indira Gandhi. According to residents, campaign workers and journalists, Mann appears likely to win the vote despite his incarceration. His supporters hope a victory would lead to his release from jail and thrust him to preeminence in the fractious world of Sikh politics. "This is the time and this is the way to convey our heartfelt grievances as Sikhs," said Joginder Singh Mann, the candidate's father, who has helped finance and organize his jailed son's campaign. Hindus and some Sikh opponents of Mann say his expected victory will be the result of voter intimidation by Sikh militants. Mann's principal opponent, Ajit Singh Mann, the nominee of Rajiv Gandhi's Congress Party, is said to be so frightened of militants that he rarely leaves his office in nearby Tarn Taran, where policemen holding rifles sit outside the door. The two candidates are not related; all male Sikhs take the name Singh. "This election is not free. It is influenced by terrorism," said Ujager Singh, a Congress campaign worker in Tarn Taran. "The terrorists come to the villages and tell the village chief to keep the Congress out. If they vote Congress, they will be threatened." Congress workers report that militants have posted threatening signs in some villages. Simranjit Mann's supporters deny they have resorted to intimidation during the campaign. "It is the people who have asked the Congress candidate not to come to the villages. Not the militants, but the villagers, and not out of coercion, but because this is what they feel," said Sukhinder Singh, Simranjit Mann's campaign manager. Simranjit Mann's camp includes both hard-line separatists who seek an independent Sikh homeland, referred to as Khalistan, and others who believe such a Sikh state is undesirable. The candidate's lawyer, B.L. Wadhera, said if his client is released from prison and allowed to take a seat in parliament, "he would attempt to find a solution to the Punjab problem within the constitution of India, which means that Khalistan is out. . . . He is the only Sikh leader who can convince the {militants} that it is foolhardy to keep talking of Khalistan and getting yourself killed." Simranjit Mann's campaign has gathered steam in part because the assassination conspiracy charges against him are widely perceived as flimsy. A former prominent federal police official, Simranjit Mann resigned his commission after Indira Gandhi in 1984 ordered army troops to attack the Golden Temple of Amritsar, the Sikhs' holiest shrine, in an attempt to flush out Sikh radicals -- who had barricaded themselves inside with weapons and who were firing at people outside. The army attack, which left as many as 1,000 people dead, greatly offended the Sikh community. Months later, the prime minister's bodyguards killed her in revenge. Her son, Rajiv, succeeded her as prime minister. Simranjit Mann made public statements harshly criticizing Indira Gandhi and her government, but little evidence has been presented implicating him directly in a plot to assassinate her. Nonetheless, he has been in jail awaiting trial for five years. Simranjit Mann is allied with another candidate for parliament, Bimal Kaur Khalsa, the widow of Indira Gandhi's assassin, Beant Singh. Khalsa, too, appears likely to win a seat in the next parliament. Both Sikhs and Hindus said the average voter has grown demoralized by the continual killings in Punjab, police corruption, extortion by militant youths and pervasive lawlessness. While there is widespread disenchantment with Rajiv Gandhi's administration, some voters doubt that much here will change even if he is defeated.

 

[proudkaur21]

8 minutes ago, proactive said:

All those idio.ts who were calling Deep Sidhu as a BJP agent have been shown to the liars they are. Deep Sidhu has been going from village to village to get people to vote for Sardar Mann and other candidates of his party. I hope Sardar Mann wins and Deep Sidhu is able to bring new life to Akali Dal (Amritsar).

 

I was in Punjab in 1989 when Sardar Mann won from Tarn Taran by a record margin of 480,000. 

Simaranjit Singh Mann 527,707     88.1% Shiromani Akali Dal (SIMRANJIT SINGH MANN)

Ajit Singh Mann   47,290   7.9%    Indian National Congress

 

 

Honestly we have been backstabbed so many times its hard to trust anyone.