Badal conferred Padma Vibhushan; Amit Shah calls off anti-drug stir

The Delhi Assembly election has forced the Bharatiya Janata Party to warm up to its estranged ally, the Shiromani Akali Dal, once again.

With an internal survey of the party showing a tough fight in Delhi, the BJP has taken a number of steps in the past few days to appease the SAD that it had been antagonising from the time of the Haryana elections.

Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal has been conferred the Padma Vibhushan this year under the public affairs category. BJP president Amit Shah called off his January 22 agitation against widespread drug abuse in Punjab that was meant to target the Akalis.

Instead, Union Minister for Road Transport, Shipping and Highways Nitin Gadkari landed in Bathinda that day and made impromptu announcements of infrastructure projects worth over Rs. 18,000 crore. Mr. Gadkari had originally gone to Bathinda to lay the foundation stone for road projects worth Rs. 3,342 crore.

A top SAD source said Mr. Gadkari had an hour-long meeting at Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal’s ancestral home in Badal village, where the SAD leader gave him a list of demands.

Mr. Gadkari then announced the projects, including five rail overbridges, at the public meeting in Bathinda. “Punjab shall be developed on the lines of Canada and America and this shall be done in a time-bound span of two years,” he announced.

Assembly elections in Punjab are scheduled to take place in two years. Mr. Sukhbir Badal said after the meeting: “My demands were immediately welcomed and accepted.”

“The Delhi elections have become so crucial that there is a thaw in the relationship,” an Akali leader confirmed. “The BJP and its leaders had been trying to run down the SAD for the last few months. Now they know that Modi’s winning streak could end in the Delhi elections if the SAD is not with them. There are between 2,500 and 50,000 Sikhs in most Assembly constituencies and the winning margin is only a few thousands,” he added.

The SAD holds considerable sway in the Sikh-dominated seats in Delhi. Its candidates had won three of the four seats in the 2013 Assembly election that it fought in alliance with the BJP.

There are nearly 10 lakh Sikh voters in Delhi and 17 out of 70 constituencies have a sizeable Sikh population, another SAD leader said. “There are 715 Singh Sabhas in Delhi affiliated with the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee that the SAD controls,” he added.

“There is no problem with the Akalis. Amit Shah had to put off his rally due to the announcement of the Delhi elections. We will make fresh plans after the elections,” BJP MP from Punjab Avinash Rai Khanna said.

A day before Mr. Gadkari’s visit, the Punjab and Haryana High Court had stayed the sudden transfer of a senior Enforcement Directorate officer from Jalandhar to Kolkata. ED Assistant Director Niranjan Singh was probing the Rs. 6,000-crore synthetic drugs case in which Punjab Revenue Minister Bikramjit Singh Majithia had been questioned recently. The petition seeking a stay on the transfer had alleged political motives behind the transfer. Reacting to the Padma Vibhushan announcement, Punjab Congress spokesperson Sukhpal Khaira said: “The BJP government has belittled the award by announcing it for [Parkash Singh] Badal. They are trying to look for Sikh votes in Delhi but will get none.”