Manpreet Badal, the longest-serving Finance Minister of Punjab, speaks to The Hindu’s Sobhana K. Nair between public meetings at his constituency Bhatinda, on the Congress’s electoral prospects in the upcoming State Assembly elections; the binary between the Captain Amarinder Singh-led Congress government and the three-month-long government led by Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi; and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) as the opponent.
We are just a few days away from polling. In your assessment, where does the Congress stand?
That, only an astrologer can tell. I have fought seven elections out of which I won five and lost two. The ones which I won, I didn’t know I was winning, and the ones that I lost, I didn’t know that I was losing. So, I am a poor judge of polls. I am not sure where we stand. But my own feeling is that the people of Punjab trust the Congress party. Also, with Charanjit Singh Channi’s elevation as Chief Minister, there is a new spirit in the party. People adore his simplicity. In the last five years, the Congress has been able to deliver in terms of basic infrastructure in both villages and the cities. This time, there is a multi-cornered contest. The contest is between pro-Congress and anti-Congress votes. The anti-Congress vote can be divided in two or three parties, the more the merrier. But I feel we stand a fair chance.
Why is the Congress trying so hard to differentiate between badi sarkar (the Captain Amarinder Singh-led government) and choti sarkar (led by present Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi)?
Both are Congress governments and I have served as Finance Minister under both the Chief Ministers. The Congress worker felt distanced from the government because of Captain saheb’s style of functioning and his inaccessibility. He was running the government through remote control.
Was it a wise move to bring in Mr. Channi as the Chief Minister just three months ahead of the polls? Do you think the Congress should have taken this step earlier?
I wish the leadership could have done this earlier. Captain saheb is a maharaja. He was not interested in the minute details of politics. Mr. Channi is astute in politics, he has come through the ranks. Having worked at all levels of governance, he looks at politics from a different prism. I wish he had come about two years earlier. I believe that the Congress party was seized of the workers’ disenchantment with Captain saheb’s government, but put off the decision due to the pandemic. But if Mr. Channi had become Chief Minister two years sooner, we would have given better results.
Isn’t the unseemly fight between the party’s State president Navjot Singh Siddhu and Mr. Channi, which went on for too long, going to cost the Congress this elections?
What happened was sad. But now the party has taken a decision and that is final. And hopefully, the results will be good.
There seems to be a loud call for change from the 70 years of rule alternating between the Congress and the Akalis. There is a significant narrative for ‘navi sarkar’ or new government. Your comments.
This is precisely the pitch that the AAP made even the last time, during the 2017 Assembly elections. After each election, a ‘navi sarkar’ is formed. I am not sure that the voter will buy it. The Congress has a legacy worth boasting about. You can find imprints of the Congress party across Punjab, from the Bhakhra dam to Chandigarh city to PGI (Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research) Chandigarh, and so on. There was a time in Punjab when the government did not have money to buy even a stapler pin. Our people used to pick out thorns from keekar trees. The Congress has pulled out the country from that thorn age and brought it to atomic age. India has had wars in 1948, 1962, 1965 and 1971. Since 1971, India has had no major war. Why? Because India got atomic bomb. This came about only because of the efforts of Congress governments at the Centre. What does the AAP have to offer? The AAP candidate in Bhatinda against me is someone who was the municipal councillor from the Congress party for the last 40 years. The candidate in Bhatinda Rural was with the Shiromani Akali Dal. What navi sarkar are they talking about? It is the same set of leaders with just a change in brand name.
A constant refrain I heard in and around Bhatinda is that you have pleaded multiple times as Finance Minister that the State treasury is empty. What do you have to say?
People do not understand public finances. In Punjab, we have doubled our tax revenues in five years. This is a huge achievement. When we took over, out of 365 days, [on] 180 days, the State treasury was in overdraft. And for 30-40 days, we were sometimes in double overdraft. It took us two-years to stablise the State finances. In the last three-years, we have never been in overdraft. In fact, we have created a sinking fund with the Reserve Bank of India, which means that in case the State has money to spare, we keep depositing it with the Reserve Bank of India. Today, this fund totals close to ₹2,500 crore. I was being financially prudent but that didn’t mean we didn’t spend on development. We are trying to build Punjab for the future generations.
