For selfish reasons, Dhindsa ruining son’s career: Sukhbir

Senior leader Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa claims that you have ‘unfairly taken over the reins of the party’. What is your reaction?

I really don’t understand what has gone wrong with him. He could win only one election in his entire political career. He was always given several important posts by our party, including chairman of the electricity board. He also got a Rajya Sabha seat without any election. His son was the Finance Minister during our previous government in the state. He also got the Mohali ticket for his son-in-law during the last elections. We knew very well that he had no chance of winning, but still the party obliged.

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Just for the record, there are a few more names associated with his family who were given the choicest jobs. How can I work without public support? Our party is supreme and I know very well that we Badals do not have permanent party posts.

He also contends that the party needs new leadership, fresh blood.

Children of politicians entering politics has been a universal phenomenon. This is true for parties even in our country. Even in the Akali Dal, 15-odd leaders out of the total 94 who contested the last Vidhan Sabha elections had connections with political families. Rest all have worked their way up the party ladder from the ground. Even in other important organisations, including police, top officers are recruited straight while those recruited at the bottom are also free to work their way up. Where was the call for fresh blood from him when he spent decades in our party?

What could then be the reason behind Dhindsa’s extreme displeasure?

I don’t know. If you believe me, even his son Parminder Singh Dhindsa does not know. I have great respect for the Dhindsas, both father and son. The junior Dhindsa is more close to me because our party entrusted him with the most important task of handling the finance ministry in both our terms before the current government. We respected what he had to say in our party functioning and he knew that. He changed suddenly. I don’t know what is going on in his mind.

Dhindsa feels you have strayed from ideals of standing for public welfare and rights because of the coterie associated in money-making ventures of sand mining, liquor and transport.

Did he name anyone? He cannot. Can he deny the fact that he has been part of the same group that worked together to get the party to reach out to the masses over the years, including the never-seen-before record of two successive election victories in the state? Just by way of mentioning, my close coterie included his son Parminder, whom I relied on for managing the finances of the entire state.

Dhindsa has announced that he will soon be announcing a new front. This will include leaders from the SAD, he says.

The leaders seen in Dhindsa’s company are spent forces. They have tried their hand at winning elections and have lost credibility in the eyes of the voters. Isn’t it strange that Dhindsa is hobnobbing with leaders whom he would run down publically from the podium of our party? Just imagine, our senior colleague is now hugging people he would not even exchange pleasantries with earlier.

Did Parminder talk to you before announcing his resignation from the party post?

There wasn’t any talk, but, I can clearly see that he is under extreme pressure. Imagine, for his selfish reasons, a father is ruining the career of his son at a crucial juncture when he had risen to the top echelons of our party with his sincere work. He had a very big future in our party.

Dhindsa has alleged that the SGPC was also under undue pressure from the SAD.

Now this is very strange! Our senior, after having spent more than 50 years in the party in different capacities, now has a sudden, overnight revelation. The SGPC is an independent body and elections are held under the watch of the gurdwara poll panel.

Has the Dhindsa rebellion made a dent in SAD’s ‘fight’ against what it claims are the failures of the Congress government?

Not an inch. Capt Amarinder Singh is heading an incompetent government and we are among the masses talking to them. We have state-of-the-art roads and the international terminal at Mohali as our accomplishments, just to name a couple of projects, but what has the Congress got to show? I am shocked at the way the government is crying about empty coffers. Opportunities have to be created.