At 53, Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal, it seems, is fast becoming a family-oriented man. After admitting that ‘all’ Punjab Government schemes were hovering around individuals, Sukhbir, on his 53rd birthday on Thursday, suggested a “family card” or schemes for the family.
Stressing on the importance of family, Sukhbir, on his official Facebook page, shared his “thoughts” of creating a “family card or scheme wherein all facilities are given to a family”, instead of focusing only on the individuals.
He even hinted at making the SAD-BJP led State Government’s popular and well-accepted schemes like Atta-Dal, Shagun, free cycles to girl students of Government schools, among others family specific, instead of tailored for individuals.
“Pension, Atta-Dal, Shagun, cycle, books, insurance etc should all go to a family. Incentives should be given to those who keep families intact. Higher family pension, higher benefits and combined grants and services,” he suggested.
For the same, he has also invited reactions, suggestions and comments from his “followers”. Interestingly, his post has got 12,887 likes, with 944 people commenting on it, while 118 have shared it with other people after it was posted at 12.10 am on Thursday.
Describing family as the “basic unit of a civilised society”, Sukhbir regretted that in today’s world, the family system is breaking apart. “So many parents and grandparents have nowhere to live, nobody to talk to and nobody to look after them. Aren’t we all responsible for thisIJ” he questioned in his post.
He also held the Government responsible for this. Reason: “All our schemes are individual oriented. Individual pension, individual grants, individual shagun, individual health card and so on,” he said.
Maintaining that Punjab was always known for its strong family structure, he urged the people to focus on keeping families together.
Sukhbir’s “thoughts” has come at a time when the leaders of the Opposition parties, especially the Congress, has all along been accusing the Badal family for using every available opportunity to use Government power to promote its business interests be it cable, sand, liquor, transport, or hotels, and also promoting only the family members.
Out of 55 departments and ministries in Punjab government, 28 were allotted to the Badals - Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and Sukhbir - and their immediate relatives including Bikram Singh Majithia - Sukhbir’s brother-in-law, and Adaish Partap Singh Kairon - Badal’s son-in-law. Badal was also accused of promoting her daughter-in-law Harsimrat Badal for cabinet berth at the Centre while ignoring other senior Akali leaders.
Sukhbir, post lok Sabha election, has become quite active on the Facebook, seeking people’s suggestions, making announcements, among other things.
Almost two years after forming Government in the State for the second consecutive term, the SAD-BJP could not perform well during 2014 lok Sabha elections. Despite strong Modi-tsunami and anti-Congress wave, the party could bag just six seats out of total 13.
What is more, SAD’s vote share has come down from 34.73 per cent in 2012 Assembly polls to 26.3 per cent, while that of the BJP, it has increased from 7.18 per cent in 2012 to 8.7 in 2014 polls.
Sukhbir’s pro-active approach not only in the Government functioning but also in the party activities with a main focus on forming a connection with the common man is being seen as a move towards fortifying party’s base, coupled with recovering its damaged imaged following Moga bus molestation incident, SAD leaders;’ involvement in drug case, among other things.