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Chandigarh, April 25
Parkash Singh Badal was not the one to give up easily, on life or on politics. Only last year, the Shiromani Akal Dal fielded the patriarch again from home turf Lambi in Punjab’s Muktsar district for the assembly elections.
He lost but entered the record books for being the oldest person to fight an election in the county. This was his 13th electoral battle in a long political career that began when he became the sarpanch of Badal village in Bathinda district.
The five-time former Punjab chief minister died at a private hospital in Mohali near Chandigarh on Tuesday, nine days after he was admitted there with breathing problems. He was 95.
The grand old man of Punjab politics first became chief minister in 1970, heading a coalition government that did not complete its term. He was also the CM in 1977-80, 1997-2002, 2007-12 and 2012-2017.
In the last stage of his career, Badal handed over the reins of the SAD to son Sukhbir Singh Badal, who also became the deputy chief minister under him.
Born on December 8, 1927 in Abul Khurana near Malout, Badal graduated from the Forman Christian College in Lahore. His first political posts were the sarpanch of Badal village and the chairman of the block samiti.
He entered the state assembly from Malout in 1957 as the Congress nominee. In 1969, he won the Gidderbaha assembly seat on the SAD ticket.
When Gurnam Singh, the then chief minister, defected to the Congress, the SAD regrouped. It picked Badal as its leader on March 27, 1970. The SAD formed the government in the state with the support of the Jana Sangh.
He then became then the youngest chief minister in the country, even if the coalition government lasted just a little more than a year.
In 1972, he became the leader of the Opposition in the House, but went on to become the CM again later.
Badal’s governments focused on farmers. One key decision was introducing free electricity for agriculture.
The Akali Dal leader bitterly opposed the idea of the Sutlej Yamuna Link (SYL) canal, meant to share river water with neighbouring Haryana. In 1982, he was arrested for leading an agitation over the project, which is yet to become a reality due to Punjab’s continuing opposition.
Under his leadership, the state assembly passed the controversial Punjab Sutlej Yamuna Link Canal (Transfer of Proprietary Rights) Bill, 2016. This was meant to reverse the progress till then on the project.
His party broke off ties with the Bharatiya Janata Party over the farmers’ agitation against the Centre new agri laws in 2020. He also returned the Padma Vibhushan award he received in 2015.
Badal’s wife Surinder Kaur Badal died of cancer in 2011. They had two children – Sukhbir Singh Badal, the heir to his political legacy, and Parneet Kaur, who is married to former minister Adesh Pratap Singh Kairon.
SAD chief Sukhbir Badal’s wife is Bathinda MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal.
See Senate Majority Leader Schumer speak about deal
Senate Majority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) spoke after the Senate passed the debt ceiling deal that narrowly averted a default. The bill will now go to President Biden’s desk to sign.
OTTAWA –
Meta is preparing to block news for some Canadians on Facebook and Instagram in a temporary test that is expected to last the majority of the month.
The company says it wants to work out the kinks before permanently blocking news on its platforms when the Liberal government’s online news act becomes law.
The bill, which is being studied in the Senate, will require tech giants to pay publishers for linking to or otherwise repurposing their content online.
The tech giant says the test will affect up to five per cent of its 24 million Canadian users.
The company says the randomly selected users won’t be able to see some content including news links as well as reels, which are short-form videos, and stories, which are photos and videos that disappear after 24 hours.
Meta says it is randomly choosing media organizations that will be notified that some users won’t be able to see or share their news content throughout the test.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 1, 2023.
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Meta funds a limited number of fellowships that support emerging journalists at The Canadian Press.
As the Conservative leader showed this week, what sells online is salacious fiction delivered with a side of snark. The new laws of digital politics are a disgrace, but they’re effective.
According to the old laws of politics, when an opponent is beating himself, you step out of the way and watch him go to town. Why, then, does Pierre Poilievre watch Justin Trudeau repeatedly self-harm, then choose to dump his own mess on the floor?
Exhibit A: In the House of Commons this week, Poilievre was asking Trudeau about the cost of living — the most-pressing issue for Canadians — when he made his oft-repeated jibe about Trudeau being a “drama teacher.” Trudeau jabbed back, saying he was a teacher before becoming a politician but couldn’t remember what Poilievre did before politics (answer: nothing). Then he enumerated the actions his government is taking to alleviate costs.
So far, so old-laws. Trudeau got dinged and zinged back. House banter at its usual bog standard. But then Poilievre, smart-aleck grin firmly affixed, shot back that Trudeau was indeed a teacher but then “left right in the middle of the semester and I’m having trouble remembering why.”
Welcome to the new, digital laws of politics, which says that boring questions about substantive issues don’t travel or draw engagement online. What sells online is salacious rumour delivered with a side of snark, or full-frontal attack delivered full-force. In the online world, traffic trumps truth.
At first, the Tory benches were slow to catch their leader’s reference. You can bet the ordinary Canadian was, too. But the “semester” comment wasn’t meant for the ordinary Canadian. It was meant for the online fringe, an entirely different beast. And they loved it. Twitter lit up with appreciative “semester” comments from right-wing outlets. The Tory benches eventually came to life too as they realized what their leader had done. Then their smart-aleck grins appeared and their applause began. All except Michael Chong, Mr. “Old Laws,” who remained frozen in shame.
For the uninitiated, Poilievre’s semester comment was a call-back to the 2019 election, when a website called the Buffalo Chronicle (spoiler alert: it isn’t a recognized media outlet in Buffalo, or anywhere) published a “report” citing unnamed “sources” claiming Trudeau had left his school in British Columbia because of some supposed sex scandal. The website claimed the Globe and Mail had spiked a story about it, and later claimed that Facebook had been pressured into censoring the Chronicle.
Except none of this was true. Not that it stopped the story from gaining traction; it was one hell of a salacious rumour. But it wasn’t factual, something outlets as far away as Britain’s BBC took pains to point out. Again, how “old laws.” In our new digital hell, even a civic duty such as fact-checking does little but amplify (and, in most cases, reinforce) the original claim. It’s a win for Team Tory.
Exhibit A on that front: Here I am, a columnist in a mainstream title, writing about the mechanics of Poilievre’s semester jibe and re-hashing a disproven salacious claim. I am obeying the old laws and fuelling the new. That I’m doing it with a purpose doesn’t matter. The internet won’t draw that distinction.
What makes this such a shame is that Poilievre has all of the legitimate material in the world with which to batter Trudeau — but chooses instead to traffic in nonsensical teacher tattle.
Take Chinese interference. The reason Michael Chong isn’t smiling much these days is that his family has — and is — being targeted by agents of the Chinese state. Former Tory leader Erin O’Toole rose in the House this week to give a brilliant speech about his experience with Chinese interference. O’Toole’s speech was dignified, impassioned, substantive and powered by CSIS briefings. It was everything you’d want from a parliamentarian; it soared as high as Poilievre went low. And yet, crickets.
Sadly, until we reformat the online information economy, we will continue to be “semestered” by politicians who play to the algorithm instead of the more analog rhythms of the offline world. The new laws of digital politics are a disgrace, but they’re a very effective disgrace.
Andrew MacDougall is a London-based communications consultant and ex-director of communications to former prime minister Stephen Harper.
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