Parkash Singh Badal

Parkash Singh Badal (born December 8, 1927, near Faridkot, India—died April 25, 2023, Mohali) was an Indian politician and government official who rose to become president (1996–2008) of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), a Sikh-focused regional political party in Punjab state, northwestern India. He also served five terms as the chief minister (head of government) of Punjab (1970–71, 1977–80, 1997–2002, 2007–12, and 2012–17).

Badal was born into a family of landowning farmers in what is now western Punjab state and earned a B.A. degree from Forman Christian College in Lahore (now in Pakistan). His first foray into politics was in 1947 when he was elected the leader in his village. In 1957 he was elected to the Punjab legislative assembly as a member of the Indian National Congress (Congress Party). He left the party a few years later over differences with the chief minister of Punjab and joined the SAD.

Badal left office after he was defeated in the 1967 state assembly elections, but he returned after winning in 1969 and joined the state’s SAD-led government. A year later he was named the chief minister. His term lasted for only a year, however, as the party was beset by infighting and the government was dissolved by and transferred to the central authorities in New Delhi.

Badal was reelected to the Punjab legislative assembly repeatedly from 1969 until 2012—the only exception being in 1992, when the SAD boycotted state elections—although there were periods during those years when he was out of office because the state was under the rule of New Delhi. In addition, Badal was imprisoned at various times, including a stretch during the 1975–77 emergency that had been decreed by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. In early 1977 he was elected to the Lok Sabha (lower chamber of the parliament) and was tapped to serve in the administration of Prime Minister Morarji Desai. Badal’s tenure in national office was brief, however, as the SAD insisted that he return to Punjab state politics. Shortly thereafter he began his second term as chief minister.

More jail time followed in the 1980s during the period of Sikh agitation for greater autonomy. Badal was arrested in conjunction with protests against a plan to divert river water from Punjab to neighbouring Haryana state. Another time he tore pages of the constitution of India during a protest event, though he later made an apology for having done that. He won back his seat in the 1985 state assembly elections, which were dominated by the SAD, but one of his fellow party members, Surjit Singh Barnala, was named chief minister.

Badal maintained a relatively low public profile politically during another period of central-government rule (1987–92) and after the SAD boycott of the 1992 state assembly elections. He remained one of the top officials of the party, however, and in 1996 he was elected party president. The following year the SAD secured a large majority of seats in state assembly elections, and Badal was chosen for the third time to be chief minister. He served out his full five-year term for the first time, but after the party lost to the Congress Party in the 2002 assembly elections, he left office.

For the 2007 state elections, the SAD allied itself with the Bharatiya Janata Party and won a comfortable majority of assembly seats; Badal was again named chief minister and once more served his full term. The two parties remained allied for the 2012 assembly polls and again secured a majority. Badal, retaining his post, became the first person to serve two consecutive terms as chief minister in Punjab. He also became the country’s oldest chief minister—this after having been the youngest in that post when in 1970 he took office for the first time. In 2008, however, he had stepped down from the party presidency and had been succeeded by his son, Sukhbir Singh Badal. During the 2012 campaign, the senior Badal announced that it would be his final election.

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Throughout his long political career, Badal was seen as a moderate, even-tempered, and liberal leader, and both his public life and his private life had been generally noncontroversial. In 2003, however, corruption charges were filed against him and his family. They were finally acquitted of the charges in 2010.