Punjab’s Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal has been in the eye of the storm ever since his cousin Manpreet openly aired his differences with him over the purported offer by the Central Government to the conditional waiver of part of the state’s burgeoning debt. The public spat in the Badal clan, with Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal seemingly torn between his son Sukhbir and nephew Manpreet, threatened to divide the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal for the first time since it came to power in 2007.

Sukhbir had remained silent on the affair so far preferring to rally the party behind him in a massive show of strength and also get the government’s top bureaucrats to discredit Manpreet’s assertions over the waiver. Now for the first time since the controversy erupted, Sukhbir, in an interview to Editor-in-Chief Raj Chengappa, spoke at length on the issue, deftly pinning Manpreet down over the lack of a formal offer from the Centre over the waiver. Though Sukhbir maintained that he had no differences or rift with his cousin and treated him “as a brother”, he presented himself as the real driver of economic change in the state.

Sukhbir was countering the carefully crafted image that Manpreet had projected of being the knight in shining armour out to extricate Punjab from the bog of debt, while his cousin was the cussed heir-apparent wanting to put him down. Initially taken by surprise, Sukhbir, who is also president of the SAD, has moved swiftly to rally the party and key ministers behind him.

On Friday, Sukhbir got his father to change his conciliatory statement from his sick bed to warn Manpreet of disciplinary action. The threat was firmed up when Sukhbir appointed a five-member disciplinary action committee packed with Manpreet baiters.

Sukhbir then moved to dent the credibility of Manpreet’s statements over the loan waiver. He got Chief Secretary S.C. Aggarwal to call a press conference to officially deny that the Centre had made a formal offer to write off the debt. On Saturday, Sukhbir moved to isolate Manpreet in the party. In a major show of strength, all 26 district presidents reiterated their “firm commitment and faith in the leadership” of Parkash Singh Badal and Sukhbir.

Having considerably bolstered his position, a confident-looking Sukhbir made it clear in the interview with The Tribune “that nobody, including me, is against the debt waiver.” He then went on to say, “But what we want to know, as the Chief Minister and the Chief Secretary clarified, is what is the offer? We do not have an official offer stating whether it is Rs 35,000 crore or Rs 3,000 crore. And whether there are any conditions or not. Once we know what the amount is and what are the pre-conditions, only then we can respond. We cannot respond on hearsay. It is futile to debate it till then. We cannot think of ifs and buts. Right now it is too premature. We want to be clear first what the offer is in black and white.”

Sukhbir pointed out that it was not just Manpreet who had been talking about the debt waiver but the Chief Minister too, in his various interactions with the Prime Minister, Union Finance Minister and Planning Commission, had regularly raised the issue with them. Even his wife Harsimrat Kaur, who is an MP, had raised it in Parliament. “It is not that we are asking for a favour or begging for it. It is a matter of the state’s right,” Sukhbir asserted.

He pointed out that apart from the debts that had mounted fighting militancy in the state, Punjab was unable to attract investors because of the discriminatory incentive policies given by the Centre to neighbouring states. Also that Punjab, despite contributing substantially to the Central grain pool, was not adequately compensated.

Sukhbir diplomatically avoided any talk of a rift with Manpreet, saying: “He is my brother. I have nothing against him. We meet regularly and there are no differences. Personally, I have nothing against him.” He denied that his father had favoured him in the succession race. “My father has always been very fair. He is not the type of person who will project his son. He told me categorically that I have to earn my place and that everyone irrespective of their relationship with him is equal before him. Whether it is his son, nephew or partyworker, he treats everyone equally. I have struggled and worked on my own. No political party, especially ours, is the private property of anybody. Everything goes on merit. It will be the party which will decide who will succeed or not succeed.”

Sukhbir refused to comment on the question of taking disciplinary action against Manpreet but averred that “there was no crisis in the party over the issue. The party is too big and I have full faith in the party.” Over the issue of cutting subsidies for power and agriculture, Sukhbir stated that it “was for the party to consider and decide.” He pointed out that it was not only Punjab that subsidised these sectors, even the Centre had waived loans worth Rs 70,000 crore for farmers. Apart from that European countries and the US heavily subsidised agriculture.

In the interview, the Deputy Chief Minister went into details of his government’s efforts in raising revenue for the state, including doubling the collections from Value Added Tax and Excise.

He said the government had undertaken major infrastructure projects to vastly improve the power position of the state apart from major road and airport projects that would considerably enhance connectivity within the state and also the rest of the country. Sukhbir asserted: “We are putting the economy back on a roll. We would soon be selling surplus power to other states which will reduce our debt burden. We have made the state’s future secure.”