Sardar Badal's Lahore college friend recalls calling him by name of 'Firozepurias'
PTC Web Story: Sardar Parkash Singh Badal, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) patron and the tallest leader of Punjab since Independence, was cremated with full state honour on Thursday. The eyes of all those present during the last rites were numb.
Recalling his association with the great leader, Washington-based Shamsher Singh, who would study with the late SAD patriarch, said Sardar Badal was very tall and handsome young man. he belonged to a wealthy zamindar family.
Shamsher Singh said though they were not fast friends, he knew him very well and was saddened at the loss of his college friend.
As per information in a news agency, Sardar Parkash Singh Badal and Shamsher Singh studied together at Sikh National College, Lahore, for two years — 1943 to 1945.
Shamsher Singh was reported as saying that Sardar Badal was one of the many students from Punjab's Malwa region who studied at Sikh National College, Lahore. He added that Parkash Singh Badal was one of the first Indians to land in Washington DC.
He recalled calling Sardar Badal by the name of 'Firozepurias'. He said of 560 students at the college, 500 used to stay in three college hostels. Sardar Badal and his friends from the Malwa region stayed together and hence they were popularly known as Firozepurias, he added.
He recalled how the late Sardar Parkash Singh Badal and other students from the Malwa region would get non-stop supplies of desi ghee from their villages.
Shamsher Singh said Parkash Singh Badal was very average in his studies, but he managed to clear his exams thanks to tuitionhe would receive from Prof Arjun Singh. He would teach us chemistry at the college.
Later, Parkash Singh Badal joined Lahore's Forman Christian College in 1945.
Parkash Singh Badal was introduced into politics in the early 1950s by Sikh stalwart Giani Kartar Singh. He was the Akali Dal president at the time of Partition and later Punjab's revenue minister.
"Giani Kartar was known to me. He mentored Sardar Badal. When Sant Fateh Singh replaced Master Tara Singh as the Akali stalwart, he promoted Parkash Singh Badal, " Shamsher was reported as saying by the news agency.
Shamsher Singh also recalled his last meeting with Sardar Badal in Chandigarh in 1999 when he released his book, 'Unblossomed Bud', about Lahore's National Sikh College.
- With inputs from agencies
