Want to be a politician without doing politics: Pargat

The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) candidate from Jalandhar Cantt constituency, soft spoken Olympian and former Indian hockey team captain, Pargat Singh wants to become a politician without indulging in any ‘politics’.

Pargat says he wants to function like a member of a hockey team, where, according to him, the entire team sticks together in victory and defeat, and says in politics too he wants to share the ‘power and responsibility’ both with masses if he wins the election. Pargat says he does not want to get involved in the ‘intricacies’ that come with politics.

His opponent from here is Congress party candidate Jagbir Brar, who won 2007 election on SAD ticket, before becoming a founder member of People’s Party Punjab (PPP), but is now a Congress candidate.

Pargat’s reluctance to behave like any other politician is clearly evident during his public meetings. While his supporters target Brar in the meetings by accusing the former Akali leader of breaching their trust for defecting, the former Olympian steers clear of his opponent and instead emphasises on bringing a positive change to the system and society at large.

Pargat stresses that having been part of the system, (he had resigned from the post of Director Sports just before getting the SAD ticket) he understands it well and knows how he can do good to people. “As a sports person I realised that if we channelise the youth’s energy towards the right direction we can do wonders in our society,” he says. “If a politician has the power he has the responsibility too and I would like to share the both with my people if voted to victory,” Pargat adds.

The former hockey captain also states that society needs to rid itself of corruption and people should be made to have confidence in the system. “Society has lost trust in itself and system got deteriorated and we all need to be united to revoke this trust again”, he says.

On the other hand his opponent Brar, who is quite aggressive in his speeches, has been harping on some of the promises which he claims to have fulfilled during his term as an MLA including abolition of octroi in cantonment, laying sewerage in various parts of the constituency and providing drinking water facilities in the villages.

Jalandhar Cantt has more then 1.5 lakhs voters and after delimitation 60 new villages have been included.