Harsimrat Kaur Badal, who was sworn in as cabinet minister in the Government of India, will visit Amritsar tomorrow to pay obeisance and seek blessings of the Gurus and of the Almighty at the Holy Sri Harmandar Sahib. The full itinerary of her visit will be announced later today. Disclosing this, the SAD General Secretary Mr Harcharan Bains told newsmen that Ms. Badal will be accompanied by her husband and the Punjab Deputy Chief Minister and SAD president Sardar Sukhbir Singh Badal and other members of her family.
Mr Bains also disclosed that the SAD Member of Parliament from Bathinda is the first woman parliamentarian from Punjab to be a cabinet minister in the Union Council of Ministers. Although there have been some women ministers from Punjab in the past yet none of them had enjoyed full cabinet rank Ms. Badal is likely to head the Ministry of Food Processing in the Government of India, according Mr Bains.Earlier this afternoon, there were tocuhing scenes recalling the traditonal Punjabi values as Ms Harsimrat Kaur Badal left her 12 Safadarjang Road residence for Rashtarpati Bhawan. Unaware of the presence of the rolling television cameras positioned in the lawns just outside the verandah, Harsimrat bowed with folded hands in front of the fatherly Badal (senior) and touched his feet in a moving gesture of total reverence.Next, she took a couple of steps towards her husband, Sukhbir Singh, and touched his feet too in all solemnity. These gestures, reminiscent of the glorious but almost forgotten culture of Punjab, moved everyone present.