A tale of two lions

Beant Singh and Mahinda Rajapaksa:

While one lion laid down his life but helped wipe out terrorism from Punjab, another is the key man in putting an end to the LTTE terror in the island nation of Sri Lanka. Both did a yeoman's service to the peace-loving citizens of their countries.

Satbir SINGH BEDI

This is a tale of two lions. The first lion was the lion of Punjab, Beant Singh, the late Chief Minister of Punjab. It was he who ensured that all the terrorists were wiped out that we could live a life of peace in Punjab. The second lion is Mahinda Rajapaksa, who has dealt a death blow to the Tigers and finished them off so that the people of Sri Lanka could live in peace. He is a lion because only a lion could have given a death blow to the Tigers.

Beant Singh was the Chief Minister of Punjab from 1992 to 1995, and was a member of the Congress Party. Born in the village of Pakistan, he settled down in village Bilaspur in Ludhiana district. Thereafter, he shifted to village Kotli in District Ludhiana. He studied in the Government College University in Lahore.

At the age of 23, he joined the army but after two years of service, he started concentrating on politics, social work and public affairs. He began his political career with the Akali Dal, after the Partition in 1947. He was assassinated in a car bomb on August 31, 1995, in Chandigarh. The bomb killed eleven other people, including three members of Singh's security detail. Separatist group Babbar Khalsa took responsibility for the assassination. Beant Singh was accompanied by his close friend Ranjodh Singh Mann on the day of assassination.

Mahinda Rajapaksa was born in November 18, 1945, and is the fifth and current executive President of Sri Lanka. A lawyer by profession, Rajapaksa was first elected to the Parliament of Sri Lanka in 1970 and served as Prime Minister from April 6, 2004, until his victory in the 2005 Presidential election. He was sworn in for a six-year term as the President on November 19, 2005.

An Attorney-at-Law, he was first elected to the Parliament from the Beliatta seat in 1970, being the youngest member in the House, aged just 24 years.

His father, D.A. Rajapaksa had represented the same seat from 1947 to 1965.

Although many of the past leaders of Sri Lanka's major political parties have been born outside Colombo, hardly any of them truly had roots in rural Sri Lanka. Mahinda is one of this selected few.

From the very outset of his career, President Rajapaksa has adopted a centre-left political stance, identifying himself with labour rights and becoming a champion of human rights. His interest in world affairs is manifested from the close interest he has taken in finding a peaceful solution to the Middle East problem within the framework of a sovereign Palestinian State. He is also the President of the Sri Lankan Committee for Solidarity with Palestine for past 25 years.

Throughout his career, President Rajapaksa has given leadership to the cause of uplifting youth, striving to achieve a higher quality of education and training (especially in rural areas) as well as working to reduce youth unemployment. Deeply aware of the violent rebellions of 1971 and 1987, which led to the death of thousands of young people especially in the South, President Rajapaksa has worked tirelessly to prevent yet another such a tragedy by striving to strengthen the process of representative democracy and working to reduce social and economic barriers. His remarkable record of human rights activities was honoured by the Vishva Bharathi University of Calcutta in India with Professor of Emiratus.

President Rajapaksa proved to be a remarkably successful Minister of Labour, despite suffering a major setback in being unable to bring his brainchild, the Worker's Charter, into law. The charter sought to establish trade union rights, a Wages Commission, social security, a National Trade Union Training Institute and facilitated the adjudication of industrial disputes. He also created the Vocational Training Authority to recognise the rising need of unemployed youth. He was equally dynamic Minister of Fisheries, initiating several important programs such as housing program for fishermen to improve the lives and livelihood of fisher-folk and also strengthen the industrial base of the fisheries industry.

In opposition, President Rajapaksa has been both respected and feared. He stood fearlessly against the autocratic regime of Ranasinghe Premadasa (1989-93), bravely opposing totalitarianism and working to restore democracy.

In the end, I salute these two lions, one already dead and the other alive and kicking.