In less than 24 hours of withdrawing the Y series security to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) firebrand leader Navjot Singh Sidhu, the Punjab Government on Wednesday does a volte-face.
The State Government restored Sidhu’s security cover a day the three gun men, provided to the former MP, were withdrawn.
Reacting to the State Government’s move, Sidhu had attacked the ruling dispensation, led by the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) for indulging in “petty” politics and hitting “below the belt” after it withdrew his security cover.
Meanwhile, attempts to reach out to Sidhu turned futile as his associate said that the former Amritsar MP has gone abroad from Maharashtra. He, however, said that the security cover to Sidhu had been restored.
Sidhu’s wife, sitting MlA and also the Chief Parliamentary Secretary (CPS) Dr Navjot Kaur was away to Delhi for a “family function”, said her associate. Dr Navjot had, a day before, maintained that the Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and his deputy son Sukhbir Badal would be held responsible in case of any harm to her husband.
The move had also drawn ire of the saffron party which terming it as “unfortunate”, while the authorities concerned had described the development as a step taken under routine exercise.
The withdrawal of security of the BJP’s former MP from Amritsar came after Sidhu fired one salvo after another on the party’s ally in Punjab, SAD, while campaigning in Haryana Assembly polls.
Akali Dal, BJP’s alliance partner in Punjab and also a main component of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) led by BJP, has joined hands with its traditional ally in Haryana, the Indian National lok Dal (INlD) with entire SAD leadership campaigning against the BJP candidates in the state.
‘Motor-mouth’ Sidhu, while campaigning for the BJP at Dabwali in Sirsa district, had dubbed the SAD as “backstabber” having no ethical values.
The BJP high command has especially engaged Sidhu as its star campaigner in Haryana along with the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Rajnath Singh, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, among others.
It has been learnt that Sidhu was provided special chopper to campaign in Haryana, particularly on the two seats from where SAD has fielded its candidates — Ambala city and Kolianwali in Sirsa — in alliance with the INlD for October 15 polls.
Sidhu, taking a dig at SAD for tying up with INlD in Haryana, had stated, “Our allies hug us in Punjab, but in Haryana, they are wrestling with us (up against BJP), which is unethical.”
The cricketer-turned-politician had said that Akalis had no answers to the questions he had raised.
Sidhu had said that whatever he had been saying about Akalis, they should have called him and discussed the matter across the table rather than taking such “petty steps and hitting below the belt”.
Taking a strong note of the “withdrawal” of the security cover of Sidhu by the Punjab Government, the state BJP president Kamal Sharma had termed the development as “extremely unfortunate”, and sought Chief Minister’s “immediate intervention” to restore the security cover.