After lull, the storm! Maintaining a strategic silence ever since his tête-à -tea with Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh about a month back to discuss his “rehabilitation”, Congress’ firebrand leader and ‘star campaigner’ Navjot Singh Sidhu on Tuesday lashed out at his own party’s Government, bringing once again to surface their differences.
This time, Sidhu chose the “sensitive” Bargari issue to hit at the Government and its legal team by claiming that case was not properly defended, while also demanding to make public the findings of the report.
Sidhu on Tuesday landed at Gurdwara Burj Jawahar Singh in Bargari (Faridkot) — the epicentre of sacrilege incidents, and later shared a 13-minute video clip to express his resentment days after the Punjab and Haryana High Court quashed the investigation carried out by the Punjab Government-constituted Special Investigation Team, with the directions to set up a new SIT without IGP Kunwar Vijay Pratap as its member.
Kunwar Vijay Pratap was a member of the SIT set up by the Congress Government to probe the two incidents of police firing on Sikh protesters in wake of the sacrilege incidents in October 2015 in which two Sikh youth were killed at Behbal Kalan.
The former Minister targeted his own party’s Government for allegedly being weak on presentation of facts in the cases by appointing “weak lawyers” to defend the investigation in the Court despite the “ultimate significance” of the cases and their emotional value for the Sikhs.
“Inconsequential people are being made scapegoats. A person who carries out a wrong order is not the culprit, but the one who gives the order…The king and the Minister who gave orders have been protected and fortified,” Sidhu said.
“It will be six years in June since the first incident of desecration took place here but there is still no justice in the matter…Why were weak advocates defending the government? Why weren’t a battery of the country’s top lawyers present in the court to defend our investigation,” he asked.
Demanding that the investigation report of the Punjab IGP Kunwar Vijay Partap be made public, Sidhu showered praises on him. He said that the report of IG Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh should also be made public on the pattern of tabling Justice Ranjit Singh Commission report in the Vidhan Sabha. “Punjab police is a competent (force), but only where there is a will, there will be a way,” said Sidhu.
Sidhu has all along been taking on his own Government for delay in bringing to book the accused in the sacrilege incidents and subsequent police firing.
“People have high hopes that the guilty would be brought to book,” said Sidhu while adding that “justice delayed is justice denied”.
Notably, the first case of desecration was reported on June 1, 2015, from Gurdwara Burj Jawahar Singh Wala, from where a ‘bir’ of Guru Granth Sahib was stolen. On October 12, 2015, torn pages of this ‘bir’ were found scattered in front of the gurdwara in adjoining Bargari village. There were massive protests in which two Sikh protesters were killed at Behbal Kalan, followed by the killing of a Dera follower at Burj Jawahar Singh Wala on June 16, 2016.
SIDHU-CAPT: DIFFERENCES COME TO FORE AGAIN
Sidhu’s latest outburst, against the Congress Government and indirectly against his bête noire Capt Amarinder, has once again brought in the realm of conjectures the truce between the two political stalwarts of Congress party less than a year before the assembly elections. In fact, it was only after months of active reconciliation efforts by the Congress’ Punjab party affairs in-charge Harish Rawat that the two leaders held meetings to chalk out their differences.
Sidhu had resigned from the State Cabinet in July 2019 after the CM divested him of key portfolios blaming him for the party’s “not so good” performance in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. After his appointment, Rawat went all out to bring the two leaders together and ensure Sidhu would get his due in the party. He organized a series of meetings between the two. After the latest meeting between the two, held on March 17, a “happy” picture of Sidhu and Amarinder was released giving rise to speculation about Sidhu rejoining Amarinder’s Cabinet, but Sidhu’s latest ranting has raised many eyebrows.