Even as Punjab Cabinet Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu’s friendly match with his cricketing counterpart in Pakistan, Prime Minister Imran Khan, has sent his popularity soaring in the neighbouring country, the cricketer-turned-politician is facing one googly after another back home over his “captain” remarks.
Unhappy over Sidhu’s remarks against his own “captain”, his Cabinet colleagues and fellow party-men have raised a pitch demanding senior Congress leader’s ouster from the ministerial team even before completion of his inning. However, his wife and Congress leader Dr Navjot Kaur Sidhu has come to his defense saying that Sidhu’s statement has been misconstrued.
Sidhu stirred the hornet’s nest couple of days back, during an interaction with the media in Hyderabad, when asked about going to Pakistan to attend the groundbreaking ceremony for the Kartarpur corridor despite Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh’s disapproval. “Rahul Gandhi is my captain. It is he who sent me to Pakistan. Rahul Gandhi is the captain of the captain (Amarinder Singh) also,” he had said.
A day after four Cabinet Ministers asked Sidhu to resign from the State Cabinet, another Minister Aruna Chaudhary, besides some party leaders, on Sunday condemned Sidhu for his statement, while demanding him to apologise to the Chief Minister.
Saying that Sidhu's remark was “unfortunate” and “uncalled for”, the state’s Women and Child Development and Transport Minister Aruna Chaudhary said: “What Navjot Singh Sidhu said about Capt Amarinder Singh is unfortunate. Such things should not have been said by him.”
Chaudhary said: “Capt Amarinder Singh is our undisputed leader. He is captain of the party in the state. He was chief ministerial candidate in the last assembly elections and under him the party returned to power with an overwhelming majority. At the same time, Rahul Gandhi is captain of entire Congress, no one is disputing this fact. But what Sidhu has said about captain sahib is unfortunate.”
On Saturday, four ministers — Rural Development and Panchayat minister Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa, Revenue and Rehabilitation Minister Sukhbinder Singh Sarkaria, Sports Minister Rana Gurmeet Singh Sodhi, and Forests Minister Sadhu Singh Dharamsot — had called for Sidhu's resignation from the State Cabinet, maintaining that if Sidhu didn't consider Capt Amarinder his captain, he should quit the Chief Minister's team.
Dharamsot on Sunday demanded Sidhu to apologise to the Chief Minister, while reminding him that he was not running a comedy show.
“It seems Sidhu sahib has forgotten that he is a minister. He should know he is not running a comedy show here. He must learn how to respect the elders and apologize to the Chief Minister,” Dharamsot said.
Continuing his attack on Sunday, Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa said that Sidhu’s tone and the body language towards the Chief Minister was not appropriate and demanded he apologise. “Sidhu sahib has said that Capt Amarinder is not his captain, he said that he is Army's captain. The tone and body language used by Sidhu towards the Chief Minister is not appropriate. It shows disrespect towards the CM. If Sidhu doubts Capt Amarinder's leadership, his ability, then it becomes his moral duty to resign,” he said.
“The speed at which he is going may cause an accident,” said Bajwa, adding that he wanted to request Sidhu that he should apologise to the Chief Minister “and matter will end”.
Sources said that the issue might come up during the State Cabinet meeting on Monday.
The row over Sidhu’s Pak visit escalated in the S]state even as Sidhu backtracked on his claim that Congress president Rahul Gandhi was involved in his decision to attend the ceremony.
“Get your facts right before you distort them, Rahul Gandhi ji never asked me to go to Pakistan. The whole world knows I went to Pakistan on the Prime Minister Imran Khan's personal invite,” Sidhu had tweeted on Saturday.
Sidhu's wife and former BJP MLA Dr Navjot Kaur Sidhu on Sunday said that his heart is clean and his remarks was being twisted and taken out of context.
“Navjot Sidhu's heart is clean. He has not committed any mistake that he should resign. He has already said that Capt sahib (Amarinder) is a father-figure to him. If outside Punjab, he said Rahul is the captain, what is wrong on that? He has not called (Narendra) Modi his captain. He is only calling Rahul his captain. And Capt Sahib's (Amarinder's) captain too,” said Dr Navjot Kaur, a Congress leader.
“Since Navjot and I joined the Congress, we always showed full respect towards Capt Sahib (Amarinder)," she said.
Meanwhile, the BJP too took potshots at Sidhu, dubbing him a “man of U-turns”. “When Sidhu was in the BJP, he hailed the contribution of Atal Behari Vajpayee, LK Advani, Narendra Modi, Arun Jaitley. He used to ridicule (former Prime Minister) Manmohan Singh by terming him ‘Mouni Baba’. He is a man of U-turns. It seems his lust for power would end with accepting Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan as his Captain,” said BJP national secretary Tarun Chugh, while maintaining that Sidhu should be “sacked immediately”.
Union Minister and senior BJP leader from Punjab Vijay Sampla said that Sidhu has “lost mental balance” and wanted to remain in news with such remarks.