The ‘missing’ syndrome seems to know no party lines, and is afflicting the leaders of both the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Punjab.
After the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) dotted the walls of Patiala city with the posters of “missing” Capt Amarinder Singh in his constituency, the Congress leaders in Amritsar have followed suit by putting up similar posters of local Member of Parliament — Navjot Singh Sidhu.
Starting with a tag line — “Na jaane tume kahan kho gaye (God knows where you have gone missing)”, the posters announced a reward of Rstwo lakh for anyone to give any clue about Sidhu’s whereabouts.
Splattered by a local Congress-supported NGO — Amritsar Sangarash Samiti — in the entire city, the posters have been claiming that sitting MP has gone “missing”.
The posters, carrying Sidhu’s pictures, pointed out how the local MP has betrayed the trust of the voters they posed in him.
It read, “The people feel cheated as Sidhu has not shown his face to them after getting elected as MP and had been absent from the constituency, minting money from the TV programmes rather than addressing the people’s problems here.”
The posters, in Hindi, added that the three-time Amritsar MP had promised that the city roads would be made smooth like the cheeks of Preity Zinta and the holy city would look like Paris but the city is writhing for even the basic amenities.
“Sidhu had sworn that he would work for the public good but he has done nothing for the city and his wife now is also creating unnecessary problems for the development of the city by raking non-issues,”
it added.
“Voters are extremely upset on Sidhu’s absence especially when city inhabitants have his dire need as the constituency has gone abandoned in his absence,” said Amritsar Sangarash Samiti president Raman Bakshi.
Bakshi said that people of Sidhu’s constituency was facing numerous problems including levying of various taxes on properties, sand was not available for constructing houses, businessmen wanted his support for easier sales tax filing system but he was missing. “NGO would award Rstwo lakh to anyone who would give clue about Sidhu and bring him in Amritsar,” he added.
Out of action from his constituency since long, the cricketer-turned-politician has been in the storm of controversy for ignoring his constituency and apparently doing nothing for its development despite making many promises.
On the other hand, Sidhu’s wife, the chief parliamentary secretary Dr Navjot Kaur Sidhu has claimed that he has been “sidelined” by the party and he had decided not to contest the ensuing lok Sabha polls.
The posters, seen as a direct attack on the “omni-absent” BJP leader, have come up when the parliamentary polls are just about a year away.
The posters also posed a question to the Akalis and the BJP that they should answer why they sought votes for Sidhu when they knew that he would do nothing for the public. It stated that these political parties which are in alliance and Sidhu himself has broken the trust of the people that they showed in him to elect him an MP.
In the wake of these posters and Dr Sidhu’s repeated public outbursts, things seem to be going awry for the SAD-BJP combine in Amritsar.
Even as the Sidhu couple has been giving tough time to the state party leadership, the BJP state president Kamal Sharma has all along been maintaining that Sidhu would be the party candidate for the 2014 lok Sabha elections.
At the same time, voices of dissident against Sidhu can be heard within the party, but only in whispers.
“Sidhu’s absence is going to cost a lot to the party in the parliamentary elections. These posters are adding fuel to the already spoiled situation,” a senior BJP leader, on the basis of anonymity, told The Pioneer.