After his continuous attack on his own government, Congress party’s firebrand and estranged leader Navjot Singh Sidhu has left a majority of party leaders unhappy who now want the high command to make a final call on him lest it affect party's chances in the assembly polls early next year.
Sidhu had launched yet another scathing attack on the Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on the issue of sacrilege probe, when he minced no words to accuse his bête noire of “evading responsibility” and claiming that the Advocate-General (AG) and the legal team were “mere pawns” who were made a “scapegoat”.
With his repeated attacks that started days after the Punjab and Haryana High Court quashed the investigation by the Government-constituted SIT in Kotkapura firing incident, Sidhu has made clear his intent to take his fight with his own party, especially against the Chief Minister, to a conclusion — something a large section of party leaders believe is “damaging” the party like anything with elections just about few months away now.
“We would soon take up this issue with the Chief Minister and also the party high command if needed as such attacks against the Government by being the part of the ruling government is damaging the party just like it did in the Lok Sabha polls (2019),” Punjab Cabinet Minister and senior Congress leader told The Pioneer on the condition of anonymity.
The Minister said that a majority of the senior party leaders, “with whom I have discussed the issue”, were of the opinion that Sidhu should either be rehabilitated so that he can stop these attacks or he should be asked to leave the party or expelled.
“We could not afford such indiscipline in the party. These are nothing but pressure tactics. Sidhu want a particular position and he has started all these attacks for the same. He is building his image among the masses but, in the process, harming the party…He should either left the party or toe its line,” added the Minister.
Notably, the former Cabinet Minister Sidhu directly accused the Chief Minister of evading responsibility in a sacrilege case being the state’s “Home Minister”, and making A-G a scapegoat. “Is the sacrilege case not the top priority for the Home Minister? Evading responsibility & making only Advocate General (AG) a scapegoat means the Executive Authority has no supervisory control. Who controls the AG? Legal Team is just a pawn in this game of shifting responsibilities,” Sidhu tweeted on Friday. Even as Sidhu has been speaking against his own party’s Government ever since he came out of more than a year long political hibernation, this is for the first time that he has made a direct attack on the Chief Minister.
In the past few days, Amritsar East MLA Sidhu had addressed couple of press conferences in Chief Minister and his own hometown Patiala, while frequently raising his voice against his own Government, and blaming it of not punishing the “real” culprits behind sacrilege and drugs.
However, Sidhu only sharpened his attack and directed it on the Chief Minister only after the High Court quashed the probe carried out by SIT headed by IGP Kunwar Vijay Partap Singh while directing setting up of a new team.
Since then, Sidhu has been accusing his government of not defending the case strongly in the court. Also, the High Court’s decision is being seen as a political setback to Capt Amarinder as the SIT’s probe was nailing the Badals for the incidents.
Only a couple of days back, Sidhu had posted about four-minute long video compilation of his previous speeches from rallies or press conferences where he was heard alleging that the politicians play “friendly matches” with one another, “taking the public for a ride” — a remark that he made during an election rally at Bathinda and said to has gone against the Congress party in the 2019 elections.
Before that, Sidhu had tweeted another video that was meant to portray his agitation against the drug mafia in the State, demanding action on a report submitted by the Punjab police’s Special Task Force against drugs that reportedly highlighted the role played by former Revenue Minister and SAD MLA Bikram Singh Majithia in drugs cases.
On Baisakhi, April 13, Sidhu visited Burj Jawahar Singh Wala — a village in Faridkot where the first incident of Guru Granth Sahib sacrilege was reported in 2015 — and made clear his intentions that he would continue to criticize his own government by releasing a video message.
“Drugs and sacrilege are the issue concerning the people of Punjab. Congress, before coming to power, promised to punish the guilty. Sidhu is only reminding the Government the same and highlighting the laxities on its part. If we will go among the people to seek vote, they are going to question us on this…what we would answer,” said a Congress MLA, who did not wish to be named.
Notably, Sidhu had resigned from Capt Amarinder’s Cabinet in protest in July 2019 after he was divested of key portfolios while blaming him for the Congress’ “poor” performance in urban areas during the 2019 parliamentary elections. Since then, Sidhu had gone into a political hibernation. It was only during the farmers’ agitation that he made a comeback. Also, the Punjab congress party affairs in-charge Harsh Rawat also made extra efforts to break the ice between the two warring leaders, after which series of meetings were held between Capt Amarinder and Sidhu but with no success.