The wrangling between Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh and his Cabinet colleague Navjot Singh Sidhu on Thursday escalated beyond repair with Captain divesting the former cricketer of the Local Bodies Department, and also the Tourism and Cultural Affairs Department.
The action came hours after Sidhu’s “rebellious” decision to stay away from the Cabinet meeting, first after the 2019 general elections, while holding a simultaneous Press conference to underscore his achievements as the Local Bodies Minister.
The Chief Minister, after the conclusion of Lok Sabha elections, on Thursday reallocated portfolios to all, except four Ministers, which he said would “help further streamline the Government systems and processes, and bring more transparency and efficacy into the various departments”.
Sidhu now gets the Power and New and Renewable Energy Sources Ministry. Senior-most Minister Brahm Mohindra, who was earlier handling Health and Family Welfare, has been given the Local Government Department, while the Tourism and Cultural Affairs went to Charanjit Singh Channi, who also retains the Technical Education, Industrial Training and Employment Generation.
Amarinder, after announcing the reshuffling of the portfolios, said, “With the Congress Government in the State nearing the mid-term mark, the exercise would re-energise the team and bring freshness into the working of the major departments.”
The action against Sidhu came just about a fortnight after Amarinder squarely blamed “the non-performing” Local Bodies Minister for the Congress’ “not-so-good” performance in the urban pockets.
Sidhu had claimed that the Congress has fared well in the urban areas winning 63 per cent of the total urban and semi-urban areas, winning 34 out of 54 seats. “While in the purely urban Assembly segments, we have won 64 per cent by winning 16 out of 25 seats. In the rural areas, the Congress bagged 35 out of 63 seats, making it 55 per cent,” said Sidhu on Thursday.
All along been claiming to have “changed” the working and condition of the Local Bodies Department which was without any funds and work in his two-year tenure, Sidhu further defended himself by maintaining that the Chief Minister had made him Minister in-charge of two districts - Amritsar and Tarn Taran - and the two were won by the Congress.
In his typical style, he said: “Facts will not cease to exist if they are ignored. I live in the space where there is no fear and the head is held high. I am duty bound to the people of Punjab, to bring out what is factually correct.”
As Sidhu’s absence from the first Cabinet meeting after elections failed to go down well with his several Cabinet colleagues who described it as an act of “disobedience” and “disrespect” to the Chief Minister, Sidhu argued that had there been any agenda relating to his Department, “I would be the first one to go”.
Indicating that the Chief Minister has a lack of trust in him, Sidhu asked why should he attend the meeting “when there is a trust deficit in me”.
“My seat in the Cabinet is few inches away...One can be too far while sitting close next to each other, while a mother and his son can be so close despite they being across the seven seas,” said Sidhu in an indirect indication towards Capt Amarinder expressing his distrust against the former cricketer several times “publicly”.