Congress MLA Navjot Singh Sidhu has launched a verbal onslaught against Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh, in the latest display of infighting within the ruling party of the state, headed for Assembly polls in early 2022.
The Amritsar East MLA, believed to be nursing ambitions to be the party chief in the state, has said he was “not a showpiece” to be used only for winning elections, but called instead for an agenda-driven roadmap for the welfare of Punjab in interviews to multiple media outlets.
“I am not a showpiece that you will take me out campaigning, win the elections and then keep me back in the almirah,” the cricketer-turned-politician told The Indian Express. “So that I can see how you do mining, how you do this, how you do that. And selfish vested interests overriding the interests of the state. This is unbearable for me.”
Sidhu had resigned from the state government’s cabinet in July 2019 after key portfolios were wrested from his control, with the chief minister accusing him of “inept handling” that led to the loss of the Congress in urban areas in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
The all-out implosion within the party prompted the Congress high command to step in and constitute a three-member committee, led by senior leader Mallikarjun Kharge, which advised a reshuffle in the government to accommodate Sidhu, against the wishes of the chief minister.
The split in the Punjab Congress widened as some party members found fault with the government after it lost the delicate firing cases related to the Guru Granth Sahib desecration incident in 2015 in the high court, which rejected the Special Investigation Team’s report and directed the government to set up another SIT. Singh has also come under fire from some quarters for not taking strict action against former Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal’s family.
“I went to the system about sacrilege. It is like someone hitting our souls,” Sidhu told The Times of India. “I begged for justice in the assembly, and released CCTV footage of the firing incident. I started and ended the 2019 Lok Sabha campaign with the sacrilege issue. The system wanted to take action on this top-priority issue in the past six months. When there is a threat to your position, only then you take note. Were you sleeping for over four years?”
Sidhu also leveled charges of nepotism against the current administration of handing jobs to the wards of MLAs without any proof of merit. He also accused the state government of stalling development projects in Amritsar that he takes credit for.
However, Sidhu insisted that he was not chasing any high posts in the state government and had complete faith in the Congress high command.
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