Navjot Singh Sidhu has been a man at odds. In the memorable 1996 England tour, the opener had walked out over differences with captain Mohammad Azharuddin. He is now at war with a ‘Captain’ in the political arena. In the cauldron of Punjab politics, Sidhu has been stirring up a storm for Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh, among the most heavyweight leaders of the current Congress. Cheekily, Navjot Singh Sidhu had once mentioned that he had only one captain and that was Rahul Gandhi, clearly indicating he did not respect state hierarchy and couldn’t care less for the Maharaja of Patiala.
In 2017, Sidhu had ditched the BJP to join the Congress as he was miffed that his Amritsar seat had been handed to Arun Jaitley. He not only did not canvass for the late finance minister, but a divided cadre also ensured Jaitley’s humiliating defeat.
It is this same attitude that he brings to the Congress where he has been openly condemning and opposing his own party’s government, which once made Captain Amarinder question whether Sidhu belonged to the Congress at all. Why else would Sidhu along with a few other party leaders hand a memo to the Governor against their own party’s government handling of the liquor mafia in the state following a hooch tragedy.
Sidhu was earlier accommodated as minister of local government and tourism and cultural affairs. This was Amarinder’s way to cut him to size as these were relatively unimportant portfolios. Subsequently, he quit the cabinet.
Since then, he has been rabble-rousing against the ‘Captain in the state’, entrenching himself in Patiala, his ancestral place, and painting the town red with posters saying – ‘Sara Punjab, Sidhu de Naal’.
The Chief Minister has hit back with a series of his own posters saying, ‘Punjab Da Captain and Captain Te Ek Hi Honda Hai’ (In Punjab, there is only one Captain) but the larger message to the people of Punjab is that Congress in the state is a divided house.
A clear favourite with the Gandhis, Sidhu knows the high command has his back which is the reason he has been indulging in a free-for-all in Punjab’s political ring. On its part, the Congress high command seems to have given an oxymoronic response. In the ostensible garb of wanting to resolve the internal crisis, it has ended up humiliating its own Chief Minister by forming a 3-member committee to look into the matter. Had he been a member of another political party, Navjot Singh Sidhu would have been pulled up for anti-party activities but in the Congress, it is Amarinder Singh who was summoned to Delhi to defend himself against allegations perpetuated! It might be remembered that even when the party won convincingly in 2017, garnering votes in the name of Amarinder Singh, he was never clearly named as CM candidate and was made to wait till the Congress royalty gave a clear signal about his appointment.
Captain Singh, who is an independent leader of huge heft, is on the job to make repairs lest his fortunes are adversely affected in the upcoming polls. He has recently mended bridges with former bete noire Partap Singh Bajwa, who is Congress’ Rajya Sabha member and came into limelight when he beat Vinod Khanna in Gursdapur earlier. Amarinder also seemed to have reached such a point of exasperation that he had offered to take Sidhu back in the cabinet, but is now on the offensive again. However, Sidhu is believed to have told the Gandhis that he is uncomfortable working with Captain Amarinder and is eyeing the Pradesh Congress chief’s post that is currently held by Sunil Jakhar, a CM loyalist. He also wants to be the party’s campaign manager for the upcoming polls
Sidhu, in the capacity of the state congress president, will naturally have a huge say over ticket distribution in the forthcoming state elections and thus a much larger and more pivotal role in the next government, something that the Punjab Chief Minister has been opposing.
Among those who have joined Sidhu in the smear campaign against Amarinder government are Shamsher Singh Dullo, Ravneet Singh Bittu, Pargat Singh, Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa and Charanjit Singh Channi, all of whom have no love lost for the Captain. The issues raised by them are multiple, Sidhu has particularly chosen the most emotionally evocative one related with the desecration of the Guru Granth Sahib in 2015 in Bargari of Faridkot district to highlight and, has been demanding justice for the two people killed in police firing on protestors in Kotkapura. Sidhu accuses Amarinder of going soft on Badals because of his friendly personal relations with Sukhbir, while the Captain says that an SIT is already looking into the matter. Besides, Amarinder’s inaccessibility and excessive independence to bureaucracy are cited as reasons for discontent.
Sidhu has also been on another tangent when it comes to relations with Pakistan. He took an independent decision to hold talks with Prime Minister Imran Khan as well as General Bajwa, who is also a Punjabi Jat, without consulting the Captain. These parleys eventually led to the opening of the Kartarpur Sahib corridor in 2019, which Sidhu claimed as a major victory while Captain Amarinder pointed to its potential security threats.
Congress seems favourably poised for another term in the state as rival parties are in disarray especially Aam Admi Party, and Akalis are struggling to disassociate themselves with the alliance that they had with BJP which brought in the contentious farm laws that have been opposed tooth and nail by Punjab farmers.
Yet, Congress is its own enemy and leaders like Sidhu are running down their own government. It would be interesting to see what happens if Congress returns to power after the Assembly polls and who would be chosen as the CM. Whoever is on the captain’s seat, not all would have been fair play.
