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Four ministers seek Navjot Sidhu’s suspension for anti-party activities
The ministers—Balbir Sidhu, Vijay Inder Singla, Bharat Bhushan Ashu and Gurpreet Singh Kangar—lashed out at the Amritsar East MLA for his unwarranted belligerence against chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh
The chorus for disciplinary action against former minister Navjot Singh Sidhu in the ruling Congress in Punjab gained momentum on Wednesday as four more cabinet ministers demanded his immediate suspension for anti-party activities.
The ministers—Balbir Sidhu, Vijay Inder Singla, Bharat Bhushan Ashu and Gurpreet Singh Kangar—lashed out at the Amritsar East MLA for his unwarranted belligerence against chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh. “Sidhu’s provocative and targeted attacks on the chief minister over the past several days are an invitation for disaster for the Congress,” they said in a hard-hitting statement, insinuating collusion between the MLA and state opposition parties, such as Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) or Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
They said it was quite possible that Sidhu’s targeted attacks on the chief minister were instigated by the AAP or BJP leaders to create problems in the Punjab Congress to further their electoral agenda in the state. “The manner in which Sidhu had launched the offensive against the state government, particularly Captain Amarinder, suggested a conspiracy against the chief minister,” they added.
Kangar’s name is significant as he was among the five ministers and MPs who met at cooperation minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa’s official residence on Monday and expressed their disenchantment with the state government’s handling of the police firing case. The number of ministers seeking strict action against Sidhu has now gone up to seven.
On Monday, Brahm Mohindra, Sunder Sham Arora and Sadhu Singh Dharamsot had made a similar demand from the party high command. Punjab Congress president Sunil Jakhar has also thrown in his lot with the chief minister. Sidhu, whose relations with Amarinder have been strained for more than two-and-a-half years, has been taking swipes at the chief minister almost daily ever since the Punjab and Haryana high court on April 9 quashed the chargesheets filed by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) in the Kotkapura police firing case.
He directly blamed the CM for the legal setback, accusing him of “collusion” with the culprits of the 2015 sacrilege incidents. Amarinder last month held a series of meetings with MLAs who conveyed their apprehensions about the political fallout if justice is not delivered in sacrilege and police firing cases. When some other ministers, MPs and MLAs started regrouping, the chief minister’s camp launched the counter offensive with three ministers demanding action against the cricketer-turned-politician. Though the silence of several ministers had raised eyebrows, the statement of more ministers, which came a day before the cabinet is scheduled to meet here, is likely to put pressure on detractors.
The four ministers, in their hard-hitting joint statement, termed Sidhu’s blatant defiance as an act of total indiscipline. “Such anti-party activities cannot be tolerated by any political establishment, and, more so, in a state headed for elections. He should be immediately suspended, if not expelled, as his continued presence in Punjab Congress is creating a mess in the party’s state unit,” they said.
Pointing to Sidhu’s track record of controversial statements, the ministers said that his habit of ‘biting the hand that feeds him’ had made him a persona non grata earlier in his former party. “He is nothing but a troublemaker whose contribution to the Congress and the state government in Punjab in all these years has been virtually nil,” they said, questioning the rationale behind allowing him to continue in the Congress at a time when the party was preparing for the next assembly elections in Punjab and the state government was battling an unprecedented Covid crisis.
