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Singh, Sidhu aides spar as Punjab crisis deepens
Chandigarh: The Congress government in Punjab was thrown into fresh turmoil on Tuesday as ministers close to state unit chief Navjot Singh Sidhu rebelled against his rival, chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh, and leaders loyal to the latter demanded the ouster of Sidhu’s advisers over their controversial remarks
Chandigarh: The Congress government in Punjab was thrown into fresh turmoil on Tuesday as ministers close to state unit chief Navjot Singh Sidhu rebelled against his rival, chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh, and leaders loyal to the latter demanded the ouster of Sidhu’s advisers over their controversial remarks.
The factional fight ended an uneasy truce between Sidhu and Singh brokered by the Congress leadership after months of tense negotiations and mirrored a similar tussle for control of the party that broke out in May.
Punjab goes to the polls early next year.
Four cabinet ministers and around two dozenMLAs declared they didn’t have faith in the chief minister’s ability to fulfil pending election promises but stopped short of demanding his resignation,
“We have lost faith in him (Singh), but changing the CM is the prerogative of the party high command,” said minister for jails and cooperation Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa after meeting the lawmakers at rural development minister Tript Rajinder Bajwa’s official residence in Chandigarh.
The meeting was attended by technical education minister Charanjit Singh Channi, water resources minister Sukhbinder Sarkaria, Punjab Congress general secretary (organisation) Pargat Singh, and around two dozen legislators.
The disgruntled leaders also authorised a five-member delegation -- four cabinet ministers and Pargat Singh, all known detractors of Singh -- to meet Congress president Sonia Gandhi and apprise her of their sentiment at the earliest.
The disgruntled ministers spoke to All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary in-charge of Punjab affairs Harish Rawat. They will travel to Dehradun on Wednesday to meet Rawat before heading to the national capital.
Sidhu was not present at the meeting but the leaders said they will discuss the matter with him before leaving for Delhi. The Congress has 80 MLAs in Punjab.
Channi told reporters that the MLAs who assembled in Chandigarh were worried about unfulfilled poll promises made by the Congress before the 2017 assembly elections. “A lot of promises have been fulfilled, but those promises (the implementation of) which may lead to friction with the opposition remain unfulfilled,” he said.
He said that issues were not getting resolved the way the Congress wanted. “We no longer trust that these issues will be resolved. Therefore, we are seeking time from the party high command for a meeting, and we will meet them and put forth our issues so that Punjab’s issues can be resolved,” said Channi, flanked by Randhawa, Bajwa and Pargat SIngh.
Sidhu later met some of these ministers and MLAs at the party’s state headquarters here. “Got a call from Tripat Bajwa ji asking for an emergency…Met him along with other colleagues at the PPCC office. Will appraise the high command of the situation (sic),” he tweeted after meeting them.
Hours later, Singh and his loyalists hit back, demanding action against two newly appointed advisors of Sidhu , Malvinder Singh Mali and Pyare Lal Garg, who stirred a row on Sunday with their controversial comments on Kashmir.
Five cabinet ministers and one MLA close to Singh called for strong action against Mali and Garg for their “patently anti-national and pro-Pak comments”.
“The statements of both these newly appointed advisers of Punjab Congress president Navjot Sidhu were clearly against India’s interests, and detrimental to national security,” said cabinet ministers Brahm Mohindra, Vijay Inder Singla, Bharat Bhushan Ashu, Balbir Singh Sidhu and Sadhu Singh Dharamsot, along with MLA Raj Kumar Verka in a statement.
In a Facebook post last week, Mali had said Kashmir was a “country of Kashmiri people” and called both India and Pakistan its illegal occupiers. In a separate post, he put a sketch of late prime minister Indira Gandhi standing near a heap of human skulls with a gun in her hand. Garg had criticised Singh for attacking Pakistan over Kashmir.
The comments immediately sparked a controversy with Singh calling them “atrocious” and “anti-national”, and Congress MP Manish Tewari condemning the leaders.
Besides stringent legal action against Mali and Garg, the five ministers also urged the Congress national leadership to direct Sidhu to immediately rein in his aides in the interest of the party and the country.
“The Congress has made many sacrifices for the protection of the nation’s security and peace, as have our soldiers at the borders. Nobody can or should be allowed to undermine these sacrifices and jeopardise the safety of our country and its people,” they emphasised, citing, in particular, the grave implications such statements could have for the border state of Punjab.
The Congress leaders questioned Sidhu’s failure to put his foot down on such “anti-national and pro-Pak diatribe” by his aides, warning that this could damage the Congress in the 2022 elections.
They termed Mali’s statement on Kashmir a dangerous and unacceptable deviation from India’s stated position on J&K. Garg’s statement countering Singh’s criticism of Pakistan reflected his pro-Pak leanings, they said. “Drones from Pakistan are dumping arms and drugs into Punjab almost every day. Our soldiers are dying at the border. How can any patriotic Indian not condemn Pak actions in the circumstances?” they asked.
Tuesday’s bitter verbal war is a throwback to a crisis that engulfed the Congress in May, when Sidhu rallied Singh’s detractors and publicly accused the CM of enabling corruption. Tensions between 79-year-old Singh and Sidhu had simmered since the latter quit the state cabinet after the chief minister changed his portfolio in 2019.
To resolve the crisis, the Congress set up a three-member panel, which met around 150 functionaries – including Singh twice -- and submitted its report to party chief Sonia Gandhi on June 10.
On July 18, Sidhu was named state unit chief -- a post he coveted -- overriding strong objections from Singh. The two leaders were seen at key meetings together and the CM even attended the ceremony where Sidhu took charge of the party in Punjab. But the latest round of infighting shatters that fragile truce.
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