Chandigarh/Dehradun: Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu and his adviser Malvinder Singh Mali targeted Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh again Thursday even as the Congress high command called Harish Rawat, party in-charge of the state, to Delhi from Dehradun to discuss the situation.
Before leaving for Delhi, Rawat told ThePrint that the comments of Sidhu’s advisers — Mali and Pyarelal Garg — on Jammu & Kashmir and Pakistan are “not acceptable” and that they “need to be dealt with a heavy hand”.
He also called for Sidhu to “sack” his advisers, whose controversial comments have left the Congress red-faced.
Political analysts read the development as the party high command backing Amarinder against Sidhu, who is seen to have orchestrated a move through some state ministers and MLAs to oust the chief minister before the elections, plunging the party into a fresh crisis months ahead of the assembly polls.
Earlier this week, some Punjab MLAs and ministers of the Congress raised a banner of revolt against Amarinder, saying they do not have “faith” in his ability to honour unfulfilled poll promises. On Wednesday, a delegation of around three dozen Punjab legislators considered to be Amarinder’s detractors visited Rawat in Dehradun in this regard.
The protest follows a series of allegations in the same vein from Sidhu, who has repeatedly accused Amarinder of not fulfilling his 2017 election promises, including bringing to a logical conclusion the case centred on police firing on people protesting against Guru Granth Sahib sacrilege incidents in 2015, which led to the death of two protesters.
The two leaders — Sidhu and Amarinder — have publicly been at loggerheads since the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Sidhu’s appointment as state Congress chief last month is believed to have been taken place despite Amarinder’s objections.
Also Read: Punjab Congress battle isn’t about Navjot Sidhu or Amarinder Singh. It’s about Gandhis
Attack continues
Sidhu, who has been courting criticism for his advisers’ comments, Thursday took to Twitter to question the chief minister on his promise of affordable power.
Sidhu demanded that the promise made by the CM — to give domestic power at Rs 3 per unit and industrial power at Rs 5 per unit — be fulfilled. He also posted a series of video clips showing Amarinder making the promise on multiple occasions publicly.
https://twitter.com/sherryontopp/status/1430824874046488576?s=20
Meanwhile, Mali continued his criticism of Amarinder on Facebook even as he appeared to defend his earlier controversial posts, including his cover photo on the social media portal — a caricature of former PM Indira Gandhi, who oversaw Operation Bluestar, standing on a mound of human skulls.
Mali alleged that Amarinder and the Akalis were hand-in-glove, an allegation Sidhu has also made earlier.
“The bond between the ruling families of Punjab has only led to Congress and Akali workers fighting with one another. Sidhu wants to change this and they are together against him,” Mali wrote in a post in Punjabi. In another post, he said the bond between the Badals and the Captain was exposed two years ago.
In yet another post, Mali referred to Sidhu’s 2018 trip to Pakistan for former cricketing colleague Imran Khan’s swearing-in as Prime Minister.
“When Badal went to Pakistan he came back with sheep and when the Captain came back from Pakistan he came back with a horse but when Sidhu went to Pakistan he came back with the opening of the Kartarpur Sahib Corridor,” he said.
In what appeared to be a bid to reduce the embarrassment his social media posts have caused to Sidhu and the Gandhi family, Mali Thursday said the cartoon of Indira has been the cover photo of his Facebook page for several years. Even though the magazine cover suggests 1989 as the year of publication, Mali said the cartoon was the cover page for a magazine — ‘Jantak Paigam’ — he published in June 1985.
He said the cover was published in the wake of the “attack on the Golden Temple and the 1984 anti-Sikh riots”, referring to Operation Bluestar and the carnage that followed Indira’s assassination.
On Tuesday, Mali — reportedly booked under the NSA and the erstwhile TADA during the days of the Punjab militancy — had claimed he was tortured by police in 1993 over allegations of links between Amarinder and Sikh militants. In another post, he questioned Amarinder regarding the nature of his relationship with former Pakistani journalist Aroosa Alam.
‘Sidhu plan has backfired’
Rawat has been called to Delhi by Congress working president Sonia Gandhi for a meeting to discuss the fate of Sidhu’s two advisers.
Speaking to ThePrint, Rawat said he would present a detailed report to the party high command on the controversy over the advisers, and also on his meeting with Punjab ministers and MLAs in Dehradun.
He reiterated that the 2022 Punjab assembly elections will be held under the leadership of Captain Amarinder Singh, saying the grievances of all sections of “state organisation will have to be addressed”.
“Conduct and public statements made by the Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) president’s advisers will be taken up for discussion with the party leadership in Delhi,” he said.
“It’s for the party high command to take a final call on their fate but their comments on Jammu and Kashmir (and Pakistan) are not acceptable and they need to be dealt with a heavy hand,” he added, saying that he has asked Sidhu to sack his advisers or he “will have to issue a direction and get them removed”.
Talking about the meeting with the Punjab delegation, he said, “I will give (the high command) a report on the issues and concerns raised by the Punjab ministers and the MLAs yesterday (Wednesday).
“All cannot be said in public, but the four ministers and three MLAs who met me yesterday said they had certain grievances that needed to be addressed. They complained about some excesses being done to them by the state administration, while a few decisions taken by the government were against their political interests.”
He added, “Apart from this, they also raised some issues to be resolved in the interest of the electoral prospects of the party.”
Rawat denied any demand from them for a change of the party’s chief ministerial face.
Political analysts say Sidhu “underestimated the damage” his advisers’ comments could wreak on him.
“Sidhu’s move to appoint advisers has clearly backfired. Both Mali and Garg have strong political ideas and are outspoken. Sidhu underestimated the damage they can wreak upon him,” said Dr Kanwalpreet Kaur, a member of the Department of Political Science at Chandigarh’s D.A.V. Sector 10.
“Chances are that all Sidhu wanted to do was amplify his tirade against the chief minister but they ended up impairing his campaign.”
(Edited by Sunanda Ranjan)
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